Indonesia is the largest archipelago state in the world. Each region in Indonesia have their own culture and tradition. This culture includes local language.
There are more than 700 languages spoken in Indonesia. This number does not include extinct languages or languages that are not spoken by the people anymore.
Although Indonesia has one national language, Indonesian language, most people there still speak their own local language, mostly in daily conversation, especially in the small cities or villages.
Most people that live in big cities such as Jakarta or Bandung use Indonesian language. They rarely use local language. However, they sometimes use several words from their local language.
Most spoken local language in Indonesia is Javanese people. Many regions in Indonesia use Javanese language, for example Central Java, East Java, and Yogyakarta. Even in different place, the Javanese language that they use is slightly different in the dialects and several words. Other most spoken local languages in Indonesia are Sundanese, Minang, Batak, and Betawi.
If local language is often used in Indonesia, you might be curious about whether they learn local language at school or not. Here, in this article we will explain about the answer to that question.
Indonesian people, including the government have the awareness and mission to preserve their local language. They personally teach their kids about local language at home. In the school subject, there is also local language lesson. The language is different in each region depending on the local language in that region. For example, schools in Central Java teach Javanese language while school in West Java teach Sundanese language. However, this rule is only applied to public schools. For private schools, they have their own rules so some of them no including local language in their lesson.
Several people even want to include other region local language in the curriculum. This is because Indonesia has so many local languages. With this method, Javanese people, for example, can also learn about Sundanese language.
Learning about local language at school can be easier for people that used to speak local language in their daily conversation. However, for people that rarely use local language, they can face some difficulty. Even so, the students should not afraid of it. The local language teacher will be very helpful and ready to encourage the students.
Learning local language in Indonesia is not scary. It actually very fun and interesting. Some local languages have their own alphabet, so the students will learn about this new alphabet. They also will learn about the grammar, vocabulary, listening, conversation, and even local traditional song.
Read more about local language in Indonesia:
How many languages are there in Indonesia?
What are the major languages spoken in Indonesia?
Read more about Indonesian language:
Indonesian heritage and language literature
Indonesian word derivation
Indonesian language abbreviations
That’s all about the answer for question “do Indonesian learn local language at school”. Thank you for reading. I hope the information will be helpful for you.