The Influences and Importances of Multilingual Ability in Creating the Global Citizenship in Central Java

Introduction

The world now is on going to be an enormous world with the growth of globalization and technology.  As we see in this 20th century, every countries,  government, citizen, and also every individual work on creating the better world with borderless, due to the growth of economics and social.  Now, we are reaching the most beneficial phase, the global citizenship. Actually, the idea of global, or world, citizenship is a very old one, but it has recently come back into fashion. The first time we actually feel the concept the global citizenship was during the industrial revolution in England, but its origins can be traced back to at least 4th century Greece when Diogenes declared himself a cosmopolitan ‘a citizen of the world. At the time, the earth’s shape, the configuration of the vast majority of its surface, and even the existence of its varied peoples and cultures, would have been largely unknown to him or anyone. To avoid a possible source of confusion right away, it is not equivalent to the idea of global, or world, government. If some form of global government were to be created, then perhaps it would have global citizens to go with it. But enthusiasm for global citizenship reaches far beyond support for world government, whose feasibility problems and practical limitations are widely recognized Global Citizenship are the processes that foster knowledge, skills and attitudes which promote justice and equality in a multicultural society and interdependent world. To be a global citizen, one is knowledgeable of peoples, customs and cultures in regions of the world beyond one's own; understands the interdependence that holds both promise and peril for the future of the global community; and is committed to combining one’s learning with a dedication to foster a livable, sustainable world (Back, 2008).

            . Sometimes, the global citizenship is related with the political and social life in a country, but it is far beyond that. The global citizenship has a wide meaning and implication to every people in the world. Arguably, the global citizenship’s aim is to create and engage people, especially the young generation who still have the open minded and great vision. It it the time to develop the competencies and actively engage to the world. And it is also related about the way we thinking and behaving to make a sustainability within every citizens. Yet the most important and also the problem to reach the global citizenship is the language. So that’s mean it is really related with the education, because reaching the global citizenship is same like internationalization. We can see there are so many practice of Global Citizenship in every countries, such as issuing about the global environment and learning about the cultural differences. Assuming that every citizens have their connection in every people around the world with the social media. We have so many languages in this world, but there are languages that really important to be learned to face the reality of this world when we go to somewhere place. In every single education, we are given a foreign language to foster our global mindset which will make a path to reaching the global citizenship. Language allows us a window into a different part of the world, a new culture and lifestyle. It creates no barrier between two persons who communicate each other, yet we still have to learn about others if the language is different. While learning vocabulary and grammar enables one to listen and speak, true understanding takes personal involvement; it challenges the “lens” one sees through and how one makes sense of the world. The ability to understand a foreign language gives individuals the opportunity to discover the how and why of actions or behavior; in this sense language helps to reduce prejudices, misconceptions and misunderstandings of intent. The global citizenship requires the prominent skill of fluency in languages in each people. Let’s take an example of United Nations, this organization has six official language and it can be spoken in any meeting or appointment during the conference.

