By Prof. Dr. Bustami Subhan, M.S.
Once, an amateur tourist guide who was also a foreign language (English) student in Yogyakarta felt embarrassed because he received an unsympathetic response from a tourist whom he greeted on the street. At a glance, the amateur guide had a fairly good English mastery because his sentence was grammatical and his pronunciation was good enough. However, how could it be?
While a tourist was riding a bike, the tourist guide followed him giving a greeting “Where are you going, Sir”. Without looking back, the tourist continued riding his bike and said, ”Mind your business!” (It means “take care of your own job” or “Urusi dirimu sendiri”). Feeling embarrassed, the amateur tourist guide stopped running and went to a shady place.
If we analyze the event we can say that the tourist guide did not make a grammatical mistake in his sentence. However, he made a mistake that was related to cultural aspect(s). In Indonesian culture, the question “Mau ke mana, Pak?” or “Mau ke mana, Bu?” becomes a flexible (accepted) greeting that can be addressed to a man or a woman, even though the man or woman is not known before. To Indonesians, the greeting “Mau ke mana, Pak?” which can be translated into “Where are you going, Sir?” sounds natural and flexible. This is due to the fact that people from different parts of Indonesia use the similar sentence in their regional languages such as ”Badhe tindak pundi, Pak?” (Javanese), “Badhe angkat ka mana, Pak?” (Sundanese), “Mau kemane, Pak?”(Jakartanese), and “Pai kama, Pak?” (Minangkabaunese).
In contrast, the tourist did not have the same cultural background with that of the tourist guide. In England and America, the question “Where are you going?” is an impolite greeting because it can be interpreted as intruding someone’s privacy. It is known that in western countries human rights and freedom are highly valued. There is no wonder that the response to the question “Where are you going” is “Mind your business!”.
In order to make the foreign language learners able to speak English grammatically and appropriately, two linguists from America, namely, Charles Fries and Robert Lado in Linguistics Across Cultures (l957) say that the most effective teaching materials are those which are based on the systematic comparison between the language of the learner (L1) and the target language (L2 or the language to be acquired by the students).
According to Fries and Lado, foreign language learners tend to transfer the system of their native language (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and accent) into the target language when they communicate both in spoken and written form. Consequently, foreign language teachers must be able to present their teaching materials in such a way that the learners can really understand and master the rules of the target language as to how to express their ideas and feelings (which are usually made in L1).
Based on the comparison between L1 and L2, there will be similarities and differences. Similarities will bring easiness, whereas the differences will bring problems or difficulties. Problems or difficulties must be solved and solving problems needs time (teaching hours). There is another assumption that the degree of difficulty will vary among the learners of English in the world. Moreover, the learners of English in the world have different cultural backgrounds.
As an illustration, the difficulty of Indonesian learners of English will be different from that of German, French, Dutch, or Italian learners of English. Conversely, Indonesian students will find it easier to study Malay language than the German, the Dutch, the French or the Italian do. Indonesian is close to Malay language because the two languages came from the same source.
Cultural Aspect
After quoting Fries’ idea, Robert Lado asserts that teachers of a foreign language should also pay attention to the cultural aspects of the two languages being compared. To be able to speak a foreign language correctly and appropriately, foreign language learners need to understand the native speakers’ culture.
Lado gives an illustration that the response coming from three different people (American, Spanish, and Mexican) watching a matador against a bull in Spain will be different. To Americans, the duel between a matador and a bull is a show of force action; the bull is basically a weak animal and the matador is a strong person who is ready to fight and kill the bull. Because a bull is usually killed in the arena, the fight between a bull and a matador has negative connotation to American spectators. The matador is regarded as a fierce killer. Unlike American spectators, the Spanish people will regard the fight between a matador and a bull as a positive event. Bull fighting is regarded as an interesting sport and entertainment. The bull fighting between the matador and the bull symbolizes the triumph of art (strategy) towards brutality (or uncontrolled power).
The Mexicans who have learned the Spanish culture (because their country had been colonized by the Spaniards) will tend to react in the same way as the Spanish. Coming back to the story, the two people will feel surprised to see the American spectator react negatively towards the killing of the bull by the matador.
Lack of cross-cultural understanding will make people produce inappropriate sentences. Non-Javanese students coming from different parts of Indonesia often make mistakes when they communicate in Javanese. They speak “ngoko” (low level of Javanese) to respected people (such as senior lecturers, deans, rectors etc.). They think that “ngoko” or the low variety of Javanese is also applicable to be used to the respected people. Ngoko is suitable to be used to speak with friends or people whom we are familiar with. Another funny thing is that the foreigners who learn “krama inggil” (high variety of Javanese) often use it to communicate with becak drivers or children. “Krama inggil” should be used to speak with respected people in Java.
