Is your language corrupted?

A professional translator was lamenting to me recently. He is upset over the quality of younger translators who think they know their own language, Indonesian, well enough to translate from English to Indonesian orally. However, these youngsters actually don't know their home language well enough to speak a full sentence without using an English word somewhere. What's the problem? They studied in an English-speaking country for a few years and got so used to speaking English that they've forgotten how to string a proper sentence in their home language.

Let me give you some examples.
English speaker: The Gospel cannot be stopped.
Indonesian translator: Injil ini tidak bisa di-stop.

Why use the English word "stop" when you can use the Indonesian word "berhenti"?

Another example:
English speaker: I want to encourage you today.
Indonesian translator: Hari ini, saya mau men-encourage anda.

We feel sorry for the listeners who know no English. How will they understand the entire speech? Will they get anything out of it? Another Indonesian friend said to me that young people in the big cities of Indonesia will be able to understand English words used here and there, but those in the small towns or remote areas will have no clue what is being said. So, for their benefit alone, we should speak proper Indonesian, not corrupted Indonesian.

Language today is evolving. As the world becomes increasingly global and English is widely spoken everywhere, it is inevitable that our native languages end up being peppered with English words, instead of using the correct local equivalent. The question that must be asked then is "how pure can we keep a language?" What is the purpose of language to begin with? Is it simply for communication? If yes, then what form of communication? Written? Oral?

I think everyone will agree that written work should be kept pure, free of foreign words that have a local equivalent. A piece of written work is a formal piece of writing. Apart from typographical errors which must be avoided at all cost, the language used should be pure and unadulterated by foreign words.

If the communication is oral, then so too should be sentences be purely in that language. Do not "Indonesianise" words to make them sound "correct". An example would be in the second example above: "men-encourage". What's that? All the translator did was add the local prefix "men" to the English word "encourage" to make it sound right. Wrong. It just shows his lack of proficiency in the Indonesian language.

As we travel on this journey of language learning, let us do our best to learn a language well. Let us not show our laziness or refusal to go the extra mile, just because. At the end of the journey, we will be able to proudly say, "I can speak (language)!"

You can do it! Happy learning!

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