Jangan sok inggris
Background
English is not my first language, and never will be. 🌏 No matter how fluent I am in this language, it still doesn’t change the fact that this is not my first set of rules that is set in my brain.
The frustration started when this so-called Indonesian employee joined my team about a year ago. He’s an asshole 😒—seriously, until this very second, he doesn’t speak Indonesian at all when it comes to communicating.
I might sound a bit harsh, but come on, he lived in Indonesia for 18 years. 🇮🇩 Yet it never crossed his mind to speak Indonesian with his own people. The worst thing is: he never likes to be called Indonesian. 🚩
What is “sok”? 🤔
The prefix “Sok” is used to describe someone who is trying so hard to have a particular trait that people around them recognize, but isn’t actually qualified to have that trait. For example:
- Sok tahu: someone who pretends to know everything 🧠
- Sok pintar: someone who “pretends” to be smart 🤓
- Sok jago: someone who “pretends” to be good 🏆
- Sok buntut: a beef tail soup.
A word play from the word "sop buntut", which is a famous Indonesian dish🍲
There are reasons why I hate people being “sok inggris”—I classify these into the ones that are forgivable and the ones that aren’t. ⚖️
Forgivable ✅
They’re trying to learn English
The excitement of learning a new language is obvious when someone tries to speak it constantly. 😅 Even in some inappropriate situations, like when we want to communicate as efficiently as possible or chat without both parties agreeing to learn English.
They thought you would understand English better. 🤷♂️
Sometimes, the intention of trying to speak English to someone without asking beforehand can be forgiven—assuming the person was supposed to understand English better. This is okay in certain situations: in public spaces, trying to register for something, or travelling. ✈️ Totally understandable. Not racist at all.
But, this situation can escalate into something much worse if I reply in the language that we both know we understand, and they still insist on English. 🙄
Other people are involved in the conversation, and they can only understand English.
To make others feel more included, engaging in English is the perfect decision. 🫂 But then again, things can go wrong if you try too hard and are seen as flexing your English rather than just genuinely communicating with others. 😬
Unforgivable ❌
You’re trying to speak English because you wanna look “Educated”. 🎩
Motherfucker, someone I know has the audacity to speak English while we are the only two parties in the conversation. 😤 I hate him so much, I hope he steps on a Lego. 🧱 We both know English is not our first language, and we both know we can speak our native language. But just because you don’t want to be seen as on the same level as people from your own country, you let your pride take over you. Wow. 🙃
From my POV:
- Swearing doesn’t make you less educated. 🗣️
- Speaking a particular language doesn’t make you less educated. 🏳️
- Not wearing a certain attire doesn’t make you less educated. 👕
I know the world might look at this differently, but honestly, the world is just a fucking big shit social construct. 💩
Racism in languages
Still, speaking my non-native languages puts a heavy cognitive load on me, which would just slow down our communication. English is never a tool to measure your pride. Any language was never.
Things get super different when:
- You live in someone else’s place.
- You don’t bother learning the locals’ language
Then I tell you that you are an asshole, and now language is a tool to measure your respect; it will be a tool to determine whether you are qualified to be part of a certain society. So yeah, in my opinion, you deserve to be socially bullied, cancelled, and isolated if you are not even trying to respect the locals. 🫵😭 Shame on you people.
