Jurnal Akuntansi & Keuangan

Prudential fails in bid to buy Asian insurer AIA: report

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 6/18/2010

LONDON (AFP) – British insurer Prudential's attempt to buy the Asian unit of US group AIG has ended in failure, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

The deal collapsed after Prudential failed to negotiate a lower price for AIA, the BBC said.

Prudential had asked AIG (American International Group) to cut its asking price of 35.5 billion dollars (29 billion euros) to nearer 30 billion dollars, following a revolt by the British company's shareholders.

But AIG said that "after careful consideration, the company will adhere to the original terms of its previously announced agreement."

"The company will not consider revisions to those terms," it added.

If the collapse of the deal is confirmed, it would pile fresh pressure on Prudential's chief executive Tidjane Thiam, who wants to transform the 162-year-old British company into an international insurance powerhouse.

The takeover would have been the biggest ever in the insurance sector, transforming Prudential into the world's top non-Chinese insurer by market capitalisation, ahead of major competitors Allianz and AXA.

How To Choose Credit Card?

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 6/18/2010

Choosing Credit Card is easy as 1,2 and 3. Just follow 3 steps : Doing some research, make compare, then apply. Nowadays, we always use credit card in many aspect of life. We need credit card to easy payment. Pay bills with credit card make life more easier. There are many offer so we can get best price and discount when using credit card.

To choose credit card, you have to compare credit card offers. You have to compare which one is low interest credit cards, balance transfer cards, instant approval cards, reward credit cards, airline credit cards, cash back credit cards, prepaid debit cards, student credit cards, business credit cards, credit cards for bad credit and gas credit cards.

Which one is secured?
Comparing by issuer, there are many credit card issuer you should choose which are secured credit cards. Chase, discover, citu, american express, hsbc, bank of america, capital one and first national bank omaha is the example.

Conservatism in Accounting

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 9/12/2008

by. Ross L. Watts

Abstract
This paper examines conservatism in accounting. Conservatism is defined as the differential verifiability required for recognition of profits versus losses. In its extreme form the definition incorporates the traditional conservatism adage: “anticipate no profit,but anticipate all losses.” Despite criticism from many quarters, including standard-setters, conservatism appears not only to have survived in accounting for many centuries,but also to have increased in the last 30years.

The paper lays out the various alternative explanations for conservatism: contracting; shareholder litigation; taxation and accounting regulation (e.g., SEC and FASB). It also summarizes the empirical evidence on the existence of conservatism and the extent to which it is consistent with the alternative explanations for conservatism. The evidence is consistent with both the existence of conservatism and its increase in recent years. Contracting and shareholder litigation explanations appear to be important in these results. The evidence on the effect of taxation and regulation is weaker, but is still consistent with those explanations playing a role. Earnings management could also produce some of the evidence on conservatism, but it is unlikely to be the major explanation.

The explanations and evidence have important implications for accounting
regulators (SEC and FASB). First, the contracting explanation implies that conservatism will exist even in the absence of formal contractual use of financial statements. As long as income and net asset measures have meaning and are used in a way that affects management’s welfare, conservatism is likely to be an optimal accounting principle. Absent differential verifiability, financial measures such as income and net assets are likely to be subject to sufficient manipulation to render them meaningless. Second, recent FASB moves to apply rules such as mark-to-market without appropriate concern for verifiability are likely to be disastrous for the FASB and capital markets. Third, attempts to introduce unverifiable estimates of future cash flows into the financial statements are likely to just as disastrous.

Is Accounting Conservatism Due to Debt or Equity Markets?

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 9/12/2008

by: Ray Ball, Ashok Robin and Gil Sadka

Abstract
We provide a simple test of “costly contracting” and “value relevance theories” of accounting, using data on the importance of countries’ debt and equity markets. Contracting (debt markets) theory predicts conditional conservatism, in the Basu (1997) sense of asymmetrically timelier loss recognition than gain recognition, a proxy for which is greater sensitivity of earnings to negative returns than to positive returns. Contracting theory also predicts the degree of asymmetry increases in the importance of a country’s debt markets, but not in the importance of equity markets. In contrast, value relevance (equity markets) theory implies a symmetric and strong relation between earnings and returns, regardless of the sign of returns. Furthermore, contracting theory predicts that unconditional conservatism, in the sense of unconditionally low earnings and book values, does not increase contracting efficiency, and thus is unrelated to debt market importance. Data from a small cross-sectional sample of 22 countries are consistent with all of the predictions of “costly contracting” theory.

