Let's go to the wet market ! :)

One Wednesday afternoon, we followed Sutiyem in her shopping trip to the wet market located at Fa Yuen Street, Mong Kok. It was interesting to see the interaction between Sutiyem (who possess limited knowledge of Cantonese) and the shopkeepers (who know very limited English vocabularies) during the transaction process. We discovered that a special language pattern is adopted in this special context.

At the fish booth, when Sutiyem asked them about the fish price in Cantonese, the male fishmonger would also use Cantonese in response. However, we had noticed the female fishmonger has once code-mixed speech to Sutiyem.

Female fishmonger : “ 洗唔洗cut呀?”
                                    (do you need me to cut the fish?)
Sutiyem : " 唔洗啦."
                   ( no need.)

Interestingly, Sutiyem as an Indonesian is determined to use Cantonese in the conversation between fishmongers, while the female fishmonger as a local Hong Kong people respond in code-mixing speech. It seems like an exchanging of the roles. Although the female fishmonger has limited knowledge in English, the code-mixing pattern would be surprising to us. We believe that globalization results in the increase of interaction between foreigners and the Hong Kong locals, thus exerts certain impact on their language use.

After buying all the food she needed for making dinner, Sutiyem would pay a visit to the Indo shops which operated by her fellows inside the wet market. There, she can relax herself by chatting with her friends and updating news from her hometown.

So, this is part of a routine day of Sutiyem, as well as most of the Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Do you find it interesting? :) 

Photo Slideshow

Let's see how the Indonesian helpers spend their holiday! :D

Cantonese as a tool of employment -the happiness and pressure that associated with the learning process

Sitting together on the plastic tarpaulin with Yuni, Sutiyem and their friends, we found that they are friendly and eager to share their stories. They love playing jokes on each other, filling up the gathering with laughers and happy mood.

On the halfway of our visit, we asked them to express some phrases in Cantonese. As Yuni and Sutiyem have been working in Hong Kong for quite a while, they have no problem in developing simple conversation in Cantonese. They admitted that it is still hard for them to express themselves thoroughly in Cantonese sometimes. However, they don’t wish to advance their Cantonese standard because it is just used for daily communication with some of their host members basically. Sutiyem claimed, “Cantonese is not useful. It can be used in Hong Kong only. If I work in other countries in the future, Cantonese is no use.” All the other friends behind them nodded their heads. They also agreed that if they had the chance to learn, they would choose to improve their English standard as it is an important world language nowadays.

Sutiyem also shared her Cantonese learning experience. She had very little knowledge of Cantonese when she first came to Hong Kong. “My madam usually wrote me what I have to buy from the market on papers and let me bring along. I couldn’t remember any words not till the forth month I have stayed.” At home, Sutiyem will speak Cantonese with the grandmother. After days and days of practicing, she knows how to bargain the price in market now. From her proud facial expression, we are sure that she was learning happily. However, not all the domestic helpers are as lucky as Sutiyem.

In some host families, the domestic helpers are not only required to learn Cantonese, some of them even asked to learn Putonghua. Yuni is one of the examples, as her Sir can only speak Mandarin. When being asked if her learning experience was similar as Sutiyem, Yuni shook her head with a simper, “I was forced to remember a lot of Cantonese words every day by my Madam.” She recalled at the time she just arrived in Hong Kong, she knew limited Cantonese only. She remembered she needs to learn Cantonese and Mandarin simultaneously when she just came to the host. “It’s so hard to remember the words in such a short period of time. I used to scold by my madam every day. She was so demanding and just got mad with my bad memory.” When she was reminiscing the story, Yuni hid her grins which she always shows. We are sure that learning new languages must have given her so much pressure in the past.

Features of text message of Sutiyem

Cell phones plays a dominant role in human's life nowadays. People from worldwide countries are increasingly relied on text messaging to convey their idea and data to others. A recent survey conducted by the Population Reference Bureau website reveals that in Indonesia, the world's fourth largest country, more than 240 millions people are counted as text-messaging users.

Regard to our consultant Sutiyem, she agreed that she is a frequent user of text-messaging. "I usually use text messaging to date my friends. "The message that she sent are all in English letter as it is the only typing language which is available in cell phones while she is proficient in.

Let us analyze some of the features that we found in Sutiyem 's text-messagings.

1) vocalization

sucei --> Cantonese (小姐 siu ze) 

                 meaning: Ms.

Sutiyem used the word sucei to intimate the pronunciation of Ms. in Cantonese.

