Use of foreign language
I have recently returned from a trip to Eastern Indonesia and would like to add my comments to the ban-English move among the xenophobes in Jakarta.
Other than the "How low can you go?" question posted everywhere, the Coca Cola signs and the pervasive Kentucky Fried Chicken shoppes on every corner, there is very little English to be found in these regions. Consequently, the people speak very little English and have little or no chance to compete in the international markets (leaving them wide open for Jakartans).
However, I have decided that the xenophobes are right and wish to make some suggestions regarding the complete eradication of this linguistic virus in our Bahasa landscape. The first thing that has to go is the Coke signs; local folks read a "C" as "Ch," thereby leading to pronouncing the soft drink as "Choke," not something one wants to do with a drink. Therefore, let us require this soft drink manufacturer to change its name to Koke so that we get the proper vocalization of this foreign icon.
Next the insidious "KFC" signs must be altered; they stand for Kentucky Fried Chicken which, as we all know, just will not do. I suggest changing these signs to "AGK" or Ayam Goreng Kentuki. Of course since not more than one of 10 folks eating in these establishments has little or any idea what a "Kentucky" is, the final letter could be changed to represent almost any Indonesian word, which I will leave to your imagination.
Finally, there must be a more successful way to translate the vaguely suggestive question of "How low can you go?", but my Indonesian is not good enough to give any translation the same sort of sensual/sexual innuendo that the English words do. Perhaps some professional translator out there could help us out because this little saying could be one of those things that The Jakarta Post is always alluding to in quotes. You know, "misleading" information -- How low can you go, indeed.
Back home in Jakarta, I noticed that a program on SCTV called Babalyon 5 was being broadcast in something called Dwibahasa which, as nearly as I can tell, transmit the first part of the first program in dubbed Indonesian and then switches to English for some time before switching back to Indonesian and then back to English...you get the picture. I only noticed this because my kid was "channel surfing" and I noticed that the language had switched from Indonesian to English.
This assures that pretty much all the population will not watch this particular program because those of us who understand Indonesian will change the channel when it switches to English and those of us who understand English will not be watching the program in the first place. SCTV, this is a really bad idea; keep it in Indonesian or English, not both.
JOHN R. FENTON
Jakarta