Author: Ardliati Muharrommah
Language is a communication tool used by one person to another for social interaction. The official language in Indonesia is Indonesian, although Indonesia is a country that has a lot of language diversity, it is still one of the main languages in Indonesia. While culture is a lifestyle that develops in certain areas and is passed down from generation to generation. This article will discuss more deeply about the language and culture in Indonesia, the goal is that all Indonesian people do not forget these two interrelated things. There is a theory that says that language is part of a culture but there is also one who says that language and culture are different things. Next we will discuss what the relationship between language and culture is.
The relationship between language and culture is subordinating and coordinating. The meaning of subordination is that language and culture are closely related and cannot be separated. Language is under the scope of culture. Meanwhile, what is meant by co-ordinating is that language and culture have an equal relationship and have the same high position. But there are still many who think that language and culture are not too important and begin to fade even though they know that the two are interconnected.
Currently, many people do not pay attention to and use good and correct Indonesian, especially among young people. They more often use slang like a foreign language. Maybe they think the language they use is cooler than Indonesian when it comes to social interaction. Without them realizing it, when they are too proud of the language used daily, it is not Indonesian, then slowly everything will affect bad things in our country. For example, someone who often mentions the word tourists with tourists, said household assistants with babu, said tourism with tourism and others. If many young people start to forget the local language and the correct Indonesian language, Indonesia will lose its rich variety of languages.
Things like this should not be allowed and there must be a follow-up. If left unchecked, Indonesia will soon lose its national identity. Our language needs to be preserved and maintained so that it can be passed on to our grandchildren later. Efforts that must be used are to use the Indonesian language properly and correctly and start from small things, hold training in linguistic activities such as writing, speeches, poetry and others, hold seminars on the importance of protecting our nation’s language and culture, and there are other events. For example, when a seminar is held in an area in the village about using the Indonesian language properly and correctly, the people in the seminar will pay attention and begin to practice it in their daily lives. They may think that if they use the language correctly then they will also maintain and preserve one of their cultures.
The conclusion is that language is the heritage of a country which is one of our cultural languages. So language and culture are interrelated with each other. That way we must maintain and preserve our culture, namely the Indonesian language. We must also implement efforts to protect our language and continue to use it every day by using good and correct language.