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English in Indonesia | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5676 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 1 of 12 27 July 2010 at 8:16am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I came across an interesting piece in the NY Times. It deals with the rise of English
in Indonesia, often at the expense of Bahasa. I'm not sure what to think of the piece. I've become accustomed to reading about children preferring English over their native languages, but this is the first I've heard of children being unable to speak their official language (with the exception of ethnic minorities and recent immigrants). URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26indo.html Hyperlink: Link Edited by Paskwc on 27 July 2010 at 8:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5326 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 2 of 12 27 July 2010 at 8:31am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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That's sad. I hate seeing this happen to languages. And I'm seriously getting tired of everyone knowing English. It only adds to the "Why learn a language? Everybody knows English" crap I'm sure we all hear. Edited by johntm93 on 27 July 2010 at 8:33am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5566 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 3 of 12 27 July 2010 at 9:03am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I definitely share your sentiment here. Regardless of the practical utility of having a world language like English, it would be kind of nice if it weren't the first language everybody in the world studies. Not only is it eroding linguistic diversity and destroying the motivation of English speakers to reach out and learn foreign languages, it makes it really hard for those of us who do want to learn a foreign language. You have to learn your target language better than the people you talk with know English, or else they'll just revert to English with you. It's only after over a decade of studying French that I've gotten good enough for some French Canadians to find it easier speaking to me in French than English. Edited by Levi on 27 July 2010 at 9:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6378 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 12 27 July 2010 at 9:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I always take these stories with a grain of salt. There is no real evidence for the writer's opinion just some anecdotes (and according to Wikipedia nearly 100% of Indonesia is fluent in Bahasa). It's a very lazy form of journalism that has gotten popular in recent years: find some interesting stories about something that if true would be controversial and then call it a trend. Edited by newyorkeric on 27 July 2010 at 9:17am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5326 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 12 27 July 2010 at 9:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
@newyorkeric I don't know how common it is in Indonesia, but English is definitely pushing out some smaller languages in other places. Edited by johntm93 on 27 July 2010 at 9:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5480 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 12 27 July 2010 at 9:51am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Indeed it is. According to Wikipedia, there have been some suggestions to change the national language to English instead of Dutch. I think that this story with Indonesia may indeed be somewhat exaggerated, however I would not be surprised if English were taking over in Singapore or Hong Kong for example. THAT is when those statements would be much more plausible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5344 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 7 of 12 27 July 2010 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Very sad indeed. Indonesian is one of the languages I hope to learn one day, but it wouldn't make much sense to do so if its own speakers didn't cultivate it.
I hope the New York Times piece is an exaggeration. Many around the world regard English as an indispensable tool in their path to prosperity, but that doesn't mean they have to give up their native language for that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5837 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 8 of 12 27 July 2010 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yet, native English speakers are not the majority in the world; this situation has arisen after ww2 and continues because the rest of us allows it to..... In Singapore it's certainly true that a lot of kids who are not of any kind of anglo-saxon decent prefer English and I know that this trend is spreading in Malaysia too. Not surprising if it's starting to show up in Indonesia too, but that's so massive that it certainly won't happen overnight. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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