Why Foreign Languages?

 By: Riva Julianto

In commemorating sixty-six years of Indonesian independence, the government has initiated the use of the Indonesian language for all terms with foreign origins, especially the names of commercial entities. This decision comes in response to the business world's inclination to use foreign terms in their products and business identities. In fact, foreign languages are now unofficially considered the language of business. There are two main reasons why business practitioners use foreign terms.

Firstly, due to the absence of an equivalent term in the Indonesian language, foreign terms are often left as they are and eventually become commonly used, even entering the new lexicon of the Indonesian language. The lack of an exact equivalent for a foreign term is closely related to the inundation of foreign cultural and technological products. For instance, product names cannot be changed because they have become patented trademarks, or technical terms in specific fields that are challenging to find equivalents for in the Indonesian language.

Secondly, the everyday reality shows that foreign cultures and technologies dominate this nation, creating a myth that society believes in everything associated with foreign names. Additionally, in the era of globalisation, English is informally regarded as the language of business.

Globalisation requires a global language, an international language. Although Indonesia fulfills the requirements to become an international lingua franca, its role is increasingly marginalised. This article aims to discuss the two aforementioned reasons – technology and the language of interaction – and how they contribute to the marginalisation of the Indonesian language in the daily activities of Indonesian society.

Technological Lag

We must accept the fact that our country is still far behind in creating and developing technology. This lag inevitably influences the marginal economic and linguistic role of Indonesians within it. Historically, we have imported more technology than we have exported (if any at all), making us mere users of foreign technology.

Technology assumes culture as its creative soul. Consequently, foreign cultures ride along with imported technology. As this technology comes from countries with different cultures and languages, importing technology is equivalent to importing foreign cultures and languages. Therefore, learning a foreign language is necessary to understand and utilise the imported technology. Importing technology is importing foreign culture, and language is included.

Indonesians, being technologically backward, cannot develop because of a lack of creativity in the technological field. New technologies imply the emergence of new terms. In the field of computers alone, foreign terms cannot be replaced because they are highly specific to this domain. In other words, if we were to create and export more technology, it would not be impossible for Indonesian culture and language to become global.

Lingua Franca

The current international language of interaction is English. Why English? History shapes this reality. Although English is not the most widely spoken language globally, its historical role during colonial times has made it the lingua franca. At the end of the colonial era, an agreement was reached and ratified concurrently with the establishment of the United Nations, declaring English as the official language in international forums.

Approaching the twenty-first century, with information technology, the world is shrinking into a global village, as predicted by philosopher Marshall McLuhan. The world becomes extremely interconnected. In this global village, English has been officially recognized as the language of conversation. It's not surprising that English names and terms are dominant and continue to expand globally. If a language becomes the second language in a country, it is a natural occurrence. Our neighboring countries also face similar language challenges. However, they anticipate it by making it the second official language after their country's primary language.

Mastery of English becomes crucial because global interaction cannot function if there are language barriers. Every job vacancy in various businesses requires candidates to have at least a basic understanding of English, even advertising it in English. It's almost impossible to find products at home without English labels. English-language songs and films are also prevalent on our radios and TVs. This is the consequence (read: advantage) of becoming the official international language, studied and used by almost everyone worldwide.

The late Indonesian scholar Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana once complained about the emptiness of the Indonesian language, considering it a language void of modern ideas since all influential books were not written in Indonesian. Consequently, Indonesian society was not fully exposed to the modern world. He even praised our neighboring countries, the Philippines and Singapore, for maintaining English as their medium of instruction. According to him, English is excellent for intellectual development (Transformasi Masyarakat Indonesia, Denny J.A. editor, 1986).

In conclusion, language experts in Indonesia and other fields need to respond promptly to the rapid development of foreign terms in society. These terms need to be quickly matched with Indonesian equivalents or, if none exist, incorporated into the new vocabulary of the Indonesian language. However, this should be done after consulting experts in the specific field where the term is used. They must diligently seek new entries for the foreign terms that are rapidly developing in the world.