Yuli Tri Suwarni and Arya Dipa, The Jakarta Post, Bandung | Tue, 02/22/2011 11:49 AM
Local language teachers in West Java are encouraging students to use Sundanese when communicating on social networking sites in a bid to promote the use of the language.
Cece Hidayat, a Sundanese teacher at state junior high school SMPN 13 in Bandung, West Java, said he awarded extra points to students who used Sundanese when posting on Twitter, Facebook or their blogs.
“We are always finding innovations so the students nurture an appreciation of the Sundanese language. They should be inspired to make Sundanese language an indispensable part of their lives, and in that way increase the number of Sundanese speakers,” Cece said Monday.
Cece, who has taught Sundanese for 24 years, was attending the World Mother Tongue 2011 event at Bandung’s Padjadjaran University.
He brought 10 students to the forum to participate in pasanggiri tarucing cakra, or Sundanese language crossword puzzle contest, which attracted 93 participants.
Apart from the crossword contest, the Nini Aki Maca Sajak Sundanese poetry contest was also held with participants including Bandung Regent Dada Rosada and Padjadjaran University rector Ganjar Kurnia.
The event was held to mark the administration’s efforts to promote the use of the local language, at a time when the number of speakers is said to be decreasing.
In 2000, the Sundanese language was spoken by 27 million people, making it the second most widely spoken local language in Indonesia after Javanese. The number of speakers is believed to have fallen, although there are no recent figures.
The use of social networks to motivate students to use Sundanese was also a theme harped upon by Darpan, a teacher at state senior high school SMAN 1 Garut. He said he would award a higher mark to students who used Sundanese on the Internet and when sending text messages and emails.
“The students face a lot of temptations. Many think English is more prestigious than local languages while if we think about it, English for the English people is a local language. It’s only that the language has gained widespread use that makes it an international language,” he said.
Cece and Darpan have blogs written exclusively in Sundanese. Both regularly post essays, poems and short stories in Sundanese on Facebook in the hope their students read them.
They said they relied on social networking sites to encourage the spread of the language as school lessons only allowed them to teach Sundanese for 80 minutes a week. The study of the language is on the curriculum only in the first two of three years.
Padjajaran rector Ganjar blamed the decrease in the number of Sundanese speakers on parents who he said were reluctant to encourage their children to speak the language.
“We should be self-critical in responding to UNESCO’s commemoration of international mother tongues, because many of us use Indonesian or English more than our local languages,” he said.
