Abbreviations

Officialdom in Indonesia is full of abbreviations that if you do not know what they are you have very little way of working it out.

 

Abbreviation	Full title	English meaning
Balita	Bawah Lima Tahun	The underfives (0-5 years old)
Batita	Bawah Tiga Tahun	The underthrees (0-3 years old)
Depkes	Departemen Kesehatan	Ministry of Health
Dinkes	Dinas Kesehatan	Local (provincial or district) Health Office
Dinkes Prop	Dinas Kesehatan Propinsi	Governor’s Health Agency
Dinkes Kab	Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten	District Health Agency
Juklak	Petunjuk Pelaksanaan	Operational guideline/manual
Juknis	Petunjuk Teknis	Technical guideline/manual
Kesling	Kesehatan Lingkungan	Environmental Health
Posyandu	Post Pelayanan Terpadu	Monthly Mother and Baby Clinic
Puskesmas	Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakan	Public Health Clinic
Pustu	Puskesmas Pembantu	Sub-Health Clinic

 

Besides the abbreviations in official life as my Bahasa Indonesian has improved and my friendship group extended I have I started sending and receiving a lot of text messages – the easiest and cheapest way to communicate out here. Like in English there are lots of abbreviations used and a tendency to drop prefixes and suffixes to make it just that bit harder.

 

Abbreviation	Full word	English meaning
Mlm	Malam	Night
T4	Tempat	Place
Jgn	Jangan	Don’t
Blg	Bilang	Say – colloquial; just to make it harder
Plg	Pulang	Return
Mat	Selamat	Greeting

 

Like with Gr8 numbers can be used but not that not just the vowels are dropped. To begin with I often had to ask my neighbours or colleagues what the abbreviation represents but now I have got used to it I can normally work it our.