Why can’t most Indonesians speak English fluently?
Most people in Indonesia had spoken two languages from the moment we were toddlers, but neither of the languages was English. We had been introduced to the language since we were in elementary school, and it was almost everyone’s question how very few of us can actually speak English despite the length of time we spent on classes learning it.
I’m among the very few who is lucky enough to be able to master the language. And even after more than 15 years learning the language, you might notice that I still have a lot of things to improve.
Why does it take so long for me or anybody else in my country to learn and speak the language?
Most Indonesians would blame it on one thing: our education system sucks.
The teaching materials are so outdated and impractical, people can barely make conversation beyond “Hi, how are you? I’m fine, thank you.” New books are printed every year, new syllabus is made, but the content has only been slightly changed, if not remains the same. The teachers might not even understand English more than the students do and their teaching method has been a topic of discussions for decades. Some even might go to the extreme saying we are too dumb to learn English.
While those might be true, I feel that the biggest obstacle in mastering the language is that we don’t have the urgency to use it. English, or speaking English in this sense, is useless.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I fully understand the importance of English as a universal language. In fact, I can even write a whole essay about it and I’m sure that most Indonesians understand it, too.
Rather than internalizing the importance of English in general, however, people might be directing this question to themselves: to what extent will the language benefit me personally?
People don’t speak English here. We have a national language which is Bahasa Indonesia. And like Japanese, Korean or Chinese, we use our national language verbally and in writing which is enough for us to get through the day.
College students might need to understand English because most of the books they use are in English. But even they don’t have to be able to be fluent in English to graduate or to find a job.
Instead of learning English, most people chose to learn more “essential” skill sets that will eventually and actually improve their social status such as learning how to dissect other people in order to get the most wanted job ever here. So English is important, but it does not instantaneously bring us to wealthiness and fame.
In fact, that might also be the reason why the content of English teaching books remains the same which makes our education system sucks.
And no, we are not actually dumb. I believe that if anyone wants to learn something and really put themselves into it, they will succeed. We just have our priorities straight, and learning how to speak English fluently seems to fall out the list.
