Millennial Moms: Language Choice with Their Children - Survey Report

The use of either foreign language or vernacular language other than Indonesian language in the country of Indonesia has been a common finding in the society. We wanted to know through this survey how contextually our respondents especially from the category of millennial mothers communicate with their children. We managed to gather 625 responding millennial mothers and have them engaged as cooperating respondents in this survey.

First we asked the respondents how they chose the school for the children. 67.84% said that they sent their children to a regular school where there exists no bilingual program. 18.72% sent their children to a school and specifically to a bilingual class. While 6.4% of the respondents admitted to send their children to an international school.

There are mothers who would use different languages with their children for different purposes. However before we get deeper into specific situations we asked our responding millennial mothers what language(s) they use daily and generally with their children. 44.48% claimed to use both Indonesian and vernacular language. 22.08% use only Indonesian language. 20% claimed to use Indonesian, vernacular, and foreign language. 10.72% claimed to use both Indonesian and foreign language. Then only 2.24% use only vernacular language.

Now we are narrowing the situations one at a time. We are starting from when the mothers have a casual conversation with their children. Apparently 74.4% of the responding mothers claimed to use Indonesian language; 24% claimed to use vernacular language; and, only 1.6% of the mothers claimed to use foreign language when conversing with their children.

When teaching something to their children, apparently the responding mothers claimed to use Indonesian language (80.96%), vernacular language (12%), and foreign language (7.04%).

When giving a compliment to their children, 74.72% of our responding millennial mothers claimed to use Indonesian language. Out of the tradition 13.6% of the mothers use a foreign language. Then 11.68% of the mothers use vernacular language.

When scolding or giving a warning to their children, 69.12% of our responding millennial mothers claimed to use Indonesian language. 27.52% claimed to use vernacular language. Then 3.36% claimed to use foreign language.

When reading a story to their children, majority of our responding millennial mothers (91.84%) claimed to use Indonesian language. 4.48% claimed to use foreign language, and 3.68% use vernacular language.

When singing a song to their children, 80% of the responding mothers use Indonesian language, 17.6% use foreign language, while as little as 2.4% use vernacular language.

Sometimes parents need to be in control of what their children are watching. 76.48% of our responding millennial mothers claimed to pick or select movies in Indonesian language. 21.92% select movies in foreign language and only 1.6% select movies in vernacular language for their children.

When selecting a reading for the children to read, 89.92% of our responding millennial mothers claimed to pick a reading in Indonesian language. 9.12% of the respondents pick a reading in foreign language. And only a small amount of our responding mothers (0.96%) pick a reading in vernacular language.

When asking their children a favor, 77.12% of the respondents said they would use Indonesian language. As much as 17.44% of the respondents use vernacular language, while 5.44% use foreign language.

When leaving a note or writing a note to their children, almost all of our responding millennial mothers (90.72%) claimed to use Indonesian language in the writing. 7.04% would use vernacular language. And, 2.24% would use foreign language.

Specifically for our responding millennial mothers who use other than Indonesian language with their children, there has been a claim that 87.47% said other family members of theirs also use other than Indonesian language with the children. Only 12.53% of the responding mothers admitted that they are the only ones in the family who use other than Indonesian language with the children.

Now we are about to find out the reasons for the use of other than Indonesian language with the children by the mothers. Number one reason (claimed by 64.89%) says that our responding mothers would love to have their children possess other languages skills other than Indonesian for a better future. 16.84% claimed that the children are used to the use of other languages other than Indonesian. 10.27% claimed that the interest of using other languages at firs came from the children themselves. As for the last reason, 5.13% of the responding mothers claimed that the school where the children go does not teach them other languages.

For the foreign languages, our responding mothers use English (94.27%) and Mandarin (3.65%). That shows how English might be considered the most urgent language to learn by the children other than our national one although they may not use it today.

For the vernacular languages, 68.11% of our responding millennial mothers claimed to use a vernacular language that comes from where the mothers originate. 22.3% claimed to use a vernacular language that is completely different from where neither the mothers nor the husbands come from. Lastly, 9.59% of our responding mothers claimed that the language used with their children comes from where the husband or father comes.

We then wanted to know just a little deeper into the background of our responding mothers. We asked whether they come from the same region therefore use the same language as their husband. 63.84% of the responding mothers claimed that their husband and they come from the same region and use the same vernacular language. 36.16% claimed otherwise.

For more detail you can download XLS report at the button below (bahasa). JAKPAT report consists of 3 parts which are 1) Respondent Profile, 2) Crosstabulation for each question and 3) Raw Data. Respondent profile shows you demographic profiles ( gender,age range, location by province, and monthly spending). Cross tabulation enables you to define different demographic segment preference on each answer.