Gargling

January 19, 2011.  When I was taking the CELTA course, I learned an interesting tidbit about Indonesians, or at least an interesting tidbit about two Indonesians (I don't want to incorrectly generalize), but it seemed like it might be an interesting cultural difference.  I'll have to survey some other Indonesians to see if it is true.  Here's the story behind the tidbit. 

One day I was in the computer lab with some of my fellow CELTA classmates.  Two of the women happened to be Indonesian, let's call them Dilah and Yasmin, and the other woman happened to be Swiss-Australian, let's call her Tanya.

I don't really remember how the topic of gargling came up, but for the sake of this story, let's say we were brainstorming the best ways to teach certain vocabulary words.  Sometimes when you are teaching the meaning of a word, a demonstration is much more effective than a description.  I suggested that to convey the meaning of the word 'gargle' you should just gargle.  The two Indonesians were totally grossed out by what I thought was a very good suggestion.  Their response was similar to the type of response I would have expected if I had just suggested they actually fart in front of the class to teach the word 'fart.'  While farting is funny, it is a bit gross and sometimes stinky.  And for the record, I do not think it would be appropriate to teach the word 'fart' by actually farting in front of class, although it would be REALLY funny. 

I looked at Tanya and the look on her face showed me that we were thinking similar thoughts; it seemed odd to think of gargling as being offensive.  Now don't get me wrong, I don't think gargling is particularly attractive or something that is acceptable to do at the dinner table, but I don't necessarily get grossed out if I hear someone gargle. We both found it extremely odd and a bit unbelievable that Dilah and Yasmin thought gargling was so gross and we expressed our amazement.  A cultural discussion ensued.  

After our discussion, I still didn't really believe them, so there was really only one thing to do.  I took a sip of water and gargled it.  The look of disgust on their faces along with the accompanying sounds of horror were enough to make me and Tanya believe them.  It is indeed true: Dilah and Yasmin find gargling to be absolutely disgusting.  They said that all Indonesians think gargling is absolutely disgusting and put it in the same category as stinky farts and burps.  I know because I asked. 

We all had a good laugh.

I now need to do some follow-up to see if it is indeed true that gargling is considered by Indonesians in general to be disgusting.

January 22, 2012.  I was at a happy hour on Friday and asked a couple more Indonesians about gargling.  It seems that some people here will gargle after a meal.  For example, they will gargle with tea after eating.  It is not considered good manners to gargle at the table, but it has been known to happen.  So, perhaps some people find it so offensive because it is something that does happen, but is considered inappropriate.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone gargle after a meal in the US.  Perhaps the people I hang out with have dirty mouths.