Bad Indonesian

Wednesday (11/01) was an ordinary day save for one comment that became the higlight of my day.

This morning I had a job supervising an Academic English Proficiency Test (AcEPT) exam on campus. As per usual, I had to read a two-page instruction before the exam started. It was all in Indonesian except for the titles of the sections. An easy job, to be honest. I just had to make sure that I read it clearly at a comfortable pace.

After the exam, one of the test-takers approached me. She was a woman in her 30s pursuing a post-doctoral study at the university. I thought that she was going to ask me when the result would be announced, as many others have before her, but I was wrong. 

This woman, whose name I didn't get to find out, came up to me to offer me a compliment. She told me that I spoke English very well, for which I thanked her. She also asked if I had ever lived abroad (in an English-speaking country, I assumed), to which I said no. She looked surprised. Then, she said something like, "I thought you must have lived abroad at one point, because your English was really good. Your Indonesian, not so much. But your English was good."

For a moment, I didn't know how to respond to that.

I've heard people offering favorable comments on my accent when speaking English -- international accent is what they call it. But I've never heard anyone saying I didn't speak Indonesian as well as I speak English. Considering the fact that I am Indonesian, and that I teach Indonesian, I really didn't know how I should feel about this woman's comment. I mean, for one, I was amused. But I didn't know whether I shoud take her comment as a compliment or a criticism.

Also, the only phrases I spoke in English was: "Part One: Listening Comprehension", "Part Two: Vocabulary", "Part Three: Grammar and Structure", "Part Four: Reading Comprehension", and "Part Five: Composing Skills". Fifteen English words, with no element of grammar, compared to my proper and formal Indonesian, and still she concluded that my English was better than my Indonesian.

So, I decided to clarify what she meant. It turned out, she gave me that comment because she thought I spoke English with no accent, but I spoke Indonesian with a thick Javanese accent.

Naturally, I held back a laugh and thanked her. But, to be honest, I felt sorry for her. Why would she think my Indonesian is unsatisfactory just because of my accent? What is the proper Indonesian accent, anyway? I thought to myself, this was one of the people who thought lowly of traditional values and cultures -- one of the people that contributed in the dying out of local languages because they thought local everything was ndesa.

Still, I find her comment funny. And I hope that someone manage to knock some sense into her by the time she graduated.