The Prestige of English

A few weeks ago while on vacation, I received a phone call from a man asking me to make a presentation about “culture and teaching English”. The man who called me couldn’t speak English very well (made even worse because the conversation took place over the phone) so I was very confused about the whole situation

The presentation was on a Saturday morning on the far side of campus. From my house, it was about a 30 minute walk. Even though I left an hour early, someone from the faculty at which I was presenting called and text messaged me 3 times just to make sure I was still coming (note: once someone gets your cell phone number, they will use it liberally by calling and texting constantly. Thus, I must guard my number with my life and only give it to people that I really, really trust. Most of the other teaching fellows here in Indonesia and I have all had our fair share of “cell phone stalkers”, students or people from the community who somehow get our numbers and constantly text and call for no real reason.)

Anyway, I arrived at faculty building a sweaty, disheveled mess after the walk, and was immediately ushered to the 3rd floor. From there I was led into a conference room of about 200 people, who, as I found out upon arrival, were graduate students in the Educational Management faculty. I was lead to the front table reserved for the presenters, and was introduced by someone from the faculty. As I soon found out, the occasion was the “International Seminar of Educational Management” (my presence alone enabling the use of the “international” moniker.) I was also told that “most of the students don’t have very good English, so you can use Indonesian to explain the more difficult parts”…which would be fine if I had to give them directions or ask how much something cost, etc. However my level of speaking ability is not quite up to the task of explaining the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Without a way to accurately judge the English ability of my audience, I began my presentation…but by about slide 3 of my power point, I could tell by the glazed eyes of the audience members that they didn’t understand anything I was saying. So I tried to adapt as I was giving the presentation, all the while still sweating and highly distracted by a man with a camera standing about 1 foot from my face and taking my picture from all angles while I was trying to speak.

Finally, I decided to throw all professional integrity out the window and rushed through the power point without trying to adapt the information to make it more easily understood. Then it was time for question and answer. From attending previous conferences I knew that audience members love to ask “questions”, which means that usually someone will grab a microphone and talk at length without much concern about whether or not he/she has an actual question or whether or not what he/she is saying has any relation to the theme of the presentation. Therefore the onus is usually on the presenter to which said “question” is directed to try and create a question based on the extended monologue of the audience member. This is even more fun if the audience member speaks the entire time in Indonesian (none of which could be understood by me) and then a “translator” (whose English was as negligible as the rest of the audience members’) was left with the task of relaying the information to me in English.

After an hour and a half of complete confusion and frustration, my allotted presentation time was finished. I was then ushered back to the head table, where I was presented with a certificate and thanked by one of the organizing committee. This was his speech: “Dear Ms. Katie, thank you so much. You are so nice. You are so beautiful (and at this, the entire audience burst into applause.) You are so smart. Thank you for coming from New Zealand to talk. And you are still single, but you will be here for 5 more months so maybe some men in the audience can meet you (at this audience once again burst into applause).” End of speech. I was then invited to eat lunch with the organizing committee and some of the faculty members. Only then did I truly realize the level of English most of the seminar members could comprehend…basically, we could discuss likes/dislikes in simple sentences (“Do you like bananas?” “Do you like Indonesian food?” etc.) So as I suspected, maybe 5 out of the 200 people in the entire room had understood what I was saying for the last 2 hours. Frankly, I could have recited the lyrics of “Stairway to Heaven” and nobody would have been the wiser.

So what’s the moral of this story? Personally, I was confused as to why I would be invited to speak at a seminar in a language which the majority of seminar participants didn’t speak. What would be the purpose? What could be gained by having the graduate students sit in a hot and crowed room while they were given a presentation they didn’t understand? Frankly it seemed a waste of time for me (having spent 2 days researching and making the presentation), not to mention frustrating. It also seemed a waste of time for the participants, who could have, in my opinion, gotten some actual information had the presentations been in Indonesian.

It seems the purpose of English here isn’t so much about WHAT is being conveyed as to HOW it’s conveyed. English represents prestige, education, and respect. And it doesn’t seem to matter if the person using it can understand/be understood. The fact that it was used is all that matters. The fact that a foreigner took part in a seminar makes the seminar itself that much more prestigious, never mind what the foreigner said, but just that fact that she was there at all (even better if participants can get an actual photo WITH the foreigner as proof!) I guess being from such a goal-oriented culture, this concept is nearly impossible for me to grasp. I am also struggling with the concept that the value and importance of an event is increased when attended by a foreigner (and even more specifically, a Western foreigner). I seem to be struggling lately with what my presence here means and the discrepancy between the purpose of my fellowship “on paper” and the real motivation. I would like to believe that the content of my work from my 10 months here will be as valued when I finish as all the great photo opportunities. We shall see…