Mrs. Wu (Javanese)

 

 

Birth place:

Lampung (South Sumatra, Indonesia)

Native language (L1): 

Javanese (parental language)

Status of L1: 

Low in Indonesia

Language(s) spoken other than L1: 

Indonesian (L2)

Cantonese (L3)

Duration of residence in Hong Kong: 

10 years

Time spent learning Cantonese: 

2 year to achieve the proficiency for daily communication

Occasions of using the languages: 

Javanese (with Javanese Indonesians)

Indonesian (with non-Javanese Indonesians)

Cantonese (with husband, Hongkongers)

Number of children: 

1 daughter (3 years old) and 1 son (1.5 years old)

 

Teaching the children her second language

 

Mrs. Wu is the owner of an Indonesian store in Hong Kong. According to her, most Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong are Javanese and her mother tongue is widely spoken here in Hong Kong. At home, she uses both Indonesian and Cantonese with her children. Though her husband, a Cantonese-speaking Hongkonger, only knows very little Indonesian and does not know Javanese at all, want their children to be able to speak Indonesian. Now, her daughter speaks Cantonese and Indonesian to her and sometimes she code-mixes the two languages in her speech. She likes Indonesian more than Cantonese as Mrs. Lai always plays Indonesian music at home and at the store. Yet, her Indonesian is far from being fully competent at this stage.

 

Mrs. Wu said she would not teach her daughter Javanese as is not very useful, because it is only spoken in Javanese-speaking regions such as Central and East Java; Indonesian is a lot more useful because it is the official language of Indonesia which is spoken widely throughout the country. However, Mrs. Wu thinks that Cantonese and English are more useful for her school life at present, she would like her daughter to acquire them first and will gradually teach her Indonesian. Mrs. Wu will continue to use Indonesian with her children as she wants them to be able to distinguish different languages. Indeed, knowing Indonesian enables them to communicate with people in Indonesia and Malaysia, as Malay is very similar to Indonesian.

 

A low status of mother tongue in Indonesia

 

In contrast with Indonesian, Javanese is not valued highly by Mrs. Wu. Although Javanese is her native language, she does not intend to teach it to her children because Javanese, she believes, is merely a “kampung” (village) language. Compared with Indonesian, Javanese is only spoken in limited regions in Indonesia and it is not as important as Indonesian. However, Mrs. Wu reckons that Javanese is not endangered. Even though Javanese is only a regional language, it is still widely spoken in Central and East Java, as Javanese-speaking parents still use the language with their children.