Guarding Indonesian<\/p>\n
I received from one of your readers, a Filipino friend living
\nin Cilegon, West Java, a recent clipping of the \"Your Letters\"
\ncolumn. With pleasure I read there a translated extract of my
\nletter to the Gatra weekly magazine on the irresponsible habit of
\ncertain Indonesians to mix Indonesian with unnecessary
\n\"Indonesianized\" English words. Irresponsible because these words
\ndo not enrich the national language in terms of new meaning or
\nnew thoughts.<\/p>\n
When we proclaimed Indonesia's independence and fought
\nto defend it, we were freeing not only the country and the people
\nbut also Bahasa Indonesia from the grips of the Dutch. The 40-
\nyear effort to build Indonesian as a modern national language has
\nmet success not by borrowing from foreign languages but by
\ndelving deep into the origin of the Indonesian language and its
\nethnic sister languages.<\/p>\n
During the last decade, however, young intellectuals started
\nusing hundreds and hundreds of words derived from English like:
\ncollusion, conducive, spectacular, primordial, parameter,
\nconflict, quality, response and accommodative. All are ideas or
\nconceptions which earlier were expressed in Indonesian.<\/p>\n
The young intellectuals apparently have forgotten or perhaps
\ndistrust the ability and flexibility of Indonesian to express
\nany idea or concept. Or they have thrown away a pride in the
\nnational language and feeling more comfortable (or believe they
\nsound more intellectual?) when speaking in a borrowed language.<\/p>\n
It would be wise to compare ourselves with the Japanese or
\nThais, both of which were heavily influenced by the presence of
\nthousands of American soldiers. How many of their intellectuals
\nadorn their speech with English words?<\/p>\n
Maybe, just maybe, by printing the portion of my letter in
\nyour paper, someone was reminded to be proud of his or her
\nnational language. Let us master perfect English, but let us
\nspeak in perfect Bahasa Indonesia.<\/p>\n
CORNELL R.H. TOBING
\n Medan, North Sumatra<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/guarding-indonesian-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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