Seringkali saya merasa tidak fasih, padahal teman-teman mengatakan pengucapan saya sudah jauh membaik.

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Questions & Answers about Seringkali saya merasa tidak fasih, padahal teman-teman mengatakan pengucapan saya sudah jauh membaik.

What does seringkali mean, and is there any difference between seringkali, sering kali, and sering?

All three relate to “often / frequently.”

  • seringkali – written as one word; adverb meaning “often, very often, frequently.”
  • sering kali – two words; essentially the same meaning as seringkali. Many native speakers use them interchangeably.
  • sering – also means “often”, but a bit more neutral.
    • seringkali/sering kali can sound slightly more emphatic or “habitual,” like “I so often feel…”

In this sentence, you could also say:

  • Saya sering merasa tidak fasih…
    The meaning is almost the same; the nuance difference is very small.
Why is the word order "Seringkali saya merasa..." and not "Saya seringkali merasa..." or "Saya merasa seringkali..."?

All of these orders are grammatically possible, but they differ slightly in emphasis and naturalness:

  • Seringkali saya merasa tidak fasih…
    – Fronting seringkali makes “often” the focus:
    “Often, I feel not fluent…”
    It sounds natural and gives a bit of rhetorical emphasis.

  • Saya sering merasa tidak fasih…
    – Very common, maybe the most neutral:
    “I often feel not fluent…”

  • Saya merasa seringkali tidak fasih…
    – Less common and a bit clunky. It sounds like you’re emphasizing the frequency of “not fluent” in a more awkward way.

So the original “Seringkali saya merasa…” is a stylistic choice that front-loads the idea of frequency.

What is the nuance of tidak fasih? Could I also say tidak lancar?

Both tidak fasih and tidak lancar can translate to “not fluent”, but they have slightly different flavors:

  • fasih – often used specifically for speaking or language ability; feels a bit more formal or “textbook-y.”

    • tidak fasih“not fluent (in a language)”
  • lancar – means smooth, flowing (can refer to speech, traffic, processes, etc.).

    • tidak lancar“not smooth / halting”, but in language context it also means “not fluent.”

In this sentence:

  • Saya merasa tidak fasih = I feel I’m not fluent (as a speaker of the language).
  • Saya merasa tidak lancar would also be natural, with a slightly more colloquial feel in many contexts.
What does padahal mean here, and how does it function in the sentence?

Padahal is a conjunction introducing a contrast between two facts, roughly:

  • “whereas”
  • “even though”
  • “but actually / when in fact”

In the sentence:

  • Seringkali saya merasa tidak fasih, padahal teman-teman mengatakan pengucapan saya sudah jauh membaik.

You can understand padahal as:

  • “I often feel I’m not fluent, *even though / whereas my friends say my pronunciation has improved a lot.”*

It highlights a mismatch between the speaker’s feelings and the friends’ evaluation.

You could technically split it into two sentences:

  • Seringkali saya merasa tidak fasih. Padahal teman-teman mengatakan…

That’s still acceptable in informal writing, but the comma version is more standard.

What is the role of the hyphen in teman-teman? Why not just say teman?

In Indonesian, reduplication (repeating a noun) often marks plurality or “many.”

  • teman = friend (singular, or generic)
  • teman-teman = friends (plural)

The hyphen is the standard way to write reduplication: NOUN-NOUN.

So:

  • teman saya = my friend
  • teman-teman saya = my friends

If you said padahal teman mengatakan…, it would sound like just one friend (or unspecified). Teman-teman makes it clear multiple friends say this.

Why is it teman-teman mengatakan pengucapan saya… and not mengatakan bahwa pengucapan saya…?

The verb mengatakan (“to say, to state”) often introduces a clause:

  • mengatakan bahwa… = “to say that…”

In everyday Indonesian, bahwa is frequently omitted when the meaning is clear.

  • teman-teman mengatakan pengucapan saya sudah jauh membaik
    ≈ “my friends say (that) my pronunciation has improved a lot.”

Both of these are correct:

  • …mengatakan bahwa pengucapan saya… (a bit more explicit/formal)
  • …mengatakan pengucapan saya… (more concise, very common in speech)
What does pengucapan mean exactly, and how is it different from ucapan?

Both come from the root ucap (to say/utter), but they’re used differently:

  • pengucapan = pronunciation, the act or way of pronouncing sounds/words

    • pengucapan saya = my pronunciation
  • ucapan = an utterance / words / a saying / a greeting

    • ucapan selamat = congratulations (the words)
    • ucapan terima kasih = words of thanks / expression of thanks

So, in this sentence, pengucapan is correct because we are talking about how the speaker pronounces words, not about specific phrases or greetings.

What does sudah jauh membaik literally mean, and why use jauh here?

Breakdown:

  • sudah – already
  • jauh – literally “far,” but often used as an intensifier meaning “much, far more/less”
  • membaik – to get better, to improve

So sudah jauh membaik“has already improved a lot / has gotten much better.”

Here, jauh doesn’t talk about physical distance; it intensifies the improvement:

  • sudah membaik = has improved
  • sudah jauh membaik = has improved a lot / by far

You could also hear alternatives like:

  • sudah sangat membaik
  • sudah banyak membaik

All mean there’s a significant improvement.

Why is sudah used with membaik? Could we remove it?

Sudah indicates that a change or process has already occurred or has been completed to some degree.

  • pengucapan saya membaik
    – grammatically okay, but feels like a general statement: “my pronunciation improves / is improving.”

  • pengucapan saya sudah membaik
    – natural way to say: “my pronunciation has improved (by now).”

In the original:

  • pengucapan saya sudah jauh membaik
    emphasizes that by this point, there has already been a big improvement.

You could omit sudah, but you would lose that clear “already” / “by now” nuance, and it would sound less natural in this context.

Is saya the only correct option here, or could I use aku instead?

Both are correct, but they differ in formality and tone:

  • saya – more formal / neutral; safe in almost any situation (talking to strangers, in writing, to older people, at work, etc.).
  • aku – more informal / intimate; used with friends, family, or in casual speech/writing.

So you could say:

  • Seringkali saya merasa tidak fasih… (neutral, slightly formal)
  • Seringkali aku merasa tidak fasih… (more personal/intimate, casual)

Choosing saya in this sentence makes it sound like a neutral narrative voice, which fits both spoken and written contexts.