I use Wikipedia regularly to quench my curiosity. Like yesterday. I woke up in the morning looking for a definition of the word Kaharingan on Wikipedia … and ended up seeing the Blackout announcement. That was actually how I learned about the web-wide protest.

The English Wikipedia Blackout may or may not be successful in its attempt to halt the SOPA/PIPA bill from coming into effect, but one thing is sure: it successfully hindered thousands of students whose only language is English from working on their papers, leastwise for a little while. While many schools didn’t allow citations from Wikipedia, a Wikipedia entry still brought together many reliable external sources to any of its entries—it’s always useful in research, at least as a starting point.

Lucky for me, a) apart from my curiosity, I wasn’t really researching anything at the moment, ergo, I don’t actually need any encyclopedia; b) I actually can find an entry on Kaharingan in Wikipedia Bahasa Indonesia—my native language—complete with a number of external sources I can refer to if in the future I’d like to learn the subject deeper.

Understanding English is the norm everywhere in today’s world, and knowing another language is certainly gives anyone an edge. I realized that Bahasa Indonesia is an edge the second I read the entry. This might sound weird, but really, I recall, back in my high school year in Minnesota, all other kids were trying so hard to learn another language—either as a requirement to graduate, or really to give an edge to themselves—while I already know two.

The situation, somehow, reminds me of my recent holiday in Flores. I traveled through two different region—not so distant apart—where the locals speak two totally different languages. And not everyone speaks English.

Imagine having to remember or to jot down so many words just to ask ‘where’s the bathroom?’

Again, I’m very lucky: everyone speaks Bahasa Indonesia. And more than just survival, mastering the language gives me friends.

Being Indonesian is a blessing in a very thick disguise—most of the times though, the disguise’s too thick we can’t recognize the blessing. One of the blessings is a language of our own. A language that can be used to ask for a pickax in Papua’s snowy Jayawijaya Mountain, or to ask for a shot of palm liquor in Bali’s beaches—in fact it can be used for anything across the world’s largest archipelagic state of more than 13,000 islands to its 200 million-something speakers. And like Wikipedia (or the internet in general), Bahasa Indonesia is something Indonesians take for granted everyday. Which is funny, considering that the Indonesian Nation owes its existence to Bahasa Indonesia. Even funnier, some people rejected it—just like Punang said here.

So there, the Wikipedia Blackout and my friends in Flores. Though seemingly disparate, they both reminded me of my mother tongue that I often take for granted. For those whose first language isn’t English, never take your advantage for granted. We might speak English with a heavy accent, but then again, so what? It gives us charm and character!

As my friend in the village of Moni, Flores, put it simply: “before we know Bahasa Indonesia, we know nobody from the other side of the hills. Now we’re friends with them. That’s how great our Founding Fathers were.”

Yes, that’s how great our Founding Fathers were. They gave us an edge in the international world, and they made us all friends.