Indonesia lags behind in mastery of English

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta looks as good as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Manila as a metropolitan city. It has many high-rise buildings, luxury shopping malls and other modern facilities. But it lags behind in at least one area: mastery of English.

English is the official language of Singapore, the second language in Malaysia and the Philippines. But you will not hear locals speaking English on the street in Jakarta, let alone in the rest of the country.

The national language here is Indonesian, but even this is a second language. At home, most Indonesians speak their mother tongue of one of 580 languages and dialects of the 400 ethnic groups populating the archipelago.

Awareness of the importance of English is increasing in line with development. It is a must for job seekers and those pursuing higher education overseas. Fluency in spoken English can also help get new friends, especially foreigners.

Long lists of English courses in the Yellow Pages proves this is a lucrative business as more people try to improve their skills.

The Jakarta Post talked to several students about their reasons for taking a course.

Eka Nurrahma, 17, a high school student: I have studied English at LIA Language Institute for about a year. I am now at the Intermediate I level. About 10 of my 48 classmates also take the course. Of course, we study English at school, but at LIA we learn more. I think my English is getting better. I got a better grade at school and I can easily understand the lesson.

I pay Rp 265,000 for one term lasting four months. It is only once a week for four hours. My teacher is an Indonesian. I would like to have a native speaker as my teacher, but I am not disappointed. My (Indonesian) teacher is good, she is energetic and she makes us speak English in class.

I think the lesson would be more interesting if they provided us with more video shows.

Anyway, I believe English is important for my future career. I want to be either a diplomat or journalist.

Maxi Yudhi Stevanus, 17, a high school student: My English course started only last month. I joined ELP (English Language Program) at my friend's recommendation. I am still at the basic level. My teacher is Norwegian. Why Norwegian? I don't know, I wonder why they don't give us a native speaker teacher. But I don't mind. We are forced to speak English in class because the teacher is a foreigner who doesn't understand Indonesian. If the teacher were an Indonesian, we would tend to speak Indonesian during classes.

We have two sessions a week, lasting two hours each. But once every two weeks, we have an additional session for another two hours. The course fee is Rp 400,000/term. But if the teacher is Indonesian, the fee is only Rp 275,000.

Tuti, an employee of Manggala Group in her 30s: My employer has the franchise from the America-based ELS (English Language School). Everyone in my office has the opportunity to take a free course at the school for three months. It is not an obligation, but once you sign up, you have to be serious. They say you will be dismissed from work if you fail the exam. I took a class on business earlier this year, along with about 30 other employees. Thank God, everybody passed. But we have yet to receive our certificates.

Debby Tobing, 29, teaching staff at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Indonesia: I started to take an English course when I was in my first year of junior high school. At that time, everybody in my class was crazy about penpals and it was really cool to have penfriends from overseas. We studied English at school but my English was not good enough for correspondence.

What's more, my elder sister had some foreign friends who often came to our place. So, I took an English course. I stopped about three years later because I had to prepare for the final exam (in junior high school). I joined the course again in my senior year at high school. I took a break for the final exam.

When I was a student at the University of Indonesia, and even after I got a job here, I continued my English course, but I still took some breaks in between. Now I am taking a break. I still want to take an English course, but not the regular class. I want to improve my writing skill -- I mean academic writing skill -- but the problem is that not many English schools offer the subject. I also plan to take a course on teaching English.

English is important to me, especially because many of my textbooks are in English, and also you need it when you are abroad. In 1994 I got a chance to study about gender in the Netherlands for three months. It also helps a lot when you surf the Internet.

Ferdinand, 32, an employee of a national private bank: I used to work for a big developer and spoke English quite often. But now I don't use English that often in my office. We don't have many foreign clients and all of the documents are written in Indonesian. I joined an English club to sharpen my English. But it is only once a week.

I am also taking a course. Since early this year, I have been taking a class on "Trend and Technique in the Teaching of English". I pay Rp 3 million for the year-long program. I don't mind spending that much money because I believe that English is a valuable asset. At the moment, I don't have any intention to teach English, but English helps you in socializing. You can easily mingle with foreigners if you know English. (sim)