Oct. 29, p1

A number of ministers have stated their intent to make Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language) an internationally-spoken language, despite many locals apparently struggling to speak the language properly amid a barrage of English and a proliferation of slang and colloquialisms.

Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh rallied the 10th Bahasa Indonesia Congress to make Indonesian an internationally spoken lingua franca.

'€œLet'€™s make it a global language and contribute positively to the world,'€ Nuh said on Monday.

He was speaking in front of more than 1,100 teachers, students and literary buffs present at the congress. The event, which this year had the theme Strengthening Bahasa Indonesia at the International level, coincided with the commemoration of Youth Pledge Day, the anniversary of when Indonesian nationalists pledged to unite the country through the collective use of Indonesian as the national language.

Your comments:

 I welcome the news. I agree with the plan to bring Indonesian into global affairs. It can make the cultures of Indonesia more popular. It is a good plan to restore the image of the nation.

However, we have to also pay attention to the international language, English, because we can'€™t compete globally without mastering English.

Oktriana Leni

Interesting, but for a language to become a global language, logically it has to be spoken by many different countries like French, Spanish, Arabic, etc.  Or, the country has to be a major economic power like Japan and China, which gives incentives to people, such as business players, to learn the language.     

Lots of American students have been studying Chinese in colleges because it gives them an incentive to have a successful career in international business. Lots of people eagerly study French, Spanish and Arabic to have a career in International Development.

So we must ask, what would be the incentive for someone from Europe or America to study Indonesian?

Syahrul Luddin

It is not easy and we can'€™t push Indonesian to become a global language.  People learn other languages because they love or need them.

Some learn English because they want to play games and the games are in English. Some learn because they need to communicate in their environment, others need to pass their exams at school.

Others learn Korean because they fall in love with Korean culture and K-Pop, and so on.

So, if our government wants to make Indonesian global, then we must create many things (culture, business opportunities, trade expos, etc.) in Indonesian.

If we created these consistently, I think it would not be a dream anymore to achieve global status.

Leonardus Yap

I am sorry but this is wishful thinking, impractical, egocentric and divisive.  I would not be as negative if our nation'€™s political and economic systems, our technology, our universities, our work ethic, our government services/bureaucracies, and our corruption indices were spoken of with respect and awe by our neighboring countries.

I am however optimistic and positive that Indonesia is able to make admirable steps toward true democracy and a stronger economy, and within a couple of decades will occupy its rightful and respected place among advanced, stable and progressive nations.  I do not share Nuh'€™s expansionist idea.  He is permitted however to dream.

James Waworoending  

Personally I love Indonesian '€” simple to learn, simple and fun to speak but it is far from exact enough, which is why many contracts are in English.

Duncan Tan

Before the trolls start up, I am a huge fan of the Indonesian language and Indonesia as a country, which is part of the reason I chose to settle here.

Linguistically, Indonesian is a simple and effective language. However for a language to go '€œglobal'€ there has to be a need for it to be spoken outside of its L1 country. Most global languages are spoken because of the need to trade with nations which speak that language.

English, Mandarin, Japanese to a certain extent, all meet this criteria '€” the countries who speak these have (or had) huge export markets. Sadly Indonesia does not. There is, at present, no requirement for anyone outside of Indonesia to speak the language because Indonesia has a very limited export market and a very limited tourist trade.

Therefore it doesn'€™t matter whether the language is spoken well by those who are in charge of its Government, the people or whether it is taught well in schools. What matters is the business status of the nation, and Indonesia is not there yet.

Gareth

Meanwhile in the real world, this was issued today by one of the most prestigious and senior schools in Australia.

'€œ[...] to a review of whether we would continue to offer Indonesian at this time in the School. The number of students selecting Indonesian has been much lower than French or Chinese, to the point where there are no students currently studying in Year 11, only one studying in Year nine and other classes with low numbers and barely viable. The decision was made to not continue offering Indonesian in lower years, but to provide a pathway for students currently studying Indonesian in Year 10 to complete their studies through to Year 12. This has enabled us to focus our resources on one Asian language [Chinese] and one European language [French] and to now provide Chinese from an earlier age in the Preparatory School ]starting year still to be determined through timetabling]'€

Yup, relevance is kind of important in the real world of business and economics.

Rusty Nails

Maybe it would be useful for our neighbors in Australia to learn Indonesian, but anyone else? Sorry I don'€™t get it. There is no strategic incentive to people across the globe to learn Indonesian. English, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, Spanish and French are all way higher up the list.

Deedee S

Call it '€œBahasa Indonesia'€ and you can forget about getting support from those people in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Sulu Islands in the Philippines and Southern Thailand. You should not nationalize a language because language is part of culture, and culture is bigger than national borders.

Malaysians used to refer its version of language as '€œBahasa Malaysia'€ until recently when it reverted back to '€œBahasa Melayu'€, recognizing that bangsa '€œMelayu'€ is bigger than '€œMalaysia'€. That explains why other neighboring countries within Nusantara speak the Malaysian rather than the Indonesian version. Don'€™t believe me?

Go visit Singapore, Brunei, Southern Thailand or the Sulu Islands '€” the people over there speak the Malaysian version despite Indonesia being far bigger than all of these countries combined.

Samel Maverick

I think we should scholarly say '€œMalay'€ instead of '€œIndonesian language'€ because we are like the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that use English and they say that their language is English. Why should we say '€œIndonesian language'€?

In fact our language is '€œMalay.'€ Yes ok, Malaysia used to be a country called Malaya, it does not mean that '€œMalay'€ is just their language. We share the language. However, it is scholarly wrong to say our language is the '€œIndonesian language'€. We do not have a language like above mentioned countries.

Syarwan

I love Indonesia, but let'€™s start by having an international company that people outside Indonesia know. How come Indonesia does so poorly in Olympics or the soccer World Cup? With 240 million people they can'€™t even qualify!

Stop with the crazy ideas, demonstrations, corruption and forget culture and batik for a moment.

Let Indonesia first do something to impress the world!

Balistars

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