The use of English
The use of English
The series of articles in The Jakarta Post of April 5 about
the use of English in Indonesian schools and institutions was
quite interesting.
Former minister (of education and culture) Wardiman
Djojonegoro's decree to finally allow English to officially enter
our education system was courageous. Like it or not, English is
the language of business, diplomacy and science. Due to our
geographical position, however, and from both the economic and
political points of view, one might wonder whether it would not
be advisable to allow Japanese and Chinese some time in the
future as well.
The most sensible things about the shortcomings of English
training in the republic were said, as so often, by Mochtar
Buchori. I'd like to complement his words with a few examples
from my own experience.
Ten years ago, I was lecturing in one of the business schools
in Jakarta where the vehicle of education was nearly exclusively
English. The students could be divided into two distinct
categories. Those who had lived abroad even for a relatively
short time and were generally able to converse quite well in
English (often the children of diplomats). Those who had been
trained entirely locally, were often simply hopeless, except for
those who had completed advanced courses at LIA.
My four daughters get exposure to English at home, but the
gains they make there seem to be destroyed systematically in
school.
When they ask me for help with their English homework, the
first thing I have to do is to correct the texts to put some
sense into them. Take the homework sheet that one of my
daughters, class SMK-1 (Senior Vocational High School), had to
translate recently. One passage will do: "Salesmen who have more
experience in the job are the pioneers to market some new
products. By having more skillful salesmen in the business means
having main capital to market the products. To market the
products is not simple job, but it depends on salesmanship of the
salesmen, after all."
So, I corrected and simplified the text, the kid was happy to
finally understand the mystery behind these sentences, only to be
scolded later by the teacher for this affront to his or her
authority.
A couple of months ago I thought it a good idea to have them
watch TVRI's News in English, Mama mia! I quickly dropped the
idea, but started, out of curiosity and probably a sense of
revenge as well, to rate the quality of that program.
Sometimes the speakers are OK, but then there are the
subtitlers who spoil the ratings. After the new cabinet was
announced, the 008 access code welcomed through the subtitlers
"our new elected cabinet minister." Until then, I had thought
that Pak Harto had "elected more than one excellency, there were
at any rate many more pictures in The Jakarta Post of March 15
than just one lone minister, but who am I to doubt the veracity
of the New Order's mouthpiece, right?
And the speakers are not always right. Most of them,
admittedly, score on my ratings sheet an 8/10 or above. Just as a
yardstick for purposes of comparison, Ali Alatas scores with me
9/10. Equally good, or even better, are the two Soebrotos, Ines,
Tiya, Kris, Inke, Ian and Priyo. Cut scores a 7 but could quickly
climb the ladder if she could get rid of her ubiquitous "t" after
words such as resolution, action, direction, etc.
Two others score 5 and 5.5 but that is still better than the
producers and studio technicians (3/10) who show intifada kids
throwing stones at Israeli soldiers while they have the speakers
comment on Pak Harto's meeting with the IMF. The funniest
contributions come from the subtitlers however (2/10). On Sunday
they had a couple of good ones again: "Familly Circle Club
Tennis, Habibie meet Helmut Kohl and Seven Banks Prozen."
My idea of using TVRI's News in English as an educational tool
to improve my kids' English was none too brilliant, as I can only
give it a regrettably low score.
IDRIS KYRWAJY
Jakarta