2) unambigious abbreviation

u --> you

        meaning: you  

pls --> please

           meaning: please

Sutiyem replaced "you" with "u", "please" with "pls" to make the word length much shorter and so save the typing time.

3) minimal use of capitalisation

i --> I

thank--->thanks 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4) spell phonetically

laswek --> last week

tichers --> teachers

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5) lexical shortening

se --> see

tomorow --> tomorrow

6) vowel missing

gd --> good

7) copula omission

se how tomorow -->see how is tomorrow

Do your text-messages share some of the features of Sutiyem's? Leave a comment to share with us !! ;)

reference:

http://pewsocialtrends.org/2010/08/03/text-messaging-plays-big-role-in-indonesian-census/

Game Corner II

                                          

Guess what language were they singing in?

1. English

2. Thai

3. Java

4. Bahasa

 

Game Corner I

                     

How many languages did Sutiyem speak in this video?

                                
A. 2

B. 3

C. 4

D. 5

Yuni calls upon her fellows

Indonesian workers restrain themselves from code-mixing and code-switching!

Most of the Indonesian domestic workers speak more than one language. Did they naturally learn to be bilinguals, trilinguals or multilinguals? As being bilinguals or trilinguals, code-mixing or code-switching are commonly founded in Hong Kong people’s speech. Are there same things occurring in Indonesian domestic workers’ speech? Are code-mixing or code-switching observable in their speech?

To gear toward working in Hong Kong, Indonesian domestic workers acquire new languages intensively in their hometown, or more commonly, learn after their arrival in Hong Kong. In order to be eligible for Hong Kong family’s employment, the domestic workers must learn how to speak Cantonese as it is mother language of most of the employers. In addition, English courses are complementary in Indonesian schooling and so most of them can master English. Besides, most agencies’ training centers in their hometown offer intensive English courses with a view to make me available for Singaporean employers. While since their childhood, they acquire Java from their parents and were taught Bahasa in public schooling. As a result, most of them were trained while also naturally learn 3-4 languages to cope with employment or daily conversation need.

Surprisingly, our two consultants - Sutiyem and Yuni stated that they restrain themselves from doing code-mixing or code- switching in speech.

"My madam doesn't want me to do code-mixing,she is fear that it will make the children confuse and worsen their English."

Sutiyem recalled that she used to code-mix Cantonese with English when she just arrived the family as she just knew limited amount of vocabulary of Cantonese.Nevertheless,her madam forbid her from doing so for fear that it will deteriorate her children' s English level.After that,Sutiyem confined herself to use merely Cantonese or English in the conversation with the family members.

What languages would they choose when there is no restrictions?

Sunday is the holiday of the Indonesian domestic worker and they are no limitation for them to choose their languages,however,code-mixing and code-switching is still unobservable in their speech.Why? We discovered that the Indonesian domestic worker speak Java with their fellow without any insertion or alternation with another language. e.g Cantonese or English despite the fact that they are all proficient in these foreign languages.They reported that Java gave them a sense of belonging and security to their home country ,they continue to use this language to communicate with each other after a long-period stay in a globalized countries where Cantonese and English are vastly  important.  

"We speak Java to each other.It is the language that we learn from our family."

Sutiyem told us that she would swtich from one language to another when there is a change of the interlocutor.All her utterance with Sir,Madam and their chlidren are in English while she said she has to switch her language to Cantonese when she has to communciate with the grandma of the children whom does not know English.

 

"I 'll say "食飯啦婆婆"(eat dinner, popo) to children' grandma when the dinner is ready.

It is observed that code-mixing and code-switching is uncommon within the Indonesian domestic worker's community and it is derived from the disapproval of masters and their strong tie to their mother language-Java.

A Indonesian folk song --- Nina Bobo

Let's hear Sutiyem and her friends singing!

Can you guess what this song is about?

To summon their husband's back?

To pray for blessings?

To praise the president?

To comfort the babies?

Here comes the lyrics :) Sing along!

Actually, this is a bedtime song. In English, "Nina Bobo" means "Lullaby". Sutiyem told us that, when she was a child, her mother used to sing this song to her before she went to sleep. During her days in Indonesia, she would sing her sons and  daughters to sleep too.

Here is the English translation of the lyrics:

Indonesian workers' Sunny Favourite !!

On our interview day, we bought a basket of their favourite food to share with them.

1) Kue lapis (baked layered cake)

Kue is a fairly board team which may include items that would be called cakes, cookies, dumplings, puddings, biscuits or pastries in English.

Lapis means layers in Bahasa Indonesian/ Malay.

