Have you ever heard of a joke 'Saya kagum sama anak-anak di Inggris yang lancar bahasa Inggris' (The British kids are amazing that they can speak English fluently). You will reply with the answer 'we are 100% at the same boat. You must be out of your mind saying that fact'. Based on my experience, it is also amazing to find out Indonesian kids born or raised in England becomes very fluent in English, Indonesian, less fluent in Javanese and Arabic. As a matter of fact, they speak English like native speakers as they have an excellent environment to support their language development. They practice their English most of their time such as at school, home and Islamic center. In addition, the media also expose the use of English as significant inputs for their vocabulary such as in TV, internet, books, billboard, leaflet, information board etc.



The golden age includes 0 - 7 years old. During this age, kids' brains work best like sponse. Their brains absorb any vocabulary. By imitating what they have heard, they create identical voice and sound. While they focus on delivering the message in their utterance, they also learn how to replicate sentences to convey certain messages.

Once I have met a friend of mine who does casual job in Singapore. She is about 25-30 years old and you know what? she is extremely fluent in English. Her pronunciation is perfect and she speaks naturally. On the contrary, she cannot teach me how she can achieved that such skills. She only mention a rule of thumbs that she just imitate what she face in daily life.

From this point, adult learners may conclude that learning language should imitate and replicate. In my observation, learning English means translate word by word from Indonesian to English following certain tenses. As result, we argue that we have learned English but in fact, we never learn how to deliver our message in natural manner of native speakers. Even, we may write a paragraph of text but native speakers do not catch the messages within. Have you the same experience about this?.

We seldom absorb, imitate and replicate what native speakers say. we often 'think what should I say in Indonesian, find the English vocabulary, compile words into sentences, think about structure and grammar, and articulate the sentences orally'. Thus we often find out spoken or written English of Indonesian such as 'Mungkin hal itu terjadi karena mereka terdesak' translated into 'Maybe that condition happens because of crisis'. Whereas, we should write and articulate it as 'That condition may happen because of crisis'.

Why does this happen to adult learners? Why do not they just absorb, imitate and replicate what native speakers say? Adult learners mostly compare their first language to a new language they are learning including pattern, vocabulary, style and so on. They always dispatch various questions about why this and that. In short, they use their first language as a reference to produce sentences in a new language.

In my experience, I find out the same condition. Apparently, I realize that comparing languages will not significantly improve my language skills. Therefore I need to adopt what kids do in their golden age of language development. I start to absorb, imitate and replicate certain expressions to deliver certain messages.

I sometimes feel weird with some English expressions if I should translate them directly into Indonesian by using related grammar and structure rules such as 'I have gone all wrong' as 'Saya salah total'. Another example is 'I want to offer prayer' as 'Saya mau sholat'. Why we do not say 'I want to prayer' by eliminating the word 'offer'. We must bear in mind that 'offer prayer' is natural manner. Thus we should use it to translate the word 'solat'.

Nothing is wrong with learning structure and grammar rules. By using that knowledge, we can be more creative in using English. On the other hand, learning the natural manner of native speakers will advance our language development. By imitating that manner, we will both follow the language structure and assure that the message is delivered.