Name : Nur Azmi Khairani

Course : Sociolinguistics

My Experience in Learning The First and The Second Language

Indonesian is one of the identities of Indonesian people and is a unifying tool for the
nation.  Therefore, Indonesian is one of the things that must be preserved and maintained by the
people of Indonesia.  This is reflected in education, which makes Indonesia one of the objects in
teaching and learning activities.  Precisely be subjects, namely Indonesian subjects.  In particular,
every level of formal education in Indonesia such as kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high
schools, senior high schools, and institutions of higher education teaches these Indonesian
subjects.  Thus, all students must have learned Indonesian.  Although in my communication, I am
fluent in Indonesian, but the language must have some characteristics and values in it.  The goal is
that I can communicate more politely with the person I'm talking to.

 We often hear the terms mother tongue and second language.  Mother tongue (mother
tongue, first language; literally mother tongue, mother tongue, mother tongue, or first language in
English) is the first language learned by someone.  And that person is called the native speaker of
that language.  Usually a child learns the basics of their first language from their family.  Whereas the
second language (Language 2) or L2 is a type of language that is not a native language (main
language) for speakers, but is often used in the environment of speakers as a medium of continuous
communication.  The second language is different from foreign languages, because foreign
languages are additional languages learned by speakers, but are not applied in the area of speakers.

  My name is nur azmi khairani, I am often called Rani.  In my experience, my first language is
Indonesian and my second language is alas language.  I come from the district of Southeast Aceh,
especially Kutacane.  A little info, kutacane is a district that has various tribes, such as Aceh, Gayo,
Alas and others.  I grew up in a place that has a lot of language variations.  Even though it is still
classified as aceh province but the Acehnese language in Kutacane can be said to be almost extinct
because its location is very close to the province of North Sumatra and also people already have their
own language, alas language.  So the language that is often used there is Indonesian.  As already
explained that Indonesian is the unifying language of the nation.

 I was born from both parents who have ethnic differences.  My father has an Acehnese tribe
while my mother has a Karo tribe.  Because of these ethnic differences to communicate inside the
house, we use Indonesian.  talking about the mother tongue that crossed my mind is
Indonesian.  Because, the first word I get in family is Indonesian.  But when there are family
gatherings, my father's entire family communicates using Acehnese.  The reason my father chose
Indonesians over Acehnese to communicate at home was so that all family members understood and
could respond again.  In contrast to my brother, he continued his high school in Banda Aceh.  Now
the second language is Aceh.  While my sister she can only speak one language, Indonesian.  Every
child must have advantages and disadvantages of each in each. I have never blamed my parents for
the incident.  Because in my opinion the second language is not only we can be in the family
environment even from the social and school environment we can learn a second language.

  In short, when I first entered the world of education, the Nusantara Kindergarten Education
Center (NEC) was located in Lawe sigala District.  At that time I had started to get a little foreign
language namely English and there was also Indonesian language lessons.  I think at such a young
age it is too fast to learn foreign languages.  Because of this incident I forgot to learn the local
language.  Over time, I was in junior high school, I started with only one language background,
Indonesian.  fortunately, in my class children are more dominant who have a tribal basis so they
communicate with each other using an alas language.  When they say "bende be" automatically my
brain immediately switches to Indonesian to interpret it and capture all the vocabulary.  After
capturing all my vocabulary, I immediately said it and there was communication.

 Continue education to senior high school level.  I became more fluent in communicating
using an alas language.  Until one day, I followed Persami (Saturday Camp) held by the head of
scouts at my place.  We were placed in villages where the majority of the population used alas
language.  There is an activity called "Natural Panorama" and all teams are divided into groups.   The
purpose of this activity is to explore the natural beauty that is there.  But we were not given a map or
direction, so we were asked to seek information from the local community.  From there I used to
communicate using that language.  So, you could say my second language is alas language.  The
second language that I don't get from my family but I get in school and the social environment.  It
has been proven that language learning is not only at home.  Actually I am not too obsessive to be a
bilingual child.  Bilingual children can speak more one languages. Children who are bilingual are very
good, they have the intelligence to speak very well.  But in my opinion while I can speak Indonesian
properly and correctly that's enough.  Because Indonesian is the most important language when we
go to other people's cities.  Because we live in Indonesia, Indonesian is the national language that
will become our identity. that is my little story about my experience in getting my mother tongue and
second language.