Analysis

             Indonesia has more than 17.000 islands and also more than 200 tribes and cultures. In the context of Indonesia, as a university student of Urban and Regional Planning Engineering Department in Diponegoro University which located in Central Java Province, in my opinion the global citizenship is still a concept which can be called as a milestone to develop the students in every faculty, yet it is still far from the aim as the concepts of globalization, but we still try to deliver the concept through the international learning, developing cultural knowledge, and also from the international organization. In this case, It is important for students to develop skills in accessing and understanding information on culture and in applying that knowledge for the purposes of interaction and communication. It is one of reaching the global citizenship. The national tagline of Indonesia is “Unity in Diversity”, but the problem is we are still lack in collaborating the cultures to be as one. After that, Indonesians are still lack of awareness to learn the second language, which is english, the most common one in every education institutions. Indonesian government already gave their efforts to increase the global knowledge of its citizens by giving the english lesson. As i have been seen in the university, consequently, those who learn a foreign language will become more dynamic and improve their problem-solving abilities. As a result, students who are bilingual (or multilingual) perform better at the university and have a tendency to develop a higher level of intellect in comparison to their peers. In every academic institutions in Central Java, English is chosen as the means of communication among people beside France, Germany, or Chinese language. English is also be as the basic language in our lecture’s books. The current globalization and internalisation processes have led to a tremendous expansion of the English language in Indonesia, now in every regencies or even districts, governments are developing and conveying to the citizens about the culture of speaking English as the second language, for example, mayor of Bandung city made a concept that in every Tuesday, the citizens of Bandung should speak English. He added that english proficiency is highly regarded as one of the individual’s fundamental skills and it’s also a key to open the global network for each persons. With the 240 million population in Indonesia, the main problem of educating the people to learn about second language, which is very stressed in English language is the socialization. Yet we still have the other important problems, such as natural disasters, economic problems, lack of the job opportunities, and the most important one is more than 35% of Indonesians are lack of education. Mostly, Indonesians are proposed by the government to reach the 12 years of study in every level of education, but after that, there is lack of responsibility from the government to make sure that Indonesian Citizens are worth it to continue to the next level of education. In the cultural side, as the person who live in Central Java which has many cultures, there are many people who choose to go for a work rather than study. They prefer it because it can make them to earn more money to continue their life, for education, they only rely on the hands of government, citizens are lack of motivation and sometimes, the culture hold a barrier between the education and working. As a students, i joined an international organizations. The organization is AIESEC. This organizations has been widely known in more than 100 countries. One of the aim of this organization is to engage and enable young people to develop and discover themselves through the community development program. It has a big impact in developing people to learn about foreign language through the foreigners which are invited by AIESEC in Semarang and be as the members of learning groups. They enable the peoples who are still stuck in education and cultures to learn about the cultures of the foreigners and to make them apply it in their life.

  

The Foreigners from AIESEC members are explaining about Global Warming Issues to the Children in Elementary School

The main reason why people in Central Java Province is difficult to learn about the english language is they don’t have any big desires to learn, they are less confident to use them in a natural communication situation due to lack of opportunity. Based on the fact, only the person who get the higher education will understand about the ideas of global citizenship, the rest of them who didn’t get the high education will only accept what the government  has planned without any further step or innovation. That’s the problem in the Indonesia, especially Central Java, which has the second biggest population in Java Island, the culture has a big role in improving or decreasing their own value mark about global citizenship. As we are still in traditional living which are more adaptable, many Indonesians are not willingly to think about the Global Citizenship idea, because living with traditional culture living will give more happiness and prosperous rather than joining the concept of global citizenship.

             

Conclusion

            The new idea of Global Citizenship is worth to implemented in the world, since we are embracing
and growing in every important sides, like social, political, economic, and global network. We need it to make a new world which is ‘borderless’ by understanding every people, accept the differences and be corporate. Actually, the ideas of global citizenship can be applied firmly in Indonesia, but it needs more time, cause the ideas mostly known only by students or the person who has higher education. In Central Java, the people still holding on to the traditional living and mindset. The thing they only know is avoiding the foreign cultures by giving the learning of traditional cultures to their youngsters. As the globalization reach the villages, it’s difficult for them to protect their own cultures, since their youngsters are growing to be a better person. Students in university in Central Java have a higher chance to keep the ideas of global citizenship by learning the multilingual ability. This is the ‘must do’ process. Why? Because they will challenge themselves into the global network and job opportunities. Having the multilingual ability gives us a path to take us one step closer to our dream and be the part of new world. Since i know that every books in university are written in English, it is very important to learn the language, eventhough it’s difficult to learn for some persons. But in the end,  it will create an awareness of the world and we have our senses to be as the world citizen. There are a lot of learning process that can be implemented in every citizens to know about global citizenship, we have to make the comprehensible approachment to develop the mindset of citizens who still have lack of knowledge in knowing the global citizenship. The role of students is really needed like make the community group which focusing on global issues and they have to involve citizens to participate in it by inviting the foreigners to talk about the recent issues in their countries and deliver it with english, so the citizens will eager to learn about the foreigners’ language, like English and they also improving their knowledge about the global issues and it will be a cornerstone to be the global citizens, because the best way to get into the culture of people in Central Java Province is by the comprehensible approachment.

Bibliography

Miller, David. (2011) ‘Ideas of Global Citizenship’ in Nuffield's Working Papers Series in Politics. Nuffield College, Oxford.

Yangguang. (2011) ‘Becoming global citizens through bilingualism: English learning in the lives of university students in China’ . Institute of Educational Studies, Fujian Normal University, P. R. China