Living in Yogyakarta
Hello, readers! In this short article, I am sharing some trivia of how does living in Yogyakarta like. I have written the Bahasa Indonesia version in my blog, you can read it here. Here we go.
For people who live in different region of Indonesia, they have their local pronoun. For example, people in Jakarta, Depok, and Bekasi will use gue for informal first-person pronoun and lo for informal second-person pronoun and only use aku-kamu for siblings (terms and conditions apply) or when they have romantic relationship with someone. However, youngsters in Yogyakarta use aku for informal first-person pronoun and kamu for informal second-person pronoun, no matter your relationship with someone with same age or one-two year gap.
Besides, people in Yogyakarta really respect age/batch difference. If they are on the same age as you but they are one year your junior in school/university, they will still call you mas or mbak (a respective call similar to oppa or eonni in Korean, or Ms., Mr., or Mrs. in English although sometimes this respective call(s) is/are not always as formal as it looks), while people from different regions may not always do this to people one to three or four years their senior. People are also more friendly here, compared to the capital city (as I spent my first 18 years in Jakarta). But, generally people are more sensitive to strong words like anjing, bangsat, etc. (swear words equivalent to fuck, bitch, or something like that).
The price of food is generally cheaper if you compare it to Jakarta. You can get a whole portion of meal for less than or equivalent $1 (USD1 is equivalent to IDR14,000.00 and the price of meals in common, small restaurants are between IDR8,000.00-10,000.00. The meals under this price varies from meal without beverage and a package of food and beverage--usually iced tea. In Jakarta, you can't get a portion of meal for less than $1. Everything is $1 or more.
The locals, especially youngsters, speak Bahasa Indonesia, although some of them will automatically talk in Javanese once they know you can talk in Javanese. If you don't know Javanese but you want to learn, you can ask them to talk to you in Javanese and the meaning of what they say. But, as there are lots of Javanese accents and language derivation (as there are slight changes in accents and meaning of words in different regions who speak Javanese), you might need to adjust.
The locals also use compass to give directions. I know that there are a lot of people from various regions that gives directions using words like go straight, turn left/right, etc., but it's not gonna happen for the locals.
This is my personal view, so I think people may have different opinion. For me, the affordable public transportation is lacking and TransJogja buses are not as many as in Jakarta (but you might not be surprised if your hometown doesn't have many options in public transport), so I have to rely on Go-Jek or Grab, which sometimes can be pricey if I want to go to a place far from my dorm.
I hope this helps you!