2) Krupuk udang (prawn cracker)

Krupuk is the kind of various traditional crackers, and it usually consumed as snack or to accompany main meal.


Udang means prawn in English.

3) kembang gula jahe  (ting ting sugar with ginger inside)

Gula means coconut in English

Jahe  means ginger in English

4) marning pedas

Pedas means spicy

5. Pluntir Coklar

Coklar means brown, chocolate, cocoa

Language attitude and discrimination faced by Yuni

 
By gathering with Sutiyem’s group of friends, we are able to get to know their friends. We have interviewed one lady, Yuni, who aged 33 and has already gained 10 years of work experience as domestic helper. She worked in Malaysia and Singapore for 4 years respectively precedent to Hong Kong. This year is her 2^nd year of working. With the help of globalization, she learns a variety of languages and changes her routine language pattern. She becomes multilingual, possessing knowledge on speaking English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Bahasa and Java.

Concerning her language attitude, she likes English the most and thinks Cantonese is the hardest language to learn due to its “terrible forming”. At the same time, she still thinks Bahasa and Java are both important. Though the usage of Java is not covered by the whole Indonesia, she still thinks it’s important since her family speaks Java and that she has to respect her family’s language use. Interestingly, she had attended English grammar classes in The University of Hong Kong for 2 years before. She considers English as an important tool and a special advantage to get a job. She claims that English is an international language and is useful for travelling around. Having good English skill would be considered as upper-class and more educated she said. We can see that language use can be associated with the social hierarchy.

Yuni didn’t feel any discrimination in her Hong Kong family. Her employer’s family usually called her as “姐姐”(tse1 tse1), also known as “sister” in English. Nevertheless, she did have an experience of being discriminated outside the family. She was once accidentally knocked on a woman. Even though she had apologized immediately, she overheard that woman shouting, “that 工人 is very bad. She is blind!” in which she found the labeling of “工人”, which means domestic helper in a sense, implies a negative connotation to her.

Our consultant - Sutiyem :)

HONG KONG –
A day in Victoria Park , Causeway Bay 

It's a sunny Sunday morning, a nice day for myriads of domestic workers to enjoy their day-offs in Statue Square in Central and Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. By gathering in small groups, they sit on the floor with newspaper beneath, on benches, railings, and even besides the street. Similar to other domestic helpers hanging out in Causeway Bay, Sutiyem, 41, works as an Indonesian domestic helper in a Hong Kong family. She has left Indonesia for 10 years. She claimed that it is essential to obtain experience in Singapore prior to working in Hong Kong. For this reason, before coming to Hong Kong, she has worked in a Chinese family in Singapore for 5 years. This year has already been her fifth year in Hong Kong and her employment contract is going to terminate next year.
 

Sutiyem's family and her future aspiration

Sutiyem has her own family back in Indonesia. Her husband works as a primary school teacher over there, and her two sons aged 17 and 20 respectively. After Sutiyem was left for work as a domestic helper in Singapore, she only got to see her family once every two years. Telephone is the only tool to connect between her and her family in such a long distance. She said her family in Indonesia is impoverished as relying on her husband’s income is not enough to put their children through schools. Her future aspiration is to earn enough money and build her own house in Indonesia.


About Sutiyem's linguistic repertoires

Concerning her linguistic repertoires, she is a multilingual speaker, who possesses knowledge in Java(mother tongue in Indonesia), Bahasa(Indonesia official language), English and little knowledge on Cantonese which was mandatory to learn before coming to Hong Kong. Sutiyem was raised in Central Indonesian since she was born and that she mainly used the Java with family, which is communicative limited within the Central Indonesia. Given the fact that Bahasa is the official language in Indonesia, it is mandatory to use in the education curriculum. For English, she did not receive any proper English classes; instead she learnt it aurally by listening to the routine conversations and interactions with her employers and tried to imitate. She then said it is the same mechanism to learn Cantonese. It is crucial for her to learn Cantonese and English for better communicative purposes, as she is required to take care of an elderly whom language use is limited to Cantonese. Also, learning English and Cantonese is to create an attachment to her employers at home, as both languages are identified as an important mediating instrument for communication. It is seen as more “participatory” in a sense. We believe the working condition could definitely exert an impact on their language usage. 

 Language shift in Indonesia 1970s

With deeper understanding in Sutiyem's language background, there was a previous experience of language shift back in Indonesia. Around the 1970s, there was a language shift from Java to the national language, Indonesian. Most of the Indonesian are demanded to speak Bahasa Indonesian, which makes the use of Java more confined to limited interaction and left it in the danger of extinction.

