Research topic:

The using of multilingual in Ridwan Kamil captions on instagram

Key words:
Ridwan

Kamil,

multilingual,

instagram,

sociolinguistic,

educational

background
Background of the research:
In this modern era we used to talk with many people from different district
even different country. We also can use social media to have a chat with
many people in the world. Of course in order to talk with them we use a
same language to deliver our message, to make them understand our
ideas, to make a conversation and to get a feedback of interaction. There
must be many factors that influence the capability of using many
languages in communication. Those could be the educational background
of the person, the social environment, or the person interest of language.
Here, we try to figure the reasons out. We will try to analyze the capability
of Ridwan Kamil in his way of interaction with his people by using three
languages in social media. As we know that he is the leader of Bandung
city, and we also know that he is a very active leader in social media in
order to talk with his people. In his interaction with his people in social
media he uses three languages; they are Bahasa, Sundanese, and English.
In this analysis we will focus on his captions on instagram.
Purpose of the research:
The purpose of this proposal is to analyze how education of people that
can use multilingual in their way to speak in social media. The following
research question will guide the proposed study. How educational
background influenced ability of multilingual speaking?
In doing so, the proposed study aims to investigate the experience of
Ridwan Kamil (Major of Bandung) in using of multilingual in Social Media
(Instagram), to know the advantages and the effect of multilingual use, to
know how he uses language switching, investigate the educational
background of Ridwan Kamil and investigate his reasons to use

multilingual. Through identify his Social Media (Instagram) during July till
October 2015.
Significance of the research:
Multilingualism is an ability to use many languages, Ridwan Kamil is one
of the leader that interact with his people in social media like Instagram.
He uses three languages in his social media, they are Sundanese, Bahasa,
and English. He has programs called Rebo Nyunda, and for Thursday it is
English and for the rest he uses Bahasa. He also suggests his people to
join these programs.
Ridwan Kamil captions on his instagram majority use multi-lingual and
also give some advantages for the society especially for Bandung Citizen
who follows his instagram because they know much about variety of
language that is used by Ridwan Kamil. Cultural observers get the benefit
because he directly introduces Sundanese culture and language. The
government also gets benefit because multi-lingual that is used by Ridwan
Kamil gives the positive sense to the Citizen. There is no gap between the
city government, mayor, and the youth who live in Bandung. It makes
easier to mobility the government systems which are used in Bandung.
Research questions:
This proposed study will seek to answer this central research question:
How educational background influenced ability of multilingual speaking?
In addition the following guiding questions have been formulated in order
to guide the data collection process.

How does Ridwan Kamil educational background?

What are Ridwan Kamil reasons to use multilingual in his social

media (Instagram)?
Does Ridwan Kamil ability in multilingual speaking influence by the

environment?
How Ridwan Kamil does language switching when he talks?

Literature review:
Multilingual is two or more language. Multilingual is also a person
who speaks more than languages. Multilingualism is the use of two
languages or more. For Ridwan Kamil, he is a trilingual people or a person

who speaks three languages fluently. He speaks Sundanese language,

Indonesian and English. He speaks two and three language in one his
caption on instagram. For example: Alhamdulilah berhasil deal untuk
lokasi little Bandung di Paris, dijalan Rue Mountmarte kolaborasi
dgn caf Djawa. Untuk jualan kreatif Bandung * feeling excited.
That caption has two language. He used Indonesian and English in one
caption. Feeling excited, little, deal are English and the remainder are
Indonesian. Terapi akupuntur. My body is fighting me. Maybe a bit
too much to work.* kalo sakit badan tusuklah jarum2 di badan.
Kalo sakit hati tusuklah jarum2 di raray si mantan.#sikap. He used
three language in one caption (Sundanese, Indonesian and English). My
body is fighting me, maybe a bit too much to work is English language,
raray is Sundanese which means face (Noun).
The reason why he uses multilingual and trilingual in his captions on
instagram because he lives in Bandung where the people use Sundanese.
Bandung is part of Indonesia, so he speaks Indonesian. He is also welleducated person, he had lived in America, Beijing, and many countries
where he spoke with international language, English. So, that the reason
why he speaks multilingual.
Besides the region residence of Ridwan Kamil, his educational
background also influences his multilingual. Ridwan Kamis was born in
Bandung. He graduated from architecture department of ITB and also
graduated from Urban Design Department of University of California,
Berkeley. After that he continued to work as professional architect at many
firmas in America. Now, he is a mayor of Bandung. Because of his
education experience, he can speak multilingual well.
So, how to build a multilingual skill with language switching? The
way to learn another language and make us to be a multilingual person is
practicing. We can master many language and use it multilingually if we
practice it well and continually. What practice that we use? We can watch
movie with L2 that we want to learn, speaking to our friends with bilingual
language or we can be like Mr. Ridwan Kamil that use bilingual or

multilingual in one status or caption in social media. It can influence us

naturally to speak bilingually.
The advantages of speaking more than one language or multilingual
are:

1. You can understand and appreciate cultural references.

If we understand one language automatically we also learn about its
culture. It is the same if we learn many languages. We learn the
languages, we learn the cultures, we learn the differences, and well
know how to communicate with the speaker of the language well.

