Indonesian youth smarter and braver<\/p>\n
By Rita A. Widiadana and Stevie Emilia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): \"Look at that boy, he is kuulll (cool) and oke
\nbanget deh (really good),\" a high school girl screamed upon
\nseeing a cute boy at a McDonald's restaurant in the upmarket
\nKebayoran Baru area in South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"Let's having bigmek (BigMac) and ngeceng (find a date),\"
\nanother girl said. (In her jargon, a bigmek is not a hamburger,
\nit means a cool boy).<\/p>\n
They are typical urban teens who feel that speaking (broken)
\nEnglish makes them more trendy.<\/p>\n
The red haired and fashionable Tika, 15, has a reason. \"If you
\ndon't speak slang English, you will be called kampungan
\n(ordinary), men (man)!\" she asserted.<\/p>\n
Like her classmates, Tika has acquired many \"English\" terms
\nthrough MTV, video and computer games, songs, movies, radios,
\nteen magazines and TV ads. Words like \"cool\", \"OK babe\", \"honey\",
\n\"yessss\", \"give me five\" are becoming common among local youth.<\/p>\n
Donny added that learning English at schools or at English
\ncourses was boring and difficult. \"We are only bombarded with
\ngrammatical structure, tenses which are difficult,\" said Donny.<\/p>\n
He said he could learn English better from teen films like
\nDawson's Creek, Beverly Hills, local TV movie Lupus and songs by
\nteenage band West Life.<\/p>\n
Listiana, editor at leading publishing house Gramedia Pustaka
\nUtama, acknowledges that this new enthusiasm for English among
\ntoday's youth comes from the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n
\"We don't have to blame them for watching, listening or
\nreading things that come from the West. We have to see the
\npositive side,\" said Listiana.<\/p>\n
She said her company had published numerous bilingual books
\nunder the license of Walt Disney Co. or other foreign publishing
\ncompanies.<\/p>\n
\"We are now publishing English children's books and we have
\nquite a promising market,\" she said.<\/p>\n
From preschool to high school, English has become compulsory,
\nshe said. Besides, bilingual schools like Pelita Harapan, Bina
\nNusantara and Tiara Bangsa are mushrooming, and their students
\nmay need such books.<\/p>\n
Children and teenagers love these books through which they can
\nlearn English a simpler way. The books are colorfully illustrated
\nand readers will find them interesting to read and at the same
\ntime learn a foreign language.<\/p>\n
\"Compared to older generations who learned English mostly at
\nschool with rigid textbooks, today's kids are fast-learners,\"
\nListiana commented.<\/p>\n
Youths, she said, acquire English sentence by sentence and
\neasily remember them by heart with proper pronunciation and
\nintonation.<\/p>\n
\"We have made fatal mistake dubbing movies and TV shows into
\nIndonesian, leaving would-be English speakers or other foreign
\nlanguage speakers with very few opportunities to hear how the
\noriginal language sounds,\" she explains.<\/p>\n
Movies<\/p>\n
Ati, a mother of two teenage girls, concedes that her
\ndaughters learn much of their English from movies.<\/p>\n
\"I was so surprised that they could imitate the dialog of
\nanimated movies properly like The Land Before Time, Lion King,
\nLittle Mermaids, Toy Story and even Melrose Place with a very
\nclear accent when they were still five and eight years old,\" she
\nrecalled.<\/p>\n
But the mother complained that they refused to learn grammar.<\/p>\n
\"My teacher is old and talkative. I don't like learning
\nEnglish because of her,\" daughter Tanya noted.<\/p>\n
Today's English teachers, many of them in their 30s, are
\nproducts of the old-style English education system.<\/p>\n
Elanda, a teacher at a private elementary school in Menteng
\narea, Center Jakarta, finds her third-grade students have more
\nself-confidence in learning English.<\/p>\n
\"I come from a Javanese family. My English is accented with
\nJavanese, but my students have very good tongues,\" she said.<\/p>\n
In order to boost her students' interest in English, she
\ntitles her English lesson class Happy Hours. Children
\nare free to express their minds and feelings in English.<\/p>\n
Many times they ask the meaning of some crude words, but she
\nhas to explain their meanings wisely and how to use such words in
\neveryday conversation.<\/p>\n
\"I was so shocked when one of my students asked the meaning of
\nwords like 'making love' or 'f--k you!'. They said they heard the
\nwords from their brothers, sisters or friends,\" she maintained.<\/p>\n
But she said the current situation has forced her to improve
\nher English and to be more creative in applying English lessons,
\nespecially for young students.<\/p>\n
\"I have to watch all the new movies, listen to new songs,
\nlisten to the radio. I also try to encourage my students to use
\nEnglish in their daily activities,\" said Elanda.<\/p>\n
Academics mostly agree that using English in daily life is
\nuseful.<\/p>\n
Grace T. Wiradisastra, an English literature lecturer, said
\nshe demands \"mastery of the rules of English and its practical
\napplication\" from her students but supports \"linguistic
\nflexibility\".<\/p>\n
This is the \"ability to adapt to the social and cultural
\ncontext of the situation,\" or the various levels of engagement.<\/p>\n
\"In some circumstances, in academic meetings English is
\ncommon. But in a public forum, it would be better to use
\nIndonesian,\" added Grace.<\/p>\n
\"Yet people are now having to communicate with other
\nforeigners more than they used to,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Children and teenagers should be encouraged to master English
\nbecause it is an international language and a language of science
\nwhich can make them more global.<\/p>\n
OK<\/p>\n
It is OK to mix Indonesian with English, which is now emerging
\nas common practice among youths. It is a gate to mastering it as
\na second language, comments Listiana.<\/p>\n
\"In the past, it was discouraging to see the long roster of
\ngovernment officials who did not speak English,\" she said.<\/p>\n
It was a national joke to see former president Soeharto and
\nother high-ranking government officials often in the
\ninternational arena with translators in tow.<\/p>\n
Although it is hard to quantify the prevalence of English-
\nspeaking abilities among Indonesians, it is a widespread
\nperception that they need to catch up.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian government realized years ago that the country
\nlagged behind its neighbors, particularly Singapore and Malaysia
\nwhere foreign languages have been compulsory for a decade in
\npublic schools from the third grade up.<\/p>\n
More than 85 percent of the nation's high school students now
\ntake English but seem unable to master it.<\/p>\n
\"If we want to create a better generation, we have to equip
\nour children, young people with a good system to learn English,
\nand a good education in general, otherwise we will always be
\n'second-class' citizens,\" she said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesian-youth-smarter-and-braver-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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