Archives for 11/07/2024

Gara-gara & Gara-gara apa?

All because of Android!

You all know the interrogative kenapa? (why?) and the conjunction karena (because). Now, I realise that the related pair gara-gara apa? (why?) and gara-gara (because) is for the first time mentioned in our intermediate textbook Baca Yuk! but not in The Indonesian Way.

Gara-Gara as a Noun

The interrogative gara-gara apa? and the conjunction gara-gara are commonly and frequently used words.

However, gara-gara is also a noun, which, in the standard Indonesian dictionary, is defined as ‘a shocking event’, and in the Malaysian standard dictionary it is defined as “disaster, chaos, commotion, and uproar.” By the way, it is perfectly safe to use a Malaysian instead of an Indonesian dictionary, as standard Malaysian and standard Indonesian are virtually identical.

Kau yang mendatangkan gara-gara ini!
You’re the one who caused this commotion!

The noun gara-gara is most commonly translated as ‘trouble’ or ‘problem’:

Kenapa kalian membuat gara-gara di sini?
Why are you causing trouble here?

The words commotion, uproar, problem, and trouble all have negative connotations. While kenapa? and karena are neutral, gara-gara apa? and gara-gara always have negative connotations.

Karena apa?

Instead of asking mengapa? or the more colloquial kenapa? (why?), you may as well ask karena apa? (because of what?; what for?; why):

Fuji terkenal karena apa?
What is [the actress] Fuji known for?

Meredupnya demokrasi Indonesia: Karena apa, oleh siapa?
The decline of Indonesian democracy: Why and by whom?

Saya diberhentikan dari pekerjaan. Karena apa?
I got fired from my job. What for?

We have a toddler in our family who is three years old. She grows up trilingually, but as the parents reside in Indonesia, her main language is Indonesian.

When we ask her a question with kenapa? or karena apa?, she usually does not answer with karena (because), but instead she uses gara-gara, which also means ‘because’.

As she is only three years old, she is not yet aware of the fact that, even though karena and gara-gara are synonyms, there is a subtle, but important difference between karena and gara-gara.

Gara-Gara as a Conjunction

Gara-gara is much more frequently used as a conjunction with the meaning ‘because’, but only when it leads to an undesired or unpleasant effect:

Frequently, a translation of ‘just because’ is also appropriate: