Word Association Game
15 February 2011
Everyone's played some incarnation of the old word association game, where a word is thrown out by one person and the other has to say the first thing that comes to their mind:
Ok, so we all know the basic format of the game. Well, in Indonesia, things get a little topsy-turvy, since objects that we associate with one thing in the US often have other functions here. For example, toilet paper is rarely available in bathrooms, but often sits in plastic dispensers on top of restaurant tables, subbing for napkins. Still serving a 'wipe' function, I guess. A better one is chickens. In the US, I imagine the word association game going like this:
Chicken! Egg! or
But here, chickens are commonly seen tied together by the feet in bundles and hanging off motorbikes. Additionally, the phrase ayam kampus, or 'campus chicken' means a college-campus whore. Definitely a game-changer.
Chicken! Prostitution!
This same-object-different-function phenomenon has occured to me before, but after so many months, I start to forget that these things "don't belong" in the framework of my mind. So the other night when I was driving home and approached two enormous potted plants sitting in the middle of the road, I didn't quite know what to do.
Two potted plants, so large that they were almost trees, sat one in front of the other, completely obstructing the middle of the road. Riding a motorbike, I could go around, but for a car it would have been completely impassable. Upon closer examination, I realized that they were 'guarding' patches of wet cement. Turns out the potholes in the road were being fixed and they were fresh out of orange cones! Totally brilliant, if you ask me; there was no possibility of me driving over the fresh cement. But how mammoth potted greenery was easier to come by than a reflective piece of plastic, I'm still not sure. I am sure, however, that in the case of...
...I will now always think...
Hopefully I can find a different association for 'chicken' as well. Indonesia is giving them a bad name.
Peanut butter! Jelly!
Winter! Hot Chocolate!
Infidelity! Tiger Woods!
Ok, so we all know the basic format of the game. Well, in Indonesia, things get a little topsy-turvy, since objects that we associate with one thing in the US often have other functions here. For example, toilet paper is rarely available in bathrooms, but often sits in plastic dispensers on top of restaurant tables, subbing for napkins. Still serving a 'wipe' function, I guess. A better one is chickens. In the US, I imagine the word association game going like this:
Chicken! Egg! or
Chicken! Farm!
But here, chickens are commonly seen tied together by the feet in bundles and hanging off motorbikes. Additionally, the phrase ayam kampus, or 'campus chicken' means a college-campus whore. Definitely a game-changer.
Chicken! Prostitution!
This same-object-different-function phenomenon has occured to me before, but after so many months, I start to forget that these things "don't belong" in the framework of my mind. So the other night when I was driving home and approached two enormous potted plants sitting in the middle of the road, I didn't quite know what to do.
Two potted plants, so large that they were almost trees, sat one in front of the other, completely obstructing the middle of the road. Riding a motorbike, I could go around, but for a car it would have been completely impassable. Upon closer examination, I realized that they were 'guarding' patches of wet cement. Turns out the potholes in the road were being fixed and they were fresh out of orange cones! Totally brilliant, if you ask me; there was no possibility of me driving over the fresh cement. But how mammoth potted greenery was easier to come by than a reflective piece of plastic, I'm still not sure. I am sure, however, that in the case of...
Potted Plants!
...I will now always think...
Asphalt!
Hopefully I can find a different association for 'chicken' as well. Indonesia is giving them a bad name.
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