'Indlish', the trendy language in Jakarta

English, a global language, has penetrated Bahasa Indonesia and it seems there is no stopping it. Not a day passes in a metropolitan city like Jakarta in which English is not heard, although it might not be spoken correctly. The Jakarta Post's Stevie Emilia and Rita A. Widiadana report on this issue.

JAKARTA (JP): If you enter a cafe, an office building or a shopping mall in Jakarta, you will find numerous people speaking English. Some are quite fluent, while others mix it with Indonesian or other dialects.

English, or, more particularly, English terms, are widely spoken in the capital and other large cities in the country.

From the President of Indonesia to business executives, celebrities, housewives, teenagers and children, people are adopting English phrases in their daily activities -- sometimes with jarring effect.

The following is just one example.

Still dressed for the office, four yuppies chat loudly about work while sipping their drinks in the News Cafe in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

"Gue tadi lunch meeting sama boss," quipped the only female in the group, telling the others she had a lunch meeting with her boss.

"Enak lu ya. Gue mesti ketemu client, ada appointment pagi- pagi (Lucky you. I had to see a client for an early-morning appointment)," one of the men responded. He said he was almost late, adding in English: "You know, traffic jam."

Quite often they combine an Indonesian prefix, suffix, preposition or possessive pronoun with an English word.

Public figures, who are always in the media spotlight, are also part of this trend. They speak Indlish, or Indonesian- English, fusing English words with Indonesian ones while speaking at seminars, on talk shows or when being interviewed by journalists.

Politicians often use English terms like "checks and balances", "status quo", "law enforcement" and "accountability" in public.

One of the most popular Indonesian words over the last several years, reformasi, comes from the English word "reform".

The host of ANteve's Debat Terbuka (Open Debate), Fahmi Idris, said he often mixed Indonesian and English during the show, although he claimed he only used common English terms. In some cases, although reluctant, he said he had to use English terms such as "checks and balances" due to the absence of an equivalent Indonesian term.

"Sometime, I prefer using English terms because when I explain (an idea) in Indonesian, it will be very long," he said.

He says he has not received any complaints from viewers, and believes those people who live in large cities have no problem understanding the English terms.

University of Indonesia English lecturer Grace T. Wiradisastra finds the Indlish trend a dilemma, because people are expected to be able to speak English in the era of free trade.

However, she asks her students to be sensitive to their surroundings when speaking a foreign language and to be sure their listeners understand them.

"But the present trend shows that some people mix Indonesian and English either to show off or to reveal their educational background or occupation," Grace said.

She added that some public figures who were educated abroad spoke English properly, while others, who were following the English trend without the proper knowledge, often had poor pronunciation.

Habit, educational background and conversation partners are among the factors responsible for the mixture of Indonesian and English words, according to Indonesian language lecturer Felicia N. Utorodewo from the University of Indonesia.

But she does not worry about the Indlish trend. "I think we don't have to act like the police in monitoring our language activities ...."

Singapore

Despite the growing trend, none of the experts think it necessary to launch a campaign to eliminate Indlish as Singapore is doing with Singlish, or Singaporean-English.

The government of Singapore finds the Singlish trend a nuisance, though some of its expressions, such as "Can or not?" ("Is it possible?") and "Don't pray-pray" (Don't play around"), are quite funny. Singlish blends English with words from other languages, such as Chinese dialects.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong felt it necessary to launch the Speaking Good English Campaign, to urge Singaporeans to discard the popular Singlish and instead speak proper English, one of the country's four official languages. He fears Singlish will harm Singapore's economic competitiveness.

Like other Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesia is attempting to catch up with globalization and the worldwide technology boom, in which the mastery of English is a necessity.

Because English is not native to these countries, it is common to hear a ragtag mix of Indonesian, Malay, Chinese and English.

"I think at this time, there's no point for a campaign here similar to Singapore's," said Dr. Yayah N. Lumintaintang, a language researcher at the National Language Center. "(The mixing of languages) is natural in a multilingual country like Indonesia."

Yayah, however, insisted public figures, especially the President, should speak proper Indonesia because their comments were published and aired by the mass media.

"Our language is our self-identity .... And I think now, at a time when the country is facing the threat of disintegration, is the right time to remind people to speak good Indonesian," she said, adding that many politicians may have forgotten that Bahasa Indonesia was one of the uniting factors that helped the people defeat colonialism.

Yet, in a more open society and in the era of globalization, the mastery of English or other foreign languages has nothing to do with a sense of nationalism or cultural threats.

The late Sutan Takdir Alisyahbana, a highly respected scholar, once proposed English become the country's second language.

Education

According to some experts, Indonesia must change its educational and social systems if it hopes to produce an English- speaking society.

Listiana, the editor of Gramedia Pustaka Utama, agreed that the country should provide people, particularly the younger generations, access to Indonesian and English educations in appropriate learning environments.

"They have to master both Indonesian and English at the same time and know how to use them properly," Listiana said.

"Our first concern should be to improve the standards of spoken and written Indonesian and English, as well to extend the teaching of the language deep into elementary schools and universities.

"If we show them how to speak Indonesian and English properly, they will follow the rules. The problem is that we never teach them about language skills in the right way," she said.

Listiana said the younger generations were in many ways more advanced than their predecessors. Computers, television, videos are some of the areas where kids excel.

"For them, these are tools to hone their language skills, especially English," she said.

While the state educational system has changed little since the beginning of the New Order in the l960s, the rapid growth of technology has helped the young acquire English-language skills.

"One thing that is important is to guide Indonesian people, the youth in particular, in how to speak English in proper ways and proper places," Listiana said.

The experts seem to agree there is no way to stop English and other foreign languages from penetrating Bahasa Indonesia.

"Language is always developed and enriched by local and foreign terms. What Indonesia needs is to produce eloquent English speakers, and as many as possible," Listiana said.