ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
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| Ini adalah foto ketika saya menjadi Participant dalam acara Forum Linguistics and Literature (FOLITER) yang ke 2 yang diadakan oleh Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Humaniora, UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang,tanggal 12 September 2015 |
The
Loss of Javanese Culture’s Gate
An
endangered language is a language that seems to become extinct in the near
future (Woodbury, n.d.). This simple definition indicates that it is difficult for
speakers of an endangered language to stand maintaining their own language,
while their generations tend to learn and speak other people’s language. In
fact, the loss of a language means the loss of identity and culture, because as
Hodidjah stated that language and culture is a system that is inherent in human
beings (n.d). Therefore, language and culture cannot be separated as language
itself is a part of culture which contains the values in which the society
live. Hodidjah (n.d) also argued that the choice of appropriate words to be
used in social interactions really depend on the culture where the language is
used. This indicates that Krama, as
the highest level of Javanese speech language, reflects the wisdom of its
society which is to honor and respect other people in communication (Khazanah,
D. n.d: 1). In line with this, Purwoko (2011) also stated that Krama is actually not only a language of
communication, but it is also an expressive language. It reflects glorious
values and respecting others’. As a matter of fact, Javanese Krama are not effectively
being passed on to the next generations in which when they do not learn this
Javanese speech style, those values will be declining as well. Therefore, this essay deals with the endangerment of Krama, beside
impacts their behavior, also influences their culture. We all then can assume
that this kind of speech style will be sooner threatened to be extinct if there
is no serious efforts from its society to maintain this krama.
In Javanese society today, Purwoko
(2011) stated that Parents prefer to select either Javanese language or Bahasa
Indonesia to be transmitted first to the children. Unfortunately, the parents
who aware to transmit Javanese to their children seem to be decreased by the
time being. This indicates that parents do not realize about one of their roles
in term of transmitting Krama to
their children in which actually it
unconsciously lets the children to not learn about the cultural values
contained inside of Krama as I stated
before. As a matter of fact, as cited by Wibawa and Nafalski (2010: 28), Recent research on Javanese language
proficiency of students found that the Javanese youngsters can not apply
correct Krama vocabularies in formal
dialog based on context since the language is rarely used at home in social
organizations. This is what I mean the condition which places Krama to become extinct. This case is
pretty similar with the case of one of the languages in Africa, Yoruba language, which also at the risk
of extinction gradually. Based on the Balogun’s (2013) collected data, the
results show that many of these students found it extremely difficult to
express themselves freely in Yoruba
language and at the same time, they were unable to provide meanings for
selected Yoruba proverbs, words, and
expressions. This comparison has clearly shown that those either Krama language or Yoruba language are in the same case in term of threatened to death
by taking a conclusion that those languages are not effectively being passed on
to the next generations.
Maintaining Krama from extinction is the only way to preserve Javanese cultures,
because language itself is the medium of the culture, while its native speakers
have a core duty to preserve Krama as
a part of their culture. Therefore, it should completely become the society’s
responsibility, particularly parents, to keep this Krama in order to prevent the loss of this Javanese speech style
(Purwoko, 2011: 24). In other words, one of the key solutions of this problem
is in the parents itself as the children’s prime surrounding, because as
basically known that a language is transmitted first in a family daily life.
Although what I have provided before is only a simple real condition that there
are still parents teaching Krama to
their children, usually in rural area, yet can you imagine how if all parents
do the same or even never transmit this language to their children? It means
that there will be no tradition exist anymore from Javanese cultures which have
been inherent in society’s life before, especially in Krama itself. Balogun (2013: 70) argued that when a
language is lost, such a people who experience the loss continue to live in the
shadow of other people’s tradition, identity and culture. Furthermore, the traditions such as
honoring and respecting other’s people all are experienced through Krama speech level which will be
promptly disappeared within the society in the near future.
The declining of Krama, beside caused by the less of
usage by its native speakers, also by the lack of support from the Government. Although
the government of central Java had made a policy in curriculum 2005 which
stated that Javanese should be taught as a subject at all schools 2 hours in a
week, however as far as I know that there are some weakness which should be the
first concern of the government, such as, firstly
the allocated time which should be reconsidered by the policy maker regarding
many competence in reading and writing of Javanese materials that should be
mastered well by the students, secondly
almost all of Javanese language teachers do not have a correlation background
with the subject taught (Javanese Krama)
(Sugiharto, 2013). Besides, thirdly the
renewal of curriculum 2013 which even makes Javanese language learning is
spread and mixed into another subjects. From those facts, I argue that there is
no serious effort neither from parents, society, nor government to maintain
Javanese culture. Then, how could we hope the cultural transmission if those
important elements only take a small portion in preventing this culture. Thus,
those elements need to place themselves to stand together in a strong stance to
preserve Krama from extinction.
In
conclusion, it obviously becomes urgent to preserve Krama speech style from extinction considering this language is the
main part of Javanese culture which can
control and influence the behavior of its native speaker. Krama
is like the key for entering the gate
of Javanese culture. Then, Can you enter that gate if its key is loss? This
analogy I use to draw the situation if krama
is totally endangered within Javanese society. However, to preserve this
language itself from extinction, the transmission of the language from old
generation to the young generation should be done well in order to transmit any
value inside of the Javanese culture to the children.
(1095 Words)
References
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