Surly Secretaries, Poor English

Surly Secretaries, Poor English

Reading the article titled Surly Secretaries, English Lesson
in The Jakarta Post (Sunday, June 29), I could not help
laughing. I agree with what Suwara Sari wrote. It is true that
most secretaries in our country are surly. Aren't they
professionals? Some of them are.

But this is the fact we often have to face. Whenever I ask a
secretary in Indonesian to put me through to her boss, she always
says, "Sorry, my boss is busy and cannot be disturbed now".
Sometimes, she says her boss is not in the office. If I ask when
I can contact the boss she says "please call back later". When I
call back, the answer is often an insulting "I have told him that
you phoned, but, I am sorry, he couldn't say when you should
contact him".

But when we speak in English on the phone, the surly
secretary's response will be quite different. She shows respect
to the caller.

As a journalist in Palembang, I sometimes have trouble getting
comments from fairly important people because their secretary is
uncooperative.

Sometimes I have to speak English and the result is
remarkable. The secretary puts me through to her boss without
argument, simply because she does not speak English well.

It is a sad fact the most Indonesians, even the well educated,
speak poor English.

In 1990 my boss told me, "you know that our English is the
poorest among ASEAN nations. Many businessmen or senior officials
cannot speak English well. That's why many foreigners work in
Indonesia. while many Indonesians are unemployed".

I think the English curriculum and the teaching system at
schools have to be improved. We know that sometimes even English
teachers at schools have not mastered the language.

We are happy that English is taught in elementary schools. But
many students think English is the hardest subject. This fallacy
makes them hate English or not want to study it. They then ignore
English lessons. Moreover, many parents are not enthusiastic
about sending their children to English courses, often for
financial reasons.

ROSYIDAH

Palembang, South Sumatra