Conclusions
Our analysis of data from twenty-two countries supports the hypothesis that financial reporting conservatism – in the Basu (1997) sense of conditional conservatism, or timelier loss recognition than gain recognition – originates in the reporting demands of debt markets, but not of equity markets. These results are inconsistent with the basic premise of the “value relevance” school of accounting thought, in which the sole criterion for financial reporting is the linear correlation between book values and some notion of underlying market or “true” value. The results are consistent with the “costly contracting” school of accounting thought, and in particular with the hypothesis that the reporting demands of the debt market exert a substantial impact on accounting practice. This hypothesis has origins at least as early as Gilman (1939), and more recently has been proposed by Watts and Zimmerman (1986), Watts (1993, 2003a,b) and Holthausen and Watts (2001).
Despite the centrality of this issue, we are aware of no direct test of the roles of
debt and equity markets in shaping financial reporting practice. Our test relates individual country measures of gain and loss recognition timeliness with the relative sizes of the countries’ debt and equity markets, scaled by their Gross National Products. These variables proxy for the relative importance of debt markets and equity markets in the countries’ economies. The rationale for this measure is that financial reporting is a costly activity, and the observed quantity of it in practice should depend on demand. If timely loss recognition is in lower demand in a country because it has more poorly developed capital markets, then that country will be less likely to expend costly resources in implementing it. Our measure of demand is market size. We find a significant positive relation between all measures of loss recognition and debt market size, but a negative or insignificant relation with equity market size. The loss recognition effect is economically as well as statistically significant, in that a one standard deviation increase in a country’s ratio of debt to GNP is associated with a 0.08 increase in the regression slope for accounting income on negative stock returns, which large in relation to the cross-country mean of 0.21. Further, we find no relation between gain recognition and either debt or equity market size. The asymmetry timeliness of between the loss and gain recognition results is inconsistent with “value relevance,” which predicts symmetry.

Finally, as predicted by costly contracting theory, we find no relation between unconditional conservatism and debt markets. We conclude that conditional conservatism (asymmetrically timely loss recognition) exists for efficiency of contracting in debt markets, and unconditional conservatism (low book values, independent of economic gains and losses) does not.

The Market Reaction to the Choice of Accounting Method for Stock Splits and Large Stock Dividends

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. Graeme Rankine; Earl K. Stice

Prior research has used inaccurate classification rules to distinguish between stock splits and stock dividends. The CRSP classification of two-for-one stock distributions agrees with the actual accounting treatment only 23% of the time. In addition, the accounting treatment impacts the announcement period reaction-two for one distributions accounted for as stock dividends are associated with five-day announcement period returns of 2,70%, significantly greater that the 0,93% announcement returns for distributions accounted for as stock splits. Announcement returns are posi....

Earnings and Stock Splits

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. Paul Asquith; Paul Healy; Krishna Palepu

This paper examines whether stock splits convey information about earnings. The results indicate that firms split their shares after a significant increase in earnings. Before the stock split announcement, the market expects these earnings increase to be temporary. The split announcement leads investors to increase their expectations that the past earnings increases are permanent. The evidence also suggest that the market's reaction to split announcement cannot be attributed to expectations of either future earnings increases or near-term cash dividend increases.

Ownership Structure, Financial Constraints and Investment Decisions: Evidence from a Panel of Italian Firms

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. Francesco Crespi and Giuseppe Scellato

Over the past two decades, a wide empirical literature has addressed the theme of firm-level financial constraints, supporting the hypothesis that the availability of internal funds is indeed a major driver of investment decisions. The largest part of such empirical analyses detects the presence of liquidity constraints from the observation of differentials in investment-cash flow elasticities among sub groups of companies. However, the theoretical side of the issue is still debated. Investment – cash flow sensitivity can be attributed to the presence of two different factors: asymmetric information on capital markets or internal agency problems leading to overinvestment by the management. In this paper, using a new sample of 1035 Italian manufacturing firms observed in the period 1998-2003, we try to disentangle the different potential determinants underlying the observed positive elasticity between investments and internal resources by accounting for both the ownership structure of the companies and the role played by financial intermediaries as both investors and debt-holders. The most interesting result emerging from our analysis is related to the presence of an inverted – U relationship between concentration of ownership and the elasticity of investment to cashflow. The overall evidence is supportive of the hypothesis that the elevated dependence of investment in both tangible and intangible capital on internal resources cannot be fully attributed to frictions on the credit market.

