If you are a foreigner thinking about coming to Indonesia, whether it be for business or pleasure, be prepared for a slight culture shock, especially if you’re coming from a western culture. Here are five things about what to expect. These are presented in no particular order, and are the top five things that came to mind.

1. Young Indonesian students (boys and girls alike) may approach you and ask to take a picture with you while you are enjoying yourself at a tourist destination. There are several reasons they do this. Either they think you’re so beautiful or handsome like a certain actress/actor, or they have been assigned to interview a foreigner for their English or culture class. There is also the possibility they simply want to show off to their parents, family or friends, that they have had interactions with a foreigner. See, some Indonesians have this unexplainable attraction towards foreigners, perceiving them as being superior, or plain strange (because of the different skin, hair and eye colours). I am sure you will also encounter this phenomenon elsewhere.
2. People who you meet through chance encounter, or people you work with, may ask private questions that you may never want to give an answer to especially to a stranger. These are: ‘How old are you?’, ‘Are you married?’, if you are married, ‘How many children do you have?’, if you’re not, ‘Why are you not married yet?’ or ‘Oh are you looking for an Indonesian wife?’. And mind you, these questions are not because Indonesians do not respect your privacy. In Indonesia, even in this modern age, there is still a social segregation. How old you are will determine how they will treat you forever after. If you are older they will keep their distance and continue to be polite. If you are younger, they may be more relaxed around you. The same with your marital status. If you’re married, they will be more respectful than if you weren’t. These are standard questions they ask everyone, Indonesian and foreigners alike, because it will help them to determine how to behave around you. I am not saying this is the case everywhere, especially since the generation nowadays is more relaxed and have the ‘ability’ of treating different people with different age and background as peers.
3. If you are coming here (or are already here) and have Indonesian friends or colleagues, prepare to be waiting a long time for them if you are meeting them at a certain place and time for coffee or even for an official meeting. In Indonesia, an appointment at 10 a.m. will not always start at 10 a.m. The bad traffic (especially in Jakarta) will most probably be the main culprit people use here as an excuse of being late. In some cases this would be absolutely true, but in others it may just be another way of getting away with it. I have actually seen some people talk on the phone with their colleagues/friends, and say, “Yes, sorry I think I am going to be late because I am stuck in traffic now and it looks pretty bad.” while they are actually sitting in a corner of a cafe sipping their coffee. This is a habit that Indonesians themselves consider as annoying (even if they are also guilty of it, and they have a term for it, which is jam karet, or ‘rubber time’.I am not saying that this is true for all Indonesians because there are also many who appreciate punctuality. But you better be prepared for it. If you’re meeting this person in an official meeting, try setting the meeting 15 minutes earlier than you intend it to be held (at least for the first time), and see if the person is punctual for future reference. If you’re meeting someone informally for coffee, bring a book or magazine and order ahead.
4. Indonesians enjoy eating with their bare hands. You may see it as barbaric but honestly for us, eating with bare hands is very often considered as more exciting. Although the Dutch has generously left us with a habit to use utensils when eating, but some food just needs to be eaten with bare hands. It may look messy but you really should try it out yourselves before you decide against it. You can see this habit in almost every Padang food restaurants, but don’t worry, it will (almost) never happen in five stars restaurants/hotels!
5. Never hand out anything with your left hand! In Indonesia, the left hand is considered as the ‘dirty hand’ because unlike in the western culture where the use of toilet tissue is more common, Indonesians actually wash themselves in their lower part with their hands under running water after they have visited the toilet. Needless to say, although they do wash their hands afterwards, they still think of the left hand as the dirty hand. Hence, it is considered impolite to hand things with your left hand.

There are of course many different things that may shock you culturally, and I will add them here in batches. Make sure you keep yourself updated by subscribing to our RSS feed or following this blog on networkedblogs.

Photo courtesy of Mochachocolata Rita.

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