How does English influence Indonesia's economic growth? Furthermore, how can students of English Literature contribute to Indonesia's economy? This is an essay I made for my department's writing competition (in the 3rd semester) with the theme English Language. If you are interested, read on!
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Language is an essential part of a nation. As stated by James W. Tollefson, language is one of the fundamental forces that unifies individuals and gives them a collective identity. It is like a net, connecting different individuals into a giant map of integration. Without language, people will not be able to communicate or convey their ideas, like what you and I do everyday. Language holds a crucial place in every country, and the excellence of it is really needed when an economic trade is in the process.
The only thing that needs to be questioned is the readiness of a country in facing this stage. What if that certain country fails to obtain the most essential tool of economic trade—the international language? This is what our country, Indonesia, is currently experiencing. Indonesia has insufficient ability in mastering the English language to compete with other foreign investors, especially with countries that are affiliated with ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). In my personal opinion, Indonesia needs to excel in the English language field in order to compete in ASEAN’s international economic trade.
For the readers who know my background, you may wonder why a student of English Literature like me writes about the relation of the english language with our country’s economics. Well, the reason is very simple. As Indonesians, we need to be aware of what our country is experiencing financially and that we can help to solve it together. It doesn’t mean that by being a student of literature doesn’t have anything to do with economics. Actually, it’s the other way around. Later as you read on, you will see when we will enter the picture.
Before getting to the problem, let’s take a look at what AEC is. The goal of the AEC is to further regional economic integration. It aims to accomplish this by freeing up the flow of goods, services, investment, and skilled labor, and allowing freer movement of capital. This will establish a single market and production base in the Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN (Losari and Koesnaidi, 2013). In other words, AEC allows the southeast asia countries and Indonesia to trade with each other easily, either by facilitating the investors, making the import taxes free or sending skilled workers into the country Indonesia is working with. That’s why nowadays you often observe so many foreign people or investors are pouring in, even various famous overseas corporation (whose names I will not mention) are opening themselves in Indonesia.
Indonesia has AEC running in the country since December 31, 2015 or the beginning of 2016. Seven sectors of workforce had been opened for Indonesia, which are the medical field, nursing field, engineering field, dentistry field, accounting field, survey personnel field and tourism field.
Indonesia was only able to master 2 out of these seven sectors.
That fact above is actually quite shocking. Come to think of it, our country will have more than 260 million population by this year as predicted by the statistic body belonging to the government. What’s more, Indonesia will have 290 population by the year 2050—which already adds 30 million people only in the gap of 33 years. You can see that our country is the main target for foreign investments since there are so many people living in here. But what I’m trying to say is that, how come such a big, potential country failed to dominate all the seven sectors offered by AEC?
Here is the answer. It turned out that Indonesia’s workforce aren’t well equipped yet with the ability and fluency to master the English language. As it is reported by Antara News’ editor, Ade Marboen, the Indonesian professional workers’ international language usage and thinking skills only reached up to 44 percent and 33 percent. This is quite a big deal since other countries such as Malaysia and Thailand are also competing along with Indonesia in the sector of dentistry, while Singapore in accounting. If Indonesia fails to go after other country’s standards in mastering English, she will lose grip in these two sectors that holds the main wheel of Indonesia’s economics in the Southeast Asia.
On December 2016, EF English First Global announced that Indonesia ranked the 32nd position out of 72 countries while participating in the global survey of English Proficiency Index—EPI (Tribun News, 2016).
It is a shock that Indonesia only scored 52.91 in the EF EPI test, unsuccessful to reach the Top 15 English speaking countries which includes Malaysia, Philippines and even Vietnam that ranked number 31.
This recent results proved that Indonesia is not ready yet to face the sudden wave of economic globalization.
Personally for me, I view that the English language has not become a culture in Indonesia. It’s really different when I come to visit the Philippines, because almost everyone can speak the international language although their economic stability is below Indonesia’s (no offense). It is also the same case like Malaysia or Singapore (except that our economic condition is now below them). These countries all have something in common—they are greatly influenced by prominent, English-speaking nations. “Culture is both a product and a producer of language. Likewise, language is a product and a producer of culture,” said Daniel Everett in his book, Language: A Cultural Tool. The English language is something that needs to be started in Indonesia.
This is where we, as students of English Literature, can enter the picture to contribute to Indonesia’s readiness in facing the economic globalization. How can the english-speaking culture be established in our country? There are several things that can help us contribute to Indonesia’s ability in mastering the international language.
