Monday, September 29, 2014

English is no better than Bahasa



Long ago when I was in primary school, English was introduced as a "menu" in the curriculum. Since then, surely, the business of English Courses widely spread promising the better mastery and fluency of English and many people were attracted, as if English is the best language and people had to master it. Well, it is actually not wrong to master English, but the idea of English is better than Bahasa Indonesia, which I personally think, is totally wrong.
 All languages are arguably equal in the sense that there is nothing intrinsically limiting, demeaning or handicapping about any of them. All languages meet the psychological and social needs of their speakers. They are equally deserving of a scientific study, and can provide us the valuable information about human nature and society. This statement is justified by the fact that all languages have both universal and complex grammar.
All languages must have a universal grammar: all languages must have subject and predicate. All languages must have a complex grammar: there may be relative simplicity in one respect, bet there seems always to be relative complexity in another.
Another case proving that all languages equal one another is the phenomenon between Bahasa and English. For some people, Bahasa is considered as lower level compared to English. However, this is simply wrong. In terms of economic values, English is indeed more powerful than Bahasa, but not linguistically. The obvious example is that English has only one word for rice. Bahasa, on the other hand, has numerous words for rice, such as “nasi”, “beras”, and “padi”. Therefore, linguistically, Bahasa Indonesia is equal to English, dan saya bangga bisa berbahasa Indonesia dengan baik dan benar. :-) Wallahu a'lam bi al-shawab.

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Hello everyone, my name is Imron Setiawan and I teach English in SMA Al Hikmah Surabaya. Well, I also work as advisor of Students Affair (or you may say OSIS). That makes me feel close with my students. In addition, I create this blog in order to facilitate my students so that they can learn not only in the classroom but also everywhere. Well, lastly, I hope this blog can help my students and you readers. Ciao!