Saturday 20 June 2009

Miss Indonesia Needs to Start Studying Bahasa Indonesia?

What would you think if you are introduced to Miss Indonesia in the event of Miss World? Wouldn't you automatically think that she is able to speak Bahasa Indonesia actively and know the Indonesian culture? Wouldn't it funny if Miss Indonesia needs translator to translate question in Indonesian language into English language to be able to understand the question?

We do need to verify if Miss Indonesia 2009 doesn't speak basic Bahasa Indonesia, but journalists were detecting that the crowned Miss Indonesia 2009 needs to start learning how to converse in Bahasa Indonesia and also to know more about Indonesian culture. Yet, the future of bright Indonesian generation would probably similar to Karenina Sunny Halim...they feel more at ease to communicate in English as their mother tongue. The international school label is something that most parents seek now, and that means speaking English or Chinese (Mandarin) language as the communication tool in school. Some family extended it into their home as it is the best way to learn using active language.

We do need the capability to speak other foreign language as a skill, but we should not forget our own language. This is the issue I raised in wikimu

I do not really get the feed back I'd like to have from wikimu readers, but posting it to Face Book gained me some comments. There is a friend who said that women should be smart, not only beautiful. She compare this case to Manohara Pinot, the Indonesian model who married the Prince from Kelantan. She said that the model is pretty but did not smart enough to avoid being abused by her husband.

I think the case is not about being beauty and not smart. I believed that the juries picked Karenina for her beauty, brain, and behaviour. Yet, brain is not similar to nationalism. During her twenty three year lifetime, she could not speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently, and all the sudden she said that bahasa Indonesia is easy to learn...she'll use the six months period before Miss World event to learn all the Indonesian thing. This cause a JP readers' snapped "Why don't we hire a foreigner to be Miss Indonesia?"

I did not write anything about Manohara. First, I don't really know the real fact. Then, household abused happened everywhere. Yet, it is not a matter of being smart or not. Women can make a bad choice for their partner in life, so does an underage girl of course!

3 comments:

krismariana widyaningsih said...

from my experience as editor, i think just a few people that are able to write in indonesian language. sometimes i have to work hard if i have to edit text from indonesian writers. i think that poor ability to use indonesian language in writing also reflects poor ability in verbal one.

Fian said...

Spot on, me and my friends consider cinta laura and the kind as laughing stock, and there is nothing to do with her sense of humour. And it really sad the one who represent us only skin deep indonesian. But i guess there's something to do with our self pride (and economy).
And why are we write in english now?

Retty Hakim (a.k.a. Maria Margaretta Vivijanti) said...

Pertanyaan menarik Ari, karena saya sendiri sebenarnya lebih suka menulis dalam bahasa Indonesia. Tapi masalahnya saya ingin ada komunikasi dengan orang luar negeri. Terus terang saya menganggap google translator belum sanggup menerjemahkan tulisan bahasa Indonesia ke dalam bahasa Inggris (secara tepat dalam konteks yang ingin saya sampaikan). Bahkan tulisan saya sendiripun terkadang masih harus saya perjelas kepada rekan pembaca supaya tidak salah mengerti artinya.

Bahasa memang merupakan satu paket dengan budaya. Karena itu pekerjaan menerjemahkan juga tidak semudah memindahkan satu kata ke dalam kata lain dari tata bahasa yang berbeda.