General Virtual Assistance by Mark Henson Perez Gunawan |
Posted: October 13, 2019 |
The Advantages of being an English Speaker in a non English Speaking community.By Mark Henson Perez Gunawan From the moment I could talk, write, or even form basic thoughts, I’ve always instinctively used the English Language. Whether it be talking to my family at home, studying in school, or reading a novel, I’ve always had a strong preference to do these activities in English. Perhaps this may not be so strange for you, reader. In fact, you may already live in an English speaking country, and are a native speaker yourself! But to me, while it was comfortable enough when I interacted with my close friends and family, it was not as comfortable when I reached out to those outside my circle. You see, I live in Surabaya, the second most-populated city in Indonesia. And while yes, the level of English proficiency is steadily increasing among the younger demographic here, for the most part, Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese were by far the most spoken language. Many local vendors and public transportation drivers were only able to speak Bahasa and/or Javanese, a language that, during a substantial period in my life, I was not at all fluent at. Living here, I’ve experienced many benefits from the circumstances I found myself in. Here are just a couple! Advantage
During my elementary school years, my parents used to buy me a LOT of science books, Encyclopedias, and kids novels for me to read. And because I only knew English well at that time, they only bought books in English. Since these books were originally written/compiled in English, I was able to directly receive the main ideas and concepts of the book as the writer intended them to be conveyed. “But Mark”, you may ask, “how is that an advantage? Don’t they also have Indonesian books there? Aren’t they just as good?” While yes, of course, there are Indonesian books here, most of the really good ones are just translated from English source material. And as I’ve observed many times, the main ideas of the books were sometimes a little lost in translation, and certain allegories and paragraphs were not portrayed as accurately as it should be. As such, readers of these translations weren’t able to accurately receive the main gist of these books as much as readers of the original English edition! In fact, most articles and essays, online or in the written word, that are pulled from the most credible and renowned sources, are usually presented in English. Western entertainment, its fair to say, has taken over the market here in Indonesia, and one would definitely miss out on a lot of the satisfaction watching movies, TV series, and listening to music, if they did not have even a basic grasp of English!
English is the most widely spoken language in the world. According to the website babbel.com “Out of the world’s approximately 7.5 billion inhabitants, 1.5 billion speak English — that’s 20% of the Earth’s population. However, most of those people aren’t native English speakers. About 360 million people speak English as their first language. In addition to being widely spoken, English is by far the most commonly studied foreign language in the world, followed by French at a distant second.” Obviously, most foreigners I meet in Indonesia speak English, whether they come from Native English countries like the USA and England, or countries where it is widely used, like the Philippines, the Netherlands and most European nations. During my school years, I had the pleasure to meet people from countries like the USA, Switzerland, England, South Korea, Japan, India, and the Philippines. And while these friends eventually learnt to speak Bahasa, they started off shy and difficult to communicate because of the language barrier they perceived with many people. Happily for me (and hopefully them!) it was a pleasure to be able to openly communicate with them in a language we both were able to relate very easily ; English! Why English is growing in importance online.As phenomenons like globalization and networking continue to skyrocket, it is important to have the necessary skills to connect with others around the world, those with different, not just in our small local community. Certainly, speaking English is one of the most necessary skills to possess in the ever growing worldwide community, with assets like the Internet and the World Wide Web continuing to grow in importance. With such considerations in mind, many people have solicited the services of translation and transcription service from online freelancers and virtual assistants. These services allow business owners to reach out to a global audience, not just to a particular language spoken by a relatively small number of the global population. With such reach, they are able to widen their network of associates around the world, and are able to forge better business relationships with off-shore clients, employees, and other business owners. These services are relatively cheap, as online freelancers and virtual assistants will not take up costs in job training from their clients, they work by the hour, and will reduce costs and time in advertising and considering countless resumes and applications. Many business owners have found such translation services rewarding, as they are able to reach out to a wider range of clients and yet not take up too much of their time from relatively more important aspects of their business. ConclusionWhile there are certainly drawbacks to not be a native speaker of the local language, a few of my friends , who at first were not able to converse fluently in English, have taken the effort to learn the language, and are now reaping the language. They’ve realized that in order to reach out to greater things in the world, they have to learn English. I’ve found knowing English as a first language has brought so many blessings and benefits to me! I’ve found myself to be much more useful to the people around me and to myself!
|
||||||||||||||||||
|