Indlish -- does it exist at all?

The front page article in The Jakarta Post of Sunday, July 2, 2000 under the title of Indlish, the trendy language in Jakarta is indeed interesting to read, especially for the creative coinage of "Indlish" itself.

To use "Singlish" (Singaporean English) as an analogy for "Indlish" is unfortunately inappropriate. "Singlish" -- whatever you may say about it -- has a strong reason for its existence be cause English is used as a medium language of communication in Singapore. As for the so-called "Indlish", it is nonexistent because English is not the medium language of communication in Indonesia. It is true that the language is used -- though often not in a correct way as pointed out in the article in question -- by a small portion of the community, the educated middle class but this does not justify the term "Indlish".

It is also true that we have Filipino English, African English, Indian English, Pakistani English, Bangladeshi English, Hong Kong English and even, perhaps, Malaysian English, because all of these are used as a medium language of communication. Yet we cannot say that we have Indonesian English, Japanese English, German English or Russian English, because English is not used as a medium language of communication in these countries.

What may be the consequence of coining the term "Indlish". While the peculiar use of English in India, the Philippines and English-speaking African countries is justified, in countries where English is not used as a medium language of communication then such use is certainly not justified. This is one of the principles in our modern view of languages. In countries where English is not the medium language of communication, only standard English may be taught and learned (this may be British English, American English, Australian English or even Canadian English).

Once the term "Indlish" is accepted, one can easily argue that one's mistake is tolerated under the pretext that it is the peculiar use of English in Indonesia. This will certainly defeat the purpose of teaching good English.

So, it is quite deplorable that the Post as a leading English language newspaper in Indonesia should carry an article which may be misleading to the public and bring harm to proper English teaching in the country.

This is not a purist's view of the language but it is simply an attempt to put things in place in the language area with a particular emphasis in English language teaching in Indonesia.

LIE HUA

Lecturer of Department of English

School of Letters, UNAS