2. Bilingualism can create job opportunities and help you navigate the
world.

3. You feel a sense of connection with your heritage, history and family.
4. Your interactions with people of different cultures go deeper.
There are also the social effects of multilingual. Of course, people
who are multilingual are the open-minded people and easy to form a
group and communicate in society. People who speak multilingual are
more confident than who cant. Ridwan Kamil is the confident one who
writes down his caption in multilingual. He has written multilingual caption
in funny, moderate, or serious ways. His captions are always interesting
and inspiring many people. Besides multilingual people are usually being
the chief or the leader in a group. Why? Because they can control and
communicate with many people from variety countries or languages
easily, so people likely trust them to lead the group and make it
developing. Ridwan Kamil is a professional major of Bandung who had
made many good changes in urban design, system and development of
Bandung. He has made much cooperation with entrepreneurs and
governments from other country. It happened because he is smart and he
can speak English well.

Theoretical and methodological approach:

Chaer and leonie (2004) says that bilingualism is the ability of a speaker
to use two languages equally well. People who can use two languages are
called bilingual or bilingual people. The ability to use two languages called
bilingualism. While multilingualism or bilingualism that state for more than
two languages used by a person in interaction with others in turn.
The use of bilingualism or multilingualism depend on its use of social
situations and interaction functions. Who is talking to whom, situation or
social context, and the purpose or intent to interact strongly influence the
selection of languages.
Additionally, Hymes (1972) suggested some linguistic variables, the place,
talk atmosphere, people involved in the talks, the purpose of the
conversation, speech acts, tone and accent, disclosure tools, norms talk
and kind of talks. The main reason for the changes is the need for people
to communicate in a familiar manner with each other. When different
individuals meet and communicate, who first performed is they tend to
adjust their speech and this tends to be done in order that they may be
able to communicate with and understand (poedjosoedaro, 2004) When
communicating, they can ignore the rules of standard codes, then for
maintain relationship, they usually adjust themselves.
Symptoms such as these can be seen in two or more individuals who
come from backgrounds different dialects or languages. They are used to
shift their mindset and think more flexibly. Furthermore, people who are
bilingual or multilingual people are more tolerant than monolingual (de
Cuellar, 1995).
Research method
Method of collecting data
The method used in this research is survey method with the sociological
approach. Data were drawn from this research is in the form caption which
Ridwan

Kamil

uses

through

his

social

media

on

instagram

(IG:

ridwankamil), because the leader of Bandung is a multilingual who is

famous for his eccentric language. The language used by Ridwan Kamil in

social media instagram is recorded as reference data. Then the data is

used to determine the social factors that influence the occurrence of
someone who is multilingual and how someone who uses multilingual
languages choose in communication, then the next step is to classify and
analyze the data.
Data analysis method
After data collection is complete, the data is analyzed by descriptive
qualitative method. Research carried out solely based on the facts or
phenomena of the speakers, so that the rexorded form of various
language to say its like a potrait without considering the truth or falsity of
the use of language by the speakers.
Methods of Data Presentation
The method used to present the data in this study is a qualitative method.
The data used is not in the form of statistics, but only described
descriptively.
Sample analysis
No

Examples of captions on Ridwan Kamils instagram

Urban farming sayur mayur di atas sungai citepus. Ini membuktikan

bahwa

orang

kota

bisa

jadi

produsen

tidak

hanya

konsumen.

Membuktikan kita bisa bercocok tanam dimana saja.

Rapat pimpinan bada subuh bersama walikota dan sekda kota Bandung.
2

Pagi ini udara Bandung sangant segar dan fresh seperti wajah Chelsea
Islan
Alhamdulilah berhasil deal untuk lokasi little Bandung di Paris, dijalan

Rue Mountmarte kolaborasi dgn caf Djawa. Untuk jualan kreatif

Bandung * feeling excited
That awkward moment ketika kita mau salaman, eh si doi gak mau.*

langsung saya pura2 garuk2 batu akik.* sanes muhrimna* sejak itu saya
hobi salam bungkuk jepang.
Terapi akupuntur. My body is fighting me. Maybe a bit too much to

work.* kalo sakit badan tusuklah jarum2 di badan. Kalo sakit hati

tusuklah jarum2 di raray si mantan.#sikap

Ibu saya begitu bahagia berbagi cerita masa kecil saya yang nakal
ramai dan riweh.*dan saya pun hanya bisa ungu tersipu dan keringat

7
8
9
10

dingin. Everything to make you happy mom, including those akik.

Depan tulisanya: persib nu aink . belakang tulisanya: aink nu gelo *
buligir without sixpack is a serious crime
Maaf bapa2, da kumaha atuh, jaim is not my not middle name. *dan
dikepret paspamres setelahnya.
Hirup teh kudu dilatih ku peurih, dituntun ku santun, di asuh ku lungguh,
diasuh ku nyaah, dipiara ku rasa, dijaga ku dua
Maybe your life is too serious. Even the sun and birds smile.

Bibliography:
Arsana, Andi made I & Catharina B.N panduan mengenai proposal
penelitian, depansar 2012 edisi 1 cv. Nawangpalupi
http://ilanguages.org/bilingual.php
http://hadipratama26.blogspot.co.id/2014/01/biografi-dan-cerita-ridwankamil.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/02/multilingualbenefits_n_5399980.html