Observers lament media's misuse of language

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The overuse of acronyms, abundance of slang, inconsistent use of prefixes and irregular sentence structure in most Indonesian mass media are a hindrance for language instructors teaching foreign students across the globe, says the national language office.

The Language Center at the Ministry of National Education said on Wednesday that such factors may deter foreigners from learning the language since print media from Indonesia was widely used as teaching materials.

"It's quite common for teachers to use Indonesian mass media as guidelines in language lessons," Language Center official Mustakim said in a discussion on Bahasa Indonesia in the mass media.

He said the condition was probably a result of many factors such as target audience, media style and even the journalists.

"Journalists are really under pressure and are often faced with tight deadlines, which may contribute to news stories being structurally and grammatically incorrect. There is also the chance that journalists lack knowledge of proper grammar," he said.

He also cited the possibility that the overuse of acronyms, such as SBY for former coordinating minister of political and security affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and DBD for dengue fever was caused by space limitations.

"However, it'd be better if the media explained the acronyms again and again, especially if they're relatively new ones," he said.

Mustakim added that different target audiences and the distinctive styles of particular media played a major role in determining the kind of language used.

"I admit that it will be difficult to standardize language use in the mass media, but of course it doesn't mean that the mass media can simply get away with bad language use. In the end, it's the audience that selects their preferred media," he said.

The mass media should thus look into the matter deeply to come up with quality outcomes in terms of language, keeping in mind that many countries offered Indonesian language instruction.

"There are at least 36 countries where the language is taught at universities, in courses and of course, at Indonesian embassies," he said.

Mustakim's stance was shared by Horikawa Koichi of the Japan Foundation, who suggested that media professionals prioritize the proper use of the 5W-1H rule to help foreigners learn the language faster.

Th 5W-1H rule aims for the key parts of a news article, the what, who, where, when, why and how.

The Language Center, Mustakim said, had even considered giving awards to mass media that used proper Indonesian language structure and grammar.

In October last year, the center awarded six public figures for their appropriate use of the Indonesian language.