Java & Korea part 2


Hi. It's been a while.
I'm here to deliver the long-awaited (?) post about the other similarities between Java & Korea.

3. Mas-Mbak & Hyung/Oppa-Noona/Unnie
I always find it adorable how Koreans address older people by such "titles". You know how cute they can be when they abuse those titles (with all that hyung/unnie-whoring keke).
Here in Java, we do that too (without the whoring part, sadly). Even when there's only 1-year gap (in my case, it's 5-minute gap), we still call older men "Mas" and older women "Mbak". Unlike in Korea, the speaker doesn't make any difference. So, basically, "Mas" equals "Hyung" and "Oppa", while "Mbak" equals "Noona" and "Unnie".
For some, "Mas" is almost as special as "Oppa" (heard that Korean men love being called "Oppa"). My mom calls my dad "Mas". Some of my friends, too, call their boyfriends "Mas". However, some people, especially in big cities, try to 'degrade' the term. They say, "Mas" is only for tukang bakso. Nooo!! Give me back the word "Mas". I'll cherish it the same way I do to "Oppa".


4. Hanacaraka & Hangul
Yes, people, we have our own script. It's called Hanacaraka.


Just like Hangul, Hanacaraka has 2 different kinds of "o".
All basic characters in Hanacaraka are read as in Hangul's (if we romanize it, the Hanacaraka will be "a" and the Hangul will be "eo").
To make it sound like Hangul's , the basic character in Hanacaraka is accompanied by taling-tarung (both the Hanacaraka & Hangul are romanized to "o").
Ahaha, I hope I'm not misleading anyone here.