my identity among others
My name is M. Iqbal Maulana. A little story of my background is that I was born in Pringsewu, one of the small towns in Lampung Province. I was the one who was born from the multicultural background of family and multicultural background of environment. My father is coming from two ethnic backgrounds, they are Sundanesse and Betawinesse. My mother is Javanesse indeed. However both of my parents live in Lampung.
Lampung is for me the unique province. It has so many ethnics there. There are Javanesse, Sundanesse, Bataknesse, Palembangnesse, and even almost all ethnics in Indonesia exist there. It is because Lamung is the one of the places for transmigration program conducted by government from Java Island to Sumatra Island. The origin people and language also exist in Lampung. However they just live and exist in a particular area of Lampung itself. Almost all areas of Lampung itself are occupied by other ethnics beside Lampungnesse. So, I hope this little background can make everyone who reads this essay imagine the condition of the place where I was born.
When I was a child I was never taught by my parents to speak the languages which belong to them. I speak Bahasa to communicate either to my parents or to my social environment. However it does not mean that I am unable to speak Javanesse or Sundanesse which belong to my parents’ language. I can speak both. For me, mastering various languges will be helpful when we interact to other people who have various languages too.
To make it short, I admit and declare to me myself that actually I am a Javanesse person, since the majority of people surrounding me are Javanesse. However I am not totally Javanesse, because I can just absorb Javanesse just from the language, not including the culture. It is because I do not live in a real place where Javanesse people live. I am Javanesse seen from the language I master but I am Lampungnesse seen from the culture and the way I interact with people surrounding me. It is confusing to become like me, isn’t it?
Since my identity is too complicated indeed, it of course causes some problems during my journey in interacting with people surrounding me, especially my classmates. They often say that “hey Iqbal what and who are you actually? Your face nature looks like hard people but you can speak Javanesse very fluent. Tell me more about you!”. This phenomenon always happens when I come to a new place. My face, behavior, and the way I speak (with a loud voice) are exactly the same to what Lampungnesse people do. However I always introduce myself to people I meet that I am a Javanesse by showing them that I can speak Javanesse very fluent. Javanesse people tend to be softer or even the softest ethnic among the ethnics in Indonesia. However, this criterion does not belong to me at all. I am Javanesse, but I am hard, having loud voice when talking and not soft at all. These are very contrast from what Javanesse people behave like. People tend to argue that I am arrogant, rude, cruel just like what Lampungnesse and Sumatranesse (Lampung is also located in Sumatra Island) do, however it is not as that true.
In the last, having more than one culture is not easy at all. Sometime I get confused on how I should behave like. Should I behave like Javanesse or Lampungnesee?
