Indonesia Is Already Polyglot. So Why Is English Still Difficult?

Indonesia is often described as a country that needs to learn English better. But that statement is too simple. Indonesia is not a monolingual country struggling with language. It is one of the most linguistically rich countries in the world.

Badan Bahasa reports that Indonesia has 718 regional languages. This means English education in Indonesia does not happen in an empty language space. It happens inside a society where many people already move between local languages, Bahasa Indonesia, and English exposure.

So the more useful question is not “Why are Indonesians bad at English?” The better question is: if Indonesians are already multilingual, why does academic English still feel difficult?

Many countries teach second languages mainly through formal education. Indonesia is different because multilingualism often exists before English learning begins.

In many families, children grow up hearing or using a regional language, then learn Bahasa Indonesia as the national language. Later, they meet English through school, exams, internet content, entertainment, or scholarship requirements.

Many Indonesian learners naturally move between language systems every day. They may use a local language at home, Bahasa Indonesia at school or work, English phrases online, and formal English when preparing for scholarships or international study.

This ability to move between contexts is powerful. But academic English is not just another casual language layer. It requires formal vocabulary, paragraph logic, argument development, careful reading, and precise writing.

A common misunderstanding is that if someone speaks more than one language, they should easily succeed in English tests. Multilingual experience can help with language awareness, flexibility, and confidence. However, IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, and scholarship writing require a more specific kind of English control.

The EF English Proficiency Index 2025 places Indonesia at global rank 80 out of 123 countries and regions, with a national score of 471, in the low proficiency band.

A 2025 study on Generation Z multilingualism in South Sulawesi found that 63.3% of respondents used Indonesian as their first language, followed by Bugis at 18.3% and Makassarese at 15%. For third-language use, English dominated at 65%.

Many Indonesian learners already know English words from the internet, music, movies, games, apps, product names, and social media. But test English is different from exposure English.

There is a hidden opportunity here. Students who can explain ideas well in Bahasa Indonesia often have a foundation for English writing because they already understand reasoning, examples, paragraph movement, and audience awareness.

Many learners begin English through translation. That is normal. But if they stay there too long, they can hit a ceiling. They think in Indonesian, translate word by word, and then produce English that sounds unnatural.

For Indonesian learners, reading is not only comprehension practice. It is the bridge between multilingual experience and academic English control.

Reading shows learners how English sentences are built, how paragraphs move, how arguments develop, and how formal vocabulary works in context.

Writing is the clearest evidence of whether a learner can control English. A learner can guess meanings while reading, use subtitles while listening, or understand English content passively. But writing forces the learner to produce structure.

This is why IELTS Writing, TOEFL Writing, PTE written tasks, scholarship essays, motivation letters, and university assignments are difficult. They require controlled output, not just exposure.

The ordinary solution is “study more English.” The better solution is “train language transfer.” This means helping learners move from local and Indonesian language intelligence into English reading awareness, sentence control, paragraph control, and test or scholarship performance.

Indonesia is already a multilingual country. Many Indonesians grow up managing more than one language, switching between home, school, social, cultural, and formal contexts. That is not weakness. That is an advantage.

But English for IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, scholarships, and university study requires a different kind of language ability. It requires academic reading, formal writing, precise vocabulary, paragraph logic, and test-ready performance.

• Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa. (2025). Masa Depan Bahasa Daerah.
• EF Education First. (2025). EF English Proficiency Index: Indonesia country page / fact sheet.
• Cendekia / Jurnal P4I. (2025). Multilingualisme pada Generasi Z dan Upaya Pemertahanan Bahasa.
• Garuda Kemdiktisaintek. (2025). Metadata page for the same Cendekia article.
• Secretariat Cabinet of Indonesia. (2023). Merdeka Belajar untuk Revitalisasi Bahasa Daerah yang Terancam.