Living in Harmony through Languages ~ Wonderful Jakarta

Prioritize Bahasa Indonesia, Preserve Our Local Languages, Master the Foreign Languages!

This post is another intermezzo as the previous one, that was inspired by an advice from Ivan Razela Lanin, an expert you can browse if you feel curious to know. I myself think that this post still has its relevancy to this blog :)

Ivan Razela Lanin suggested that we have to prioritize our own language that is Bahasa Indonesia as our official and unifying language, and at the same time to preserve our local languages as well as mastering foreign languages. I think this is a nice campaign ...

Being as a capital of Indonesia makes Jakarta not only inhabited by those who come from various regions all over Indonesia but also by those who come from various countries.

In daily life, I speak three languages namely Minang language when talking with my relatives and friends who come from the same region, also when trying to bargain if the seller comes from West Sumatra, too :)

I speak Bahasa Indonesia for any official occasions besides speaking English when teaching in the classroom.

In addition, I also speak other local languages such as Betawi language that is commonly spoken in Jakarta where I live in, sometimes I speak Sundanese and Javanese, though for these two languages I just understand little and of course I speak and use the terms spoken by those who are called as kids zaman now :)

Getting back to the topic of discussion, I really like and support what Ivan Razela Lanin said due to several reasons but I think they are too long to be discussed here. The point is perhaps that we must continue to keep our pride as Indonesians and at the same time, we remain in tune with the dynamics of times in which most technological developments are still dominated by several foreign languages.

It is not only English that should be mastered, but also several other foreign languages such as Arabic (especially for Muslims to better facilitate the understanding of various Islamic literatures and so on), Japanese, Mandarin, German, French and many more.