Over the past two decades, a wide empirical literature has addressed the theme of
firm-level financial constraints, supporting the hypothesis that the availability of internal funds is indeed a major driver of investment decisions (Himmelberg and Petersen, 1994; Schiantarelli, 1996; Carpenter and Petersen, 2002; Audretsch and Elston 2002). The largest part of such empirical analyses is based on refinements of the original model by Fazzari, Hubbard and Petersen (1988) which derives the presence of liquidity constraints from the observation of differentials in investment-cash flow elasticities among sub groups of companies. In this context, a significantly higher dependence through time of investments to internally generated cash flow can be interpreted as a signal of a higher premium on external financial resources.

Leverage and Investment in Diversified Firms

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. Seoungpil Ahn and David J. Denis

Abstract
Within diversified firms, the negative impact of leverage on investment is significantly greater for high q than for low q segments, and significantly greater for non-core than for core segments. This is consistent with the view that diversified firms allocate a disproportionate share of their debt service burden to their higher q and non-core segments. We also find that among low-growth firms, the positive relation between leverage and firm value is significantly weaker in diversified firms than in focused firms. We conclude that the disciplinary benefits of debt are partially offset by the additional managerial discretion in allocating debt service that is provided by the diversified organizational structure.

Firm Ownership and Investment Efficiency in China

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. David Dollar and Shang-Jin Wei

Based on a survey that we designed and that covers a stratified random sample of 12,400 firms in 120 cities in China with firm-level accounting information for 2002-2004, this paper examines the presence of systematic distortions in capital allocation that result in uneven marginal returns to capital across firm ownership, regions, and sectors. It provides a systematic comparison of investment efficiency among wholly and partially state-owned, wholly and partially foreign-owned, and domestic privately owned firms, conditioning on their sector, location, and size
characteristics. It finds that even after a quarter-of-century of reforms, state-owned firms still have significantly lower returns to capital, on average, than domestic private or foreign-owned firms. Similarly, certain regions and sectors have consistently lower returns to capital than other regions and sectors. By our calculation, if China succeeds in allocating its capital more efficiently, it could reduce its investment intensity by 5 percent of GDP without sacrificing its economic growth (and hence deliver a greater improvement to its citizens’ living standard).

VALUE BASED MANAGEMENT: Economic Value Added or Cash Value Added?

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. Fredrik Weissenrieder

Corporate managers now face a period where a new economic framework that better reflects value and profitability must be implemented in their companies. Accounting systems, which has been used up until today, are insufficient and will not stand the challenge from the increasingly efficient capital markets and owners. The increased efficiency at the capital markets requires that capital allocation within companies become more efficient and it is therefore not possible for companies to in the future
allocate capital as inefficient as they do today. A new economic framework, a Value Based Manage-ment framework that better reflects opportunities and pitfalls, is therefore necessary. In my opinion, there are four major frameworks within Value Based Management; Economic Value Added (EVA®1), Cash Value Added (CVA2), Cash Flow Return on Investments (CFROI), and Share-holder Value Analysis (SVA). A company can chose one of these four for their company's economic framework of the future. The choice will have a substantial effect on management resources, strategy choices, and on how investors, analysts, media, etc view the company. This paper will deal with EVA and CVA, the two most frequent concepts in Sweden. Many things are being said about the two frameworks. I will in this paper present my reflections on a few similarities and differences of the two frameworks. In section 2 I will briefly discuss Value Based Management in general. Section 3 discusses the parts of the CVA concept that is necessary for the comparison with EVA. Section 4 discusses the parts of the EVA concept that is necessary for the comparison with CVA. Section 4 will also discuss whether EVA functions as a Value Based Management concept (which is its objective) or just another version of accounting. Section 5 will discuss the alleged necessity, for technical reasons, of basing a Value Based Management tool on accounting which EVA does, contra the possibility of basing it directly on Cash Flow which CVA does. Section 6 further compares EVA to CVA and it discusses the final cor-rections that are necessary to eventually have EVA become a concept that simulates cash flow. Sec-tion 7 will discuss the Market Value Added concept, and then we have the conclusion in section 8. In Appendix 1 I will discuss a company's concept of value from the shareholders' perspective. All figures, graphs and tables in the paper are my own.

I will leave out some interesting aspects in order to keep this paper a paper and not a book, e.g. the problems that we find in accounting's consolidation of multinational corporations, i.e. consolidation effects from inflation and currency effects, which also influence the quality of EVA.