Sapir-Whorf
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf (two American experts in linguistics and culture) say that language can either help or hinder the native speakers in perceiving the world. Subhan (1989) writes that Javanese will say that cocks utter “kluruk” because to the Javanese hears the sound of cocks is “kukluruuk”. In contrast, the sound of cocks is “kongkorongok” for the Sundanese, “kukukukuruyuk” for the Sumatranese, and “cock-a-doodle-doo” for the English.
From the illustration above, we can conclude that “the world” seen or portrayed by different nations is different. This is due to the different native languages that they master. Before learning English, an Indonesian learner of English will find it difficult to accept the positive concept of “hostess” (as the owner of the house or party) because the word hostess in Indonesian has a negative connotation (=a high class prostitute).
English people will find it surprised to hear that the concept of brother, sister, uncle and aunt are not clear yet for the Javanese. Age is not so important for the English, but for the Javanese, age is very important. The difference in age brings the difference in meaning as found in the words: kakang-adhi, bulik-budhe, paklik (paman)-uwa (pakdhe).
Language and culture are closely related. Language can reflect the culture of a nation including the way people perceive the world. The Eskimos who are surrounded by ice and snow will have more words to describe the two objects. The same thing will be applied to the Egyptians and the Arabs who are familiar with sand, the Finish who are familiar with lakes, the Pacific people whom are familiar with sea water, and the tribes in Tibet who are familiar with high mountains.
The system of speech level (undha usuk) in Javanese should bring researchers to find the system of level in Javanese society (the high, the middle, and the low rank). There is also an interesting phenomenon in Javanese society. People differentiate the word drag into “njambak” (on the hair), “njiwit” (on the skin), “njewer” (on the ear), “nyiwel” (on the stomach), “nggondhol” (drag all), etc. This means that the Javanese like paying attention on details.
The English people are said to pay more attention on plurality and tenses because they express their culture(s) in words and sentences that show differences between singular, plural, and uncountable nouns and between present, past and future.
From all descriptions above, we can conclude that cross-cultural understanding is important to be studied by foreign language learners and foreign language teachers. A good speech is the one that is grammatically correct, correctly pronounced, and culturally acceptable or appropriate (*Subhan, 2003:66-71)
Reference
Subhan, bustami. 2003. Children Language Acquisition and ELT. Yogyakarta: LPPDMF.
__________. 1989.”Pemahaman Lintas Budaya dalam Pengajaran Bahasa Asing”. An article published in Kedaulatan Rakyat Yogyakarta.
Once, an amateur tourist guide who was also a foreign language (English) student in Yogyakarta felt embarrassed because he received an unsympathetic response from a tourist whom he greeted on the street. At a glance, the amateur guide had a fairly good English mastery because his sentence was grammatical and his pronunciation was good enough. However, how could it be?
While a tourist was riding a bike, the tourist guide followed him giving a greeting “Where are you going, Sir”. Without looking back, the tourist continued riding his bike and said, ”Mind your business!” (It means “take care of your own job” or “Urusi dirimu sendiri”). Feeling embarrassed, the amateur tourist guide stopped running and went to a shady place.
If we analyze the event we can say that the tourist guide did not make a grammatical mistake in his sentence. However, he made a mistake that was related to cultural aspect(s). In Indonesian culture, the question “Mau ke mana, Pak?” or “Mau ke mana, Bu?” becomes a flexible (accepted) greeting that can be addressed to a man or a woman, even though the man or woman is not known before. To Indonesians, the greeting “Mau ke mana, Pak?” which can be translated into “Where are you going, Sir?” sounds natural and flexible. This is due to the fact that people from different parts of Indonesia use the similar sentence in their regional languages such as ”Badhe tindak pundi, Pak?” (Javanese), “Badhe angkat ka mana, Pak?” (Sundanese), “Mau kemane, Pak?”(Jakartanese), and “Pai kama, Pak?” (Minangkabaunese).
In contrast, the tourist did not have the same cultural background with that of the tourist guide. In England and America, the question “Where are you going?” is an impolite greeting because it can be interpreted as intruding someone’s privacy. It is known that in western countries human rights and freedom are highly valued. There is no wonder that the response to the question “Where are you going” is “Mind your business!”.
In order to make the foreign language learners able to speak English grammatically and appropriately, two linguists from America, namely, Charles Fries and Robert Lado in Linguistics Across Cultures (l957) say that the most effective teaching materials are those which are based on the systematic comparison between the language of the learner (L1) and the target language (L2 or the language to be acquired by the students).
According to Fries and Lado, foreign language learners tend to transfer the system of their native language (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and accent) into the target language when they communicate both in spoken and written form. Consequently, foreign language teachers must be able to present their teaching materials in such a way that the learners can really understand and master the rules of the target language as to how to express their ideas and feelings (which are usually made in L1).
