The art of not learning English

By Tri Hafiningsih

JAKARTA (JP): You need to improve your English but don't have the time or simply cannot afford to enroll on one of those lengthy and expensive English courses.

A common problem? But if you think you can solve it by teaching yourself with the aid of some 'affordable' self-study books then you are probably gravely mistaken.

If you spend a little time browsing through bookstores you will see an endless member of self-study books, many tailored for special purposes such as English for Secretaries, English for Guides, English for Taxi Drivers, English for Housewives, an even Dates in English and Mastering English in 24 Hours.

These books, which mainly teach conversational English, are commonly split into three parts -- the English text, a direct translation, and a glossary.

At first you might not be aware that something is wrong, but beware because you will quickly fall into total confusion. Many of these books contain incorrect translations, bad grammar and present teaching material in an odd manner.

"A stamp is the kind of the post things where is anybody sends a letter it is sticked at the envelope," or "Who do you interest for the workshop job?" are lines from a pocket-sized book entitled Personnel Interviews.

The first translation above is describing a stamp and the second is a question which a shop owner or manager might supposedly ask an applicant to determine why they are interested in working in a repair shop.

The writers proclaim in the preface that the book will help applicants to prepare for situations which may arise in job interviews.

In Enriching Your Vocabulary Through Anecdotes, the author compiled hundreds of short anecdotes, many of which were taken from Reader's Digest without any attribution to the magazine. Each anecdote is translated literally and a glossary is attached at the end. Many of the stories have lost their wit and humor in the translation.

So before you decide to buy these 'guide books', or even before you decide to study English on your own, maybe you should consider what English teachers have to say on the matter.

"These books may be cheap and readily available, but they will confuse you rather than help you learn English," said Sulichah Sutjahjono, who teaches English in the University of Indonesia's Faculty of Economics. She relies on better quality imported books and her own preparation to support her teaching work.

Sulichah spoke recently at a forum of English teachers concerned about the poor quality of self-teaching materials currently available to the public.

The two-day workshop was organized by INSTEAD (The Indonesian Society for Teachers of English to Adults) on Aug.5 and 6.

Another teacher went as far as to say that many of these books violate the principles of learning.

Didi Kurniadinata, a teacher at the English Language Training (ELT) Center said the literal translation used in many of these books was not an effective way of teaching the language. "Students can't learn all that at the same time. A good glossary would be better than literal translations," he said.

There seems to be a never ending problem concerning the quality of locally published books for those trying to teach themselves English, especially in areas of cultural awareness, accuracy and presentation.

Both Sulichah and Didi agree there is an awareness among teachers that something needs to be done to improve the quality of self-study books.

The workshop involved teachers, authors, editors, and publishers and identified the problems faced by each of these parties. A tentative agreement on the role that each party should play in efforts to improve quality was then drafted.

The workshop also listed 20 locally published books which contain an unacceptable number of mistakes in sentence and paragraph structure, organization, grammar, vocabulary and usage, and punctuation.

Didi said that people from many walks of life, including managers, workers going abroad, students, housewives, expert staff, or anybody else who requires a knowledge of English in their day to day existence need good books to help them study.

A publishing editor said the main problem usually lies in the poor communication between writers and editors during publishing.

The editor, Frans Parera, told workshop participants that the release of poor quality books was also due to a lack of expert editors.

Many local publishers, especially the smaller ones, have no editors to cover certain specialist subjects and writers have little knowledge of the complicated process of publishing and marketing books, he said.

"The lack of communication leads to conflict between the publisher and the writer," said Parera, adding that many writers believe the publisher should not be responsible for the content of a book and should consult the writer before making any changes to the manuscript.

This notion is incorrect because the publisher is legally responsible for the contents of book and also has business interests to be taken into consideration, Parera said.

Parera said the poor quality of books was also due to a lack of literary agents to bridge the gap between publishers and writers. Agents should develop good relationships between writers and publishers so that conflicts of interest are avoided.

Agents should work together with writers to smooth the process of editing and publishing a manuscript.

"If publishers have no such agents then the job can be given to editors," Parera said.

Some teachers in the forum concluded that the urgency to provide students with reliable teaching materials was such that qualified teachers should start writing their own guide books.

It may still be a long time before English teachers can write reliable books and satisfy the needs of those who wish to teach themselves the language, so for the time being a short course at a reputable language institution might be a better bet than thrashing around aimlessly with some badly written books.