Corporate Governance, Accounting Outcomes, and Organizational Performance

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

The empirical research examining the association between typical measures of corporate governance and various accounting and economic outcomes has not produced a consistent set of results. We believe that these mixed results are partially attributable to the difficulty in generating reliable and valid measures for the complex construct that is termed “corporate governance.” Using a sample of 2,106 firms and 39 structural measures of corporate governance (e.g., board characteristics, stock ownership, institutional ownership, activist stock ownership, existence of debt-holders, mix of executive compensation, and anti-takeover variables), our exploratory principal component analysis suggests that there are 14 dimensions to corporate governance. We find that these indices have a mixed association with abnormal accruals, little relation to accounting restatements, but some ability to explain future operating performance and future excess stock returns.

A Comparison of Dividend, Cash Flow and Earnings Approaches to Equity Valution

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. Stephen H. Penman and Theodore Sougiannis

Standard formulas for valuing equities require prediction of payoffs "to infinity" for going concerns but a practical analysis requires that they be predicted over finite horizons. This truncation inevitably involves (often troublesome) "terminal value" calculations. This paper contrasts dividend discount techniques, discounted cash flow analysis, and techniques based on accrual earnings when applied to a finite-horizon valuation. Valuations based on average ex post payoffs over various horizons, with and without terminal value calculations, are compared with (ex ante) market prices to give an indication of the error introduced by each technique in truncating the horizon. Comparisons of these errors show that accrual earnings techniques dominate free cash flow and dividend discounting approaches. Further, the relevant accounting features of each technique are identified and the source of the accounting that makes it less than ideal for finite horizon analysis (and for which it requires a correction) are discovered. Conditions where a given technique requires particularly long forecasting horizons are identified and the performance of the alternative techniques under those conditions is examined.

Information Risk and the Cost of Debt Capital

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

by. Sattar A. Mansi, William F. Maxwell and Darius P. Miller

We test whether forecast dispersion is related to the uncertainty of economic fundamentals by exploiting the unique attributes of the corporate bond market. We find strong evidence that forecast dispersion is positively priced in corporate bond yields. We also provide evidence that other firm specific information measures, such as the level of idiosyncratic risk, analyst following, forecast bias,
ownership structure, probability of informed trading (PIN), executive compensation, age, size, and accounting disclosures impact the spread on corporate bonds, but do not subsume the effect of dispersion. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the dispersion of analysts’ forecasts represents a forward looking measure of information risk that is priced in financial markets.

Day of The Week Effect and Market Efficiency

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 8/26/2008

DAY OF THE WEEK EFFECT AND MARKET EFFICIENCY – EVIDENCE FROM INDIAN EQUITY MARKET USING HIGH FREQUENCY DATA OF NATIONAL STOCK EXCHANGE
by Golaka C Nath & Manoj Dalvi

The present study examines empirically the day of the week effect anomaly in the Indian equity market for the period from 1999 to 2003 using both high frequency and end of day data for the benchmark Indian equity market index S&P CNX NIFTY. Using robust regression with biweights and dummy variables, the study finds that before introduction of rolling settlement in January 2002, Monday and Friday were significant days. However after the introduction of the rolling settlement, Friday has become significant. This also indicates that Fridays, being the last days of the weeks have become significant after rolling settlement. Mondays were found to have higher standard deviations followed by Fridays. The existence of market inefficiency is clear. The market inefficiency still exists and market is yet to price the risk appropriately.

Granger (daftar Referensi)

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 7/26/2008

Untuk Nofri di Padang yang menanyakan buku-buku referensi Metode Penelitian dengan menggunakan Granger Kausalitas, ini bukunya ya:

1) Metode Riset Untuk Bisnis & Ekonomi, bagaimana meneliti dan menulis Tesis?
Mudrajat Kuncoro, Phd
Penerbit Erlangga,
halaman 255

2) Pendekatan Populer dan Praktis Ekonometrika untuk Analisis Ekonomi dan Keuangan
Nachrowi D Nachrowi MSC, & Hardius Usman MSi
Lembaga Penerbit FEUI
Bab IX

IVVM = Suatu cara menemukan ide judul thesis

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 6/27/2008

Bagi banyak mahasiswa, menyelesaikan skripsi atau pun thesis merupakan suatu batu sandungan. Bagaimana tidak, skripsi dan thesis ibarat momok menakutkan mengingat inilah GOAL terakhir bagi mahasiswa yang ingin menyandang gelar Sarjana. Tak jarang penyelesaian skripsi menjadi berlarut-larut dan diselingi dengan cuti kuliah dengan alasan belum dapat judul, belum bisa maju sidang, judul yang tidak disetujui dosen pembimbing atau waktu yang kurang karena sibuk bekerja.

Berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi, dan tentu memperhatikan faktor external, ternyata ada satu ajian yang cukup ampuh dalam menyikapi masalah ide judul thesis. Kuncinya cuma 4 huruf yaitu : IVVM.

I = Idealisasi
V = Visualisasi
V = Verbalisasi
M = Materialisasi

Saya jelaskan satu per satu.
Idealisasi
Pikirkan hal yang jelek-jelek jika skripsi anda tidak selesai sekarang dan pikirkan apa yang baik-baik jika skripsi anda selesai sekarang. Apa tujuan anda kuliah dan mengapa dulu anda begitu ingin kuliah. Pikirkan berapa banyak uang dan waktu yang telah anda investasikan hingga anda mencapai apa yang anda dapat sekarang.

Visualisasi
Bayangkan dan ingatkan diri Anda selalu akan goal anda. Setidaknya 2x sehari: pagi hari ketika baru bangun tidur dan malam sebelum tidur. Bayangkan anda sedang mempresentasikan skripsi anda di depan teman-teman dan dosen. Bayangkan anda mendapat nilai A+ untuk skripsi anda dan bayangkan anda menjadi sarjana yang luar biasa.

Verbalisasi
Katakan pada diri sendiri bahwa anda sudah dekat dengan GOAL anda yaitu lulus dengan nilai sangat baik dan tepat waktu. Katakan bahwa skripsi anda adalah goal anda. Katakan dengan penuh semangat dan emosi.

Materialisasi
Bersiaplah menerima semua ide. Anda akan terkejut mendapati begitu banyaknya ide yang muncul. Ketika ide itu muncul jangan lewatkan..segera catat dan cari referensinya.

The evidence on the role of accounting conservatism in debt contracting

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 6/27/2008

By Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM
Part of abstract [The Thesis]

This study provides evidence on the role of accounting conservatism in debt contracting. I hypothesize that (i) there is positive association between conflicts of bondholders-shareholders over dividend policy and the use of conservative accounting (ii) there is positive association between bond ratings and the use of conservative accounting.

Conflicts of bondholders-shareholders arise because of default risk in that the firm cannot pay the maturity debt because of having not enough net assets. The unavailability of enough net assets is caused by dividend overpayment to shareholders. The alternative to prevent dividend overpayment is to consistently use the conservative accounting. The conservative accounting affects earnings in that it leads to conservative earnings and reduces the possibility of earnings management by the firm.

So, I hypothesize that firms facing conflicts of bondholders-shareholders over dividend policy will use conservative accounting. Conservatism is measured by the difference between net income and operating cash flow. The lower net income than cash flow means the firm defers more unrealized revenues and expense cost rapidly when incurred. It means, the firm use more conservative accounting. The conflicts are measured by the variability of ROA, dividend payment ratio and debt ratio.

The second hypothesis which investigates the association between bonds rating and the level of conservatism based on theory that the lower the firm’s default risk, the higher the bonds rating. The firms with conservative accounting is expected to have lower default risk in that conservatism prevent dividend overpayment which cause the firm’s net asset is not enough to pay maturity bonds.

The first model result supports the hypothesis that there is positive association between conflicts of bondholders-shareholders and the use of conservative accounting. For the second model, the result do not support the hypothesis that there is a positive association between the bonds rating and the use of conservative accounting. The association between conflicts and conservative accounting provides evidence on the role of accounting conservatism in facing conflicts over dividend policy.

Deep analysis please read the full thesis (only in Bahasa)

Cara Install SPSS

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 6/27/2008

SPSS sebagai software pengolah data statistik tentu sudah tidak asing lagi di telinga kita. Menanggapi pertanyaan dari seorang teman bagaimana cara install software ini ke komputer, berikut penjelasannya. Download di sini petunjuknya.

1. Masukan CD installer SPSS ke CD ROM
2. Browse CD kemudian cari setup.exe lalu klik 2 kali
3. Proses install dimulai, klik Next terus sampai Finish
4. Install selesai

Lanjutkan dengan membuat shortcutnya

1. Masuk ke My Computer lalu ke C:\Program Files\SPSS\
2. Cari spswin.exe
3. Klik kanan lalu pilih create short cut
4. Masih di C:\Program Files\SPSS, cari shortcut to spssswin.exe lalu klik kanan copy
5. Lalu ke C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\SPSS for Windows
6. Klik kanan paste
   

Cara membuka program: dari menu Start | All Program | SPSS for window | shortcut to spsswin.exe.

