Very very interesting analysis, whether you like Obama or not. This may be the least plastic-person speech he’s made. The language analysis shows just how relational it got.
And no, this is not a criticism. Indonesia was where he lived when his parents were together and he was very young. Of course he’d have good memories of it, like Kipling had of his early childhood in India and his forgotten fluency in Hindi. It’s just a shame that the man seems to have so few warm adult affections.
More language analysis of various Obama greetings and courtesy remarks in Indonesian.
Anyway, it seems pretty clear from the analysis that his pronunciation of Indonesian is better when it draws from old memory than when he tries to read words off the teleprompter. There’s a lesson in that for all speakers and performers…. š
Aliens in This World 