Podcast #40 - Magic Hand [English Audio]

 

                Hello everyone. Welcome to Bet.ID 5-Minute Podcast where you can sharpen your Indonesian skills by listening to everyday topics and getting to know more about Indonesia and its culture. I’m Jeff

                Today, I am going to talk of one interesting topic which is related to the traffic in Indonesia. But like always, if you wanna read the transcripts for this episode you can click the link down below.

                So, I’m gonna be talking about one unique thing in Indonesia but I think it’s a common thing in the Southeast Asia countries. That is the magic hand.   What’s magic hand? Well, some also call it God’s hand or Super hand.  

                Don’t get me wrong! We’re not going to talk about supernatural things. Rather, magic hand is a term that refers to what Indonesian people usually do when they are going to cross the street. In general, when you’re gonna be crossing the street you have to cross over the zebra cross but you need to wait for traffic lamps first before you can cross the street so that all the vehichles will stop and let you cross the street.

                Technically, that is what you should do in Indonesia as well. But many people here often violate this law. So instead of crossing on the zebra cross and waiting for the traffic lamps, they will cross the street wherever they want because waiting for the traffic lamps is considered as time wasting in Indonesia.

                When they’re gonna be crossing the street of course there are many vehichles on the street. How do they deal with this situation? The answer is pretty simple actually. They just need to give a signal to all the drivers and riders that they’re gonna be crossing the street. How would they do that? By giving a stop hand signal.

                When someone in the vehicle notice this hand signal. They will automatically slow down their vehicles to let someone cross the street. What a unique thing!

                How is it in your country then, is there anything similar to this? That’s pretty much everything for this episode. Thank you for listening. If you wanna learn Indonesian online, just click the link down below. See you!