Learn Indonesian

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Ending slips between tongue and lip

By Matthew Moore, Sydney Morning Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
August 26, 2003

For years the Indonesian Government has made school students learn
English. Now it's toying with a new policy - requiring all foreigners to
learn Indonesian. About 30,000 expatriates who live in Indonesia could
soon find themselves swotting for language exams if the Ministry of
National Education gets its way and begins testing all present and future
foreign workers and students.

In a country where many foreigners get by with big smiles, phrase-book
greetings and the locals' knowledge of English, the plan to award each of
them a standardised Indonesian-language score out of 900 might seem
ambitious. But the ministry's language centre is geared up for the task.
It wants to strengthen Indonesian as an international tongue and make it
easier for foreigners to communicate with locals.

And it has produced the blueprint to make this happen. It has nominated
test registration centres across the country, from remote Papua to wartorn
Aceh to the forests of Kalimantan. It has printed brochures explaining the
plan and what candidates must bring on exam day: a 2B pencil, a sharpener
and a rubber. It has devised a seven-band results system that ranges from
816-900 marks for those with "impeccable communicative proficiency" down
to 162-246 for those with "very inadequate communicative proficiency" - a
person who "is only ready to communicate for survival purposes".

Although the Government has yet to sign off on the plan, the fees for each
test, which range between $30 and $40, have been set and the bank account
where the money should be sent is already open. The head of the language
centre, Dendy Sugono, said if foreigners fail the test they will not be
kicked out of the country: they will just have to go away and study. His
centre will offer them courses, for a fee, and there will be no
restrictions on the number of times a student can attempt a test. Ten
times would be no problem, although at 135 minutes a test that could prove
wearing.

Dr Sugono was sensitive to the suggestion that compulsory Indonesian exams
might discourage foreign investment, and said attempts would be made to
prevent that happening. The idea behind the plan was to stop English
undermining Indonesian as globalisation saw the growing use of English in
many specialised and technical areas.

This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/25/1061663742206.html