Make English mandatory as 2nd language

I did 2 years researching the problems schools have with their English programs.

OUCH!!!!!

Hello mister, how are you, that's about their whole vocabulary. Children's brains are like sponges, if you give them all decent English teachers at an early age they would all speak decent English in no time. Seems like a no brainer to me, but apparently I am missing something as its not happening.

You're missing a lot, and none of it is good for Indonesia.
China, being ruddy great at what they do (regardless of who likes and dislikes it) smashed English into schools and made sure as many Chinese students as possible went to foreign universities.
China has done a lot in the last 20 years going from a peasant farming economy to probably the best capitalists in the world.
It hardly matters who loves or hates what they did, but the end result matters a lot.
There's absolutely nothing stopping Indonesia going down the same road and giving this country a massive boost because of it.
I want to see English in KG as soon as possible.

Some arguments against it are silly - Kids can't learn 2 languages.
Tell the javanese that when almost all kids are fluent in two languages as soon as they can talk.

I met an 18 year old girl from Malaysia, pretty average sort of brain but she could speak 7 languages. 5 is the norm in her village (I've visited).

Others are nationalistic arguments about having a foreign language and not pushing Indonesian as a world language. These are less than bright as there's no reason for the world to speak Indonesian. Speak English, get the business here, then you have a reason for foreigners to learn the language.
I'm a lot nationalistic and I say the national good means teaching English because that will push Indonesia onto the world stage in more than a few fields.
Our president is there in the G20, but we don't have enough English speakers to take full advantage.

Now look at Japan, a country that rejects English but has to bring foreign English speakers in to work as pilots and so on because their people can't speak English.

Malaysia messed up their English program so can't find locals able to conduct business in the Golden Triange - The twits have to hire foreigners to do what they should have been able to do with ease.

Then we come to the boost tourism would get.

Time will tell if Indonesia will continue to be a sleeping giant, or finally weak up and make a significant leap forward. Big advantage for China (and Singapore) is the one-party system where they had a vision decades ago with clear goals for short- medium- and long term, and have been working ever since in that direction without deviating, that's just unfortunately not likely to happen in Indonesia with multiple parties, changing governments and changing priorities.

The government is really pushing to become a center for Lithium ion battery and EV manufacturing.
Add they are trying to bring renewable energy in as an alternative to dirty generation and you have a lot of potential.

As for the undiscovered country - I'm short of a crystal ball.

What did you find out?

I'll dig my notes out later and post details

Went i was young, actually there are English lessons at the elementary school stage.  I started getting English lessons starting in 6th grade of elementary school.  Unfortunately it's just like a side lesson.  not the main thing.  I can say that from elementary school, junior high, to high school, not all English teachers can master English well.  Maybe in some schools it's good enough.  But not all get English lessons well.  I started practicing English a lot after I graduated from high school.  Where I work in a hotel in the Jakarta area.  But now there are many schools that provide good English lessons.  Many children are already proficient in English.  I hope that it will continue to grow in the future.

bennl wrote:

Time will tell if Indonesia will continue to be a sleeping giant, or finally weak up and make a significant leap forward. Big advantage for China (and Singapore) is the one-party system where they had a vision decades ago with clear goals for short- medium- and long term, and have been working ever since in that direction without deviating, that's just unfortunately not likely to happen in Indonesia with multiple parties, changing governments and changing priorities.

Yes, my country should be a rich country.  But unfortunately we cannot cultivate the wealth of our own resources.  Not because it's impossible.  But many people are concerned with their own wealth.  So that many resources are sold abroad.  Actually in my country there are also many great scientists.  But these great scientists were prevented from working in their own country.  Many of them end up working abroad.  To fix this situation is quite complicated.  Because too many people commit fraud in their own country.  I hope someday we can move forward.

Well, the greed here certainly knows no boundaries. I don't really understand how anyone here can drive around in an outrageous expensive car and sleep well at night considering the poverty all around, it tells me that the small group of very rich displaying their wealth don't give a &*%$#@

I have priority cards for my banks so I wait for a teller in a nice armchair with waiter served coffee .
However, I drive a 7 year old car, mostly hang around in shorts and a T shirt, and try to be reasonable to people I meet.
It isn't cash, it's attitude.

Then you don't qualify for the &@$%#* I was referring to

bennl wrote:

Then you don't qualify for the &@$%#* I was referring to

I've seen that horrible behaviour way too many times.

Status/ showing off is important in many countries on earth, but I think I can safely say that Indonesia is in the top 5!

bennl wrote:

Status/ showing off is important in many countries on earth, but I think I can safely say that Indonesia is in the top 5!

But the truth is showing off is what a lot of people like.  for example on social media.  Content that contains elements of showing off has more viewers.  But many who present simplicity are even less interested.  therefore more and more people are showing off for the sake of a content. 😥

I'm talking way before the social media wacko's, the influencers, and all the other bs of which Zuckerberg and his goons are making billions, spreading hate and lies without any repercussions. What they have in common is that they have no moral compass, endless greed, and no social responsibility.

***

@lukaszapadlo  seriously? It is not allowed to help indonesian students to extend their knowledge of English language?

Hello Lukaszapadlo,

If you want to promote a business, you can register it in the Indonesia business directory or contact the marketing department. The forum should stay free from commercial ads.

Marketing : https://www.expat.com/en/advertisement.html

All the best,

Bhavna