Though the vast majority of Indonesians obviously don’t speak English as their first language, many speak it as one of their secondary languages. But overall, we don’t speak English so good, as shown by Indonesia’s relatively low ranking of 32nd out of the 70 countries that qualify for the English First (EF) English Proficiency Index (EPI).
Hikmahanto Juwana, an international law expert at Universitas Indonesia (UI), believes that Indonesians should rank higher in the EPI.
“Indonesians are so good at [English] grammar that they worry about actually speaking it in case they get it wrong,” Hikmahanto said, as quoted by Okezone today.
“Whereas what’s important in communication is comfort, even though grammar is also important.”
Hikmahanto added that Indonesia’s English speakers aren’t evenly spread out across the country – citizens in large cities speak better English than others.
The EF EPI is constructed each year from results of a set of English tests taken by the language training company’s students. Only countries with over 400 test takers qualify to be included in the index.
