Balinese People as English Learners

Language is a tool of communication; therefore, it is very important thing in order to make good connection with the others. Any kinds of languages can be used to create a communication; it depends on the situation and condition in which the communication is done. The purpose of using the language is the message of the speakers can be delivered successfully; it means that a good communication will be happened as long as the language that is used is understandable and acceptable.

English language is the international language which is applied universal so that it is used in every corner of the world. Whenever and wherever we go around the world, it will be easier if we can speak English. The globalization era requires the Balinese people to be able to use English because Bali is a destination island for the foreigners to enjoy their holiday.

There two terms of Balinese people learn English;

1.      Balinese people who live near the tourism object will be able to use English communicatively (understandable and acceptable) because they are affected by the environment.

2.      Nowadays, in educational environments, the Balinese people are thought English language so that the view “English is difficult” can be changed because they learn English from the basic one. Learning English must be started from the easiest one to build the learners’ understanding about the language. The easiest one is learning the language through vocabulary which will be continued to the longer discourses. (grammatically correct)

Vocabulary → phrases → sentences → paragraphs → discourses

In passing those steps, there will be some appropriate techniques that are used to help the achievement of the learning process by considering the level and the ability of the learners.

            In summary,

The Balinese people who learn from society

→ communicative English > grammatical English

The Balinese people who learn from formal educational environment

→ grammatical English > communicative English

How Balinese English is Different from the Others

In Bali, English is accepted as a foreign language so that it is not directly introduced to the children and it is only known for some communities in the certain areas such as those who live near the tourism objects in Bali. Comparing to any other countries which accept English as their second language, Balinese English is of course different in term of communicative English as we explained before. These differences is not something that just happens, there are some factors that influence these differences such as,

1.      Culture

Culture plays a vital influence in using the language. The more the language is used in daily life the more people are able to use the language.  In Bali, there is not English community, so that Balinese people only speaks English when they need. There is no culture or habitual in using English with other Balinese people.

2.      Acquisition

Because there is no English community in Bali, the acquisition of Balinese people with the English is not perfectly well. For those who learn English formally will  know more about the written English but not the spoken English for they lack of practice, meanwhile, for those who learn from the society will be able to speak well but sometimes they don’t know whether they use the correct English or not.

3.      Society they live in

Society has important influence in learning languages. If English is used in daily life communication, people will be able to speak better; however, if English is only used when they meet with the foreigners, there will be limitation in using English. In Bali, there are only several areas in which English is used in daily communication, especially in tourism areas such as Kuta, Ubud, Sanur, etc. It makes the learning process slower than other countries which use English in their daily life.

4.      Education

Education departments are one of the places to learn languages. In Bali, education departments only focus the introduction of other languages as formal use. It is a good way to understand the pattern of the language but it is hard for the people to use the language communicatively because there are lots of patterns to be followed. Therefore, many people who get formal education could not speak English as good as the one who doesn’t get formal education. 

How Balinese English Looks Like

The varieties happen in almost every language and so does English. English is the international language so that English is widely used. Bali is one of the example in which English is used commonly for communication in daily life because of the tourism influent. As one of the tourism object, Bali has lots of tourists from different places in the world. In order to be able to communicative with these foreigners, English is being used commonly.

There are two kinds of English that is used in Bali, the formal English and the informal English. The formal English is the English that is learned from education institute such as school, university, courses. Meanwhile, the informal English is the communicative English in Bali which is learned from the society they live in. Not many people go to education departments to learn about English because they considered English as a hard subject so it is very seldom to find Balinese people who speak formal English. We will find that most of Balinese people are able to speak English but the English that they use is the communicative English. It means that the English that they use is understandable and acceptable; therefore, there will be some differences in Balinese Communicative English.  These differences will be seen in some aspects:

1.      Grammar

In terms of grammar, Balinese Communicative English is not exactly grammatically correct. It happens in some cases:

o       The time situation

In English grammar the time situation influences the sentences (verbs) but in Bali there is no time situation which can influence the sentences so that when Balinese speaks English some of them sometimes ignore the English time situations. For example:

Balinese people; “I go to Sanur yesterday.”

In correct English; “I went to Sanur yesterday.”

o       Word by word direct translation

Balinese people tend to translate every single word directly with the same forms without considering the meaning. For example:

Balinese people; “Bli, Bli, belinin tyang nggih!” (Balinese language)

Balinese people; “Sir, Sir, buy me please!” (Balinese English)

In correct English, “Sir, would you like to buy this?”

o       The use of to be

Balinese people often use to be ‘is’ in sentences. For example:

Balinese people; “She is go to school”

In correct English; “She goes to school”

o       The use of objective pronoun

Some people can not differentiate the use of objective pronoun. For example:

Balinese people; “I know she”

In correct English; “I know her”

2.      Intonation

Some people say the sentences in different ways with the native speakers. It is influenced by the dialects of the people. So when they speak in English they will say it with their own dialects intonation which shows their origin.

3.      Pronunciation

Balinese people have some difficulty to pronounce some words in English such as the words that consist of ch, th, sh, etc because in Balinese vocabularies we don’t have those. Examples: this, cash, check, etc.

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