Based on the comparison between L1 and L2, there will be similarities and differences. Similarities will bring easiness, whereas the differences will bring problems or difficulties. Problems or difficulties must be solved and solving problems needs time (teaching hours). There is another assumption that the degree of difficulty will vary among the learners of English in the world. Moreover, the learners of English in the world have different cultural backgrounds.
As an illustration, the difficulty of Indonesian learners of English will be different from that of German, French, Dutch, or Italian learners of English. Conversely, Indonesian students will find it easier to study Malay language than the German, the Dutch, the French or the Italian do. Indonesian is close to Malay language because the two languages came from the same source.
Cultural Aspect
After quoting Fries’ idea, Robert Lado asserts that teachers of a foreign language should also pay attention to the cultural aspects of the two languages being compared. To be able to speak a foreign language correctly and appropriately, foreign language learners need to understand the native speakers’ culture.
Lado gives an illustration that the response coming from three different people (American, Spanish, and Mexican) watching a matador against a bull in Spain will be different. To Americans, the duel between a matador and a bull is a show of force action; the bull is basically a weak animal and the matador is a strong person who is ready to fight and kill the bull. Because a bull is usually killed in the arena, the fight between a bull and a matador has negative connotation to American spectators. The matador is regarded as a fierce killer. Unlike American spectators, the Spanish people will regard the fight between a matador and a bull as a positive event. Bull fighting is regarded as an interesting sport and entertainment. The bull fighting between the matador and the bull symbolizes the triumph of art (strategy) towards brutality (or uncontrolled power).
The Mexicans who have learned the Spanish culture (because their country had been colonized by the Spaniards) will tend to react in the same way as the Spanish. Coming back to the story, the two people will feel surprised to see the American spectator react negatively towards the killing of the bull by the matador.
Lack of cross-cultural understanding will make people produce inappropriate sentences. Non-Javanese students coming from different parts of Indonesia often make mistakes when they communicate in Javanese. They speak “ngoko” (low level of Javanese) to respected people (such as senior lecturers, deans, rectors etc.). They think that “ngoko” or the low variety of Javanese is also applicable to be used to the respected people. Ngoko is suitable to be used to speak with friends or people whom we are familiar with. Another funny thing is that the foreigners who learn “krama inggil” (high variety of Javanese) often use it to communicate with becak drivers or children. “Krama inggil” should be used to speak with respected people in Java.
Sapir-Whorf
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf (two American experts in linguistics and culture) say that language can either help or hinder the native speakers in perceiving the world. Subhan (1989) writes that Javanese will say that cocks utter “kluruk” because to the Javanese hears the sound of cocks is “kukluruuk”. In contrast, the sound of cocks is “kongkorongok” for the Sundanese, “kukukukuruyuk” for the Sumatranese, and “cock-a-doodle-doo” for the English.
From the illustration above, we can conclude that “the world” seen or portrayed by different nations is different. This is due to the different native languages that they master. Before learning English, an Indonesian learner of English will find it difficult to accept the positive concept of “hostess” (as the owner of the house or party) because the word hostess in Indonesian has a negative connotation (=a high class prostitute).
English people will find it surprised to hear that the concept of brother, sister, uncle and aunt are not clear yet for the Javanese. Age is not so important for the English, but for the Javanese, age is very important. The difference in age brings the difference in meaning as found in the words: kakang-adhi, bulik-budhe, paklik (paman)-uwa (pakdhe).
Language and culture are closely related. Language can reflect the culture of a nation including the way people perceive the world. The Eskimos who are surrounded by ice and snow will have more words to describe the two objects. The same thing will be applied to the Egyptians and the Arabs who are familiar with sand, the Finish who are familiar with lakes, the Pacific people whom are familiar with sea water, and the tribes in Tibet who are familiar with high mountains.
The system of speech level (undha usuk) in Javanese should bring researchers to find the system of level in Javanese society (the high, the middle, and the low rank). There is also an interesting phenomenon in Javanese society. People differentiate the word drag into “njambak” (on the hair), “njiwit” (on the skin), “njewer” (on the ear), “nyiwel” (on the stomach), “nggondhol” (drag all), etc. This means that the Javanese like paying attention on details.
The English people are said to pay more attention on plurality and tenses because they express their culture(s) in words and sentences that show differences between singular, plural, and uncountable nouns and between present, past and future.
From all descriptions above, we can conclude that cross-cultural understanding is important to be studied by foreign language learners and foreign language teachers. A good speech is the one that is grammatically correct, correctly pronounced, and culturally acceptable or appropriate (*Subhan, 2003:66-71)
Reference
Subhan, bustami. 2003. Children Language Acquisition and ELT. Yogyakarta: LPPDMF.
__________. 1989.”Pemahaman Lintas Budaya dalam Pengajaran Bahasa Asing”. An article published in Kedaulatan Rakyat Yogyakarta.
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