oh, yeah....

so i have this high school indonesian friend named aya.  she smsed me this week and asked me to help her out with her english homework, so we met at the coffeeshop this afternoon.  she gave me a written conversation and asked me to proofread it. i'm still unclear as to whether or not she and a partner actually have to perform the conversation or if she just had to write it, but at any rate, i checked it for her and made a few corrections here and there.  for this project, she had to research about borobudur, a famous ancient buddhist temple about an hour from here.  in the conversation, one person was asking questions about the temple and the other person was explaining it in great detail. the conversation included the word "circumambulating".  i thought that was great.

but the best was yet to come.... toward the end of the conversation, one of the people was explaining something about the temple. the other person asked a clarifying question, the reply to which was "smack that."

WHAT?! smack that??! in the middle of a conversation about the panels of reliefs in a sacred temple? no WAY! i was trying my hardest not to burst out laughing, but i'm sure that watching my performance was comparable to watching an old sitcom being aired live. i kept having to turn around a pretend to cough or put my head down on the table between us for a few seconds. i finally managed to ask aya, "so, um, what does 'smack that' mean, exactly?"  she looked at me completely seriously and said, "it means like 'yes'".  hmmmm..... no, no, not quite.

she asked what it really meant, and then i was in big trouble. how do you politely explain to an indonesian girl who barely speaks english what a vulgar american slang expression actually means?  luckily, one of my students was there who speaks fluent indonesian. and she explained it as delicately as she could. in indonesian. so at least i was off the hook. and aya immediately crossed it out of her conversation, thankfully.

but that is now my new favorite phrase.  so if you ever come to indonesia and wonder why all the teenagers are saying "smack that" when you ask them a question..... well, you can thank me later.