We need to be aware that an early English language education makes a great impact, and we can be a part of it. There is a great difference between children who learn english since kindergarten and children who learn it when they are in elementary or junior high. Michael Gove, a Secretary of States for Education (coming from the British Conservative Party), states that children should be taught foreign languages from the age of 5. This is one of the character of an advanced country. I agree with him because my parents taught me english since I was about that age. They encouraged me to write journal entries everyday or buy me english books. Now I feel its benefit and can write this essay because I’m used to that language already. Can you imagine, what will happen to Indonesia now if there are 260 million people in this country who has been brought up the same way as me? We will be fully fit to compete with other AEC countries. What Indonesia need is more people to teach and help the young generation to master this langue, and as English Literature students, we are definitely qualified to be a part of it.
English is a matter of lifestyle. We meet english everywhere when we open our phone, when we are looking for references, when we communicate with foreign people or even when we work in the office. It is no longer seen as a privilege belonging to those who are able to obtain it, but it is now a mandatory need for everyone. With the globalization hitting our era, it is nearly impossible to eliminate it since it is spoken as a first language by around 400 million people around the world (as stated by British Study Centres School of English). This is the reason why we need to build the english speaking culture starting by using it daily with the people around us and familiarize ourselves with it.
We want to see Indonesia grow and to compete excellently with other countries in ASEAN’s international economic trade. Several may think that using the language of the mother tongue is enough, but it is not. “Only 8 percent of the Indonesians can speak english properly and correctly. (She) is a developing country and still have to follow the international world that makes english as the international language... it means that if a nation is able to speak english, they can communicate with other nations that will result an economic growth, education growth and technology progress,” quoted Ignatius Untung, the Marketing Director of English First. That is how language works as the main propeller of a nation’s growth.
If we want to see change and progress in our country, let us start doing what we can. It is no coincidence that we are in the English Literature department. I believe that by giving the best of us, we are able to contribute to our nation. As stated before, we are given the chance to take part in teaching the international language to the younger generation or helping to establish the english speaking culture. We can conclude that by mastering the english language, Indonesia will be able to go beyond the international economic boundaries and be a part of the modern globalization.
References
Tollefson, James W. 2013. Language Policies in Education. New York: Routledge
Everett, Daniel. Language: The Cultural Tool. London: Profile, 2012. Print.
Gunawan, Hendra. “Kemampuan Bahasa Inggris Masyarakat Indonesia Masih Rendah.” Tribun News. Web. 9 December. 2016.
Sanusi. “Bahasa Inggris Bisa Jadi Kendala Indonesia untuk Hadapi MEA.” Tribun Bisnis. Web. 26 September. 2014. <http://www.tribunnews.com/bisnis/2014/09/26/bahasa-inggris-bisa-jadi-kendala-indonesia-untuk-hadapi-mea>.
KEMENKEU. “Free Trade Agreement (FTA) dan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), dan Pengaruhnya terhadap Arus Perdagangan dan Investasi dengan Negara Mitra.” Kementrian Keuangan Republik Indonesia. Web. 24 October. 2013. <https://www.kemenkeu.go.id/Kajian/free-trade-agreement-fta-dan-economic-partnership-agreement-epa-dan-pengaruhnya-terhadap-arus>.
Wintour, Patrick. “Michael Gove Proposes Teaching Foreign Languages from Age Five.” The Guardian. Web. 30 September. 2011. <https://www.kemenkeu.go.id/Kajian/free-trade-agreement-fta-dan-economic-partnership-agreement-epa-dan-pengaruhnya-terhadap-arus>.
Losari, Junianto James. “Is Indonesia Up for the ASEAN Economic Community 2015?”. Asia Regional Integration Center. Web. 18 June. 2013. <https://aric.adb.org/blog/is-indonesia-up-for-the-asean-economic-community-2015>.
HEN/HDS. “JK: Masyarakat Ekonomi ASEAN Berlaku 31 Desember 2015.” Detik Finance. Web. 30 January. 2015. <https://finance.detik.com/berita-ekonomi-bisnis/2819778/jk-masyarakat-ekonomi-asean-berlaku-31-desember-2015>.
BSC. “10 Reasons to Learn English.” British Study Centres. Web. 23 July. 2013. <https://www.british-study.com/blog/2013/07/10-reasons-to-learn-english/>.
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