PRESERVING AND MAINTAINING NATIVE TONGUE THROUGH CULTURAL EXPOSURE

Abstract

Looking at children in using foreign languages is amazed older people as they can speak those languages fluently. Nowdays, the number of Indonesian children who can produce foreign languages in terms of spoken and written forms of communication is without any doubt surprising. It becomes a trend for parents who are willing to pay at higher costs to send their children to Bilingual and International schools. From this perspective we agree upon the condition that the government has suceeded in pursuing the use of International language in our country. On the other hand, we are losing our own native tongue or vernaculars as schools only allocate those languages as muatan lokal. The government should consider this condition because if they only think of one side, it is possibly endangered the existence of the vernaculars. Fact shows that the number of indigenous languages in Indonesia is dicreasing as there are no more native speakers of the language. Sooner or later indigenous languages will be extinct and we will loose the culture. Language is a part of culture if we lose the language it also means that some parts of culture are gone. History will prove that somehow those extinct vernaculars are existed before they are gone. Therefore, we need to do real action to preserve and maintain our native tongue from becoming extinct by giving more cultural exposure for children at younger age.