Living in a foreign country, how can they develop such a strong sense of community?

After talking to Sutiyem and her friends, Victoria Park has already been treated as their significant community spot to hang out. They have gone to other places like the Peak, but interestingly, they said it does not feel like a holiday if they do not come to this spot in Causeway Bay. This not only provided them with social meaning, but also a sense of “home” in a “host” country.Due to the fact of globalization, it draws Indonesian domestic helpers together and form the so-called "Indonesian Community" in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay. They actually speak Java within their group and we believe they are unified by their common language, which strengthened their internal ties.

Globalization

What is Globalization?

Globalization can be defined as a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development, and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world (Ashley 2009). 1One of the important indicators from globalization is the people movement and transport. 

In the case of Hong Kong...

As Hong Kong Chinese becoming wealthier and the availability of local workers decreased, Indonesian domestic helpers with temporary visas to enter Hong Kong can meet the demand. Globalization has drawn the Indonesian domestic helpers from less fortunate region to Hong Kong for them to earn more money. It was not until the 1990s the Indonesian domestic helpers gain popularity among Hong Kong employers, for the reason that they are perceived as less troublesome in comparing with other nationality of domestic helpers. In recent years, the latest census conducted by the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong (2006) has also shown that domestic helpers make up approximately two-thirds of the city’s non-Chinese population.

How did globalization affect domestic helpers' linguistic repertoire?

Transnational flow of labor is a signal of globalization, with its promising opportunity and money returned, people in less developed countries would eagerly hope to work in more developed places. This flow allowed people to come into contact with more different kinds of languages. They have the chance to learn and use them. However, not all the languages are weighted with equal importance. Like Cantonese, Indonesian helpers merely treat it as a tool for completing their routine work.

Why Indonesian and Filipino domestic helpers are preferred?

Given the fact that mainland Chinese are more communicative, mainland Chinese domestic helpers are not considered as a preference in fear that they would integrate into Hong Kong community and become permanent local residents during the 1908s and early 1990s. After reunification with China in 1997, Hong Kong becomes more defensive about the intrusion of mainland Chinese. At the same time, Chinese government officials also opposed mainland women to work as domestic helper which is seen as low-class. They did not want to create the impression of China as “third world” country.

1.Benedict, A. G. , 2009-01-07 "Richard Falk: Savior of Globalization" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, Hotel Intercontinental, New Orleans, LA Online . 2011-03-11 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p281992_index.html

5 facts about Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong

Before visiting our consultants, we have done some researches on the internet about Indonesian Domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Below are some facts that we have found.

Let’s know more about the situation of the Indonesian group in Hong Kong :D

1. Indonesian is the second largest group of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong. According to the data of the Immigration Department in 2008, there were all together 249 806 of foreign domestic helpers by the end of March, 2008. Among these, 50% were from the Philippines while those from Indonesia and Thailand ranked second and third respectively.

2. The popularity of Indonesian helpers is steadily increasing because they are more willing to work under pressure than the Filipinas. They will often tolerate mistreatments like underpayment, verbal and physical abuses. The Indonesian group is less likely to argue simply because they don’t want to lose their jobs.

3. Before commencing to work, Indonesian girls have to stay in Hong Kong to undergo training. They have to learn skills like cooking, doing housework, taking care of babies and some simple Cantonese.

4. Indonesian helpers most often cluster in Causeway Bay on Sunday to meet up with friends and relatives. Due to their religions, some of them will wear Islam clothing during the day out.

5. As there is a growing population of the Indonesian group, numbers of organizations are also held in order to help them fighting for benefits and rights. Examples are Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU) and Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong.

Welcome!

Hello, everybody!

We are Cherry, Cindy and Ingrid, studying at The University of Hong Kong. We are currently working on a blog on the topic of Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong. As its population in Hong Kong is steadily increasing, we would like to investigate this group of people, especially on their language behaviors.

Globalization allows the movements of goods, information, money, and bodies across the borders. Like the Indonesian group, they came to Hong Kong in search of works and opportunities. The money they earned not only help them to make a living here, it also helps their relatives in Indonesia to build houses and to send their children to schools etc.

When they reach a new place, language difference must be one of the hardest obstacles need to overcome. We hope to understand how they learn and practise different languages in a globalized neighbourhood like Hong Kong. Their stories in language repertoire, language attitude and language acquisition are our main focus to examine.

By presenting our analysis through this blog, we hope the situation of Indonesian domestic helpers can reach out to a wider audience.