Download petunjuk install SPSS

Silahkah download

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 6/27/2008

Jurnal dan artikel akuntansi & keuangan yang bisa didownload gratis:

CAPM, 1st & 2nd Pass Regression(Definisi, contoh regresi dan hasil)

Istilah Pasar Modal

Contoh Riset Pemasaran

Tips Public Speaking

Software Financial Calculator Hewlet Packard 10BII

Kamus Akuntansi

Gunakan bahasa Inggris yang baik dan benar

Written by Paula Widiastuti, SE, MSM on 6/26/2008

Ada-ada saja kelakar masyarakat kita. Suatu ketika saya lewat Slipi dari arah Tanah Abang, di bawah jembatan layang Slipi tepatnya di pangkalan ojek ada tulisan putih dengan huruf besar menarik perhatian saya. Spontan saya tergelak-gelak ketika membaca tulisan tersebut:”TIDAK MENERIMA OJEK BARU”. He..he..tampaknya lowongan staf pengojek di area Kolong Slipi sudah ditutup.

Di lain waktu di tengah-tengah macetnya Slipi, dari kejauhan ada satu tulisan yang menarik perhatian saya. Kreatifitas supir bis boleh juga, ada yang menulis motto hidupnya di bagian belakang bis..misalnya “DOA MAMA” sampai ke ledekan untuk diri sendiri “Nafsu Kuat – Tenaga Tak Ada”..yang ini kelihatannya ledekan untuk pemilik bus yang kurang perhatian dengan kendaraan miliknya…ketika muatan penuh jalannya jadi lelet dan asapnya berhamburan menambah polusi jalan.
Nah yang paling baru, hari Sabtu lalu. Yang ini bikin ketawa tapi juga salut. Tampaknya supir bis 46 jurusan Rambutan – UKI – Grogol begitu bangga dengan jati dirinya. Inilah identitasku..begitu kira-kira. Apalagi tulisannya menggunakan bahasa Inggris..seolah ingin berkata,”Biar supir bus, gua bisa juga bahasa Inggris”. Yang agak sedikit mengganggu, tulisannya sedikit keliru: FLAY BOY.

Lain halnya lagi anak remaja. Mereka sangat senang menggunakan bahasa Inggris tapi karena gejolak jiwa anak muda yang menuju kebebasan berekspresi biasanya mereka sangat suka dengan istilah-istilah yang agak slank. Tak jarang di jalan mereka menuliskan grafiti yang kurang sopan dan kurang enak dibaca. Menjamurnya tayangan dari luar serta lagu-lagu rap bertema kebencian rasanya agak mengancam rasa aman saya.

Dalam lingkungan akademik, tak jarang suatu istilah keilmuwan dalam bahasa Inggris sulit diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia dan kalaupun diterjemahkan maka terdengar aneh dan malah sulit dipahami. Masih ingat dengan istilah ‘Tetikus’ sebagai ganti dari ‘Mouse’? Bagi mahasiswa dan kalangan ekonom tidak asing dengan istilah income smoothing, Competitive Advantage, Wealth Effects dan banyak lagi. Oh ya jadi ingat satu lagi yang lucu: “Sesame Street” di-translate menjadi “Jalan Sesama”. :)

Saat ini, penguasaan bahasa Inggris sudah menjadi keharusan. Dari SD bahkan TK anak-anak sudah diajarkan bahasa Inggris. Dalam pergaulan sehari-hari juga di lingkungan profesional bahasa Inggris merupakan keterampilan yang sangat diperlukan dan mendukung.

Sayangnya, bagi kalangan tertentu bahasa Inggris tetap merupakan suatu hal yang eksklusif. Bisa karena motivasinya kurang atau karena kesempatannya yang kurang. Terlepas dari sebab apapun itu, tentu motivasi selayaknya berada di atas segala-galanya. Ada motivasi tentu saja ada jalan. Ada motivasi tentu saja ada kesuksesan. Dengan menjamurnya produk-produk dari luar negeri, seperti film (bajakan maupun asli tanpa text bahasa Indonesia, produk kesehatan, makanan instant, produk elektronik dll) bahasa Inggris wajib dikuasai. Jika tidak, maka bangsa kita hanya bisa menjadi bangsa yang menggunakan produk luar tanpa bisa menikmatinya.