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Originally Posted by frostfire
wrong choice of word in that context, Phantom. Titik means a dot or period. Native speaker who don't understand English won't have a clue and may assume you mean "batik." That's one example of many cases where word-by-word translation do not work. Now if you smile, give a thumb up (not advised in Arab/middle east culture), and other hand gesture as you say the phrase, that's a whole different story...
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Thank you. A good reminder that an idiom is an idiom, even if it doesn't look or feel like one, and that idioms (from any language) rarely translate well. That's what I get for thinking in English and referencing a dictionary.
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Originally Posted by frostfire
If your interest is hunting terrorist in that archipelago, knowledge of Javanese dialect and Arabic will be helpful, especially when eavesdropping conversation in "pesantren" after prayer.
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Thank you, again. Glad to know that I was fairly on track here with my multiple language suggestion/senario.