Living abroad, removed from the archipelago of her hometown for over 10 years, has not limited her ability to do what she loves – reviving the Javanese language at its best.
Widya Sykorova lives in Prague and currently works as a Javanese speaker for the American-Czech company Simpleway. Her enthusiasm is growing and he or she has recently gained increasingly interest from all over the world.
A video recently surfaced on YouTube showing an Indonesian man giggling in response to Widya’s boarding announcement at Dubai International Airport.
Although the event seemed harmless, the person couldn’t hide his joy and surprise since the language wherein the news was announced was his native regional dialect of Javanese, rarely heard outside East and Central Java, an island off the coast of Indonesia.
Ever because the video began going viral, Widya couldn’t contain her joy.
As a proud Indonesian who likes to speak Javanese, which is now considered old-fashioned and an emblem of illiteracy, such positive responses from all over the world have truly “energized” her spirit to proceed inspiring through her unique career.
“These reactions give me hope, a lot of hope, that a ‘turnaround’ or change in attitude towards the Javanese language is really happening now.
“The appreciation of Indonesians, especially Javanese speakers around the world and the media that brought my story to light is a great feeling. Representing it internationally is even greater!” Widya told Seasia.
The 40-year-old mother of two, who can also be currently a self-employed teacher on the Supreme Court in Prague, added that the sweetness and originality of the Javanese language are essential as a tool to unite Javanese people in other parts of the world.
“I deeply believe that language is one of many tools that unite people in one country.
“Language is an important part of a person’s identity. I can live permanently abroad for years and speak many other languages fluently, but I remain Javanese wherever I go. So this phenomenon of broadcasting Javanese ads is awakening a Javanese identity that has long been ‘forgotten and abandoned’,” Widya said.
Hailing from Malang, the second largest city in East Java, Widya explained that exposing one of the world’s classical languages to the international stage could further boost Indonesia’s positive image as part of the Southeast Asian region, despite many “worrying” remarks about her country.
“Indonesia is known to the world as a large and diverse archipelago consisting of thousands of islands, hundreds of different ethnic and linguistic groups, and a friendly atmosphere.
“But recently, Indonesia has been portrayed here in the West as a country struggling with religious intolerance, fragile social friction and a lack of seriousness in addressing environmental issues. So it’s time to revisit how Indonesia has been portrayed. The beauty of Indonesia should be actively portrayed through social media,” she said.
Elaborating on the process and challenges Widya faced as a Javanese voice actress, she said that it was not easy at the very beginning.
She added that the first year of her four-year contract was the most difficult.
“I had to intensively transcribe all the transcripts, standard airport transcripts, including departures, arrivals, delays, time sequences, airport names all over the world, flight changes, transfers. Most of the transcripts had to be recorded two or three times.
“It was indeed demanding because I had to keep my voice clear, friendly, with a certain specific tone and certain language codes that the sound engineers used. It was sometimes stressful to think in three languages, English, Czech and Javanese at the same time,” she said.
In the same context, looking at the warm comments we have received recently, Straight road On August 10, the company revealed in a statement that it was a fortunate coincidence that the company found the perfect person (Widya Sykorova) to lend their voice to the ads.
Petr Otoupal, CEO of Simpleway, said the company has built a reputation as one of the largest and best voice libraries in the world for airport announcements. Meeting Dubai International Airport’s demand for Javanese announcements was indeed a success.
“But finding Javanese voice talent wasn’t easy, especially since Simpleway is based in Prague, Czech Republic.
“We always insist on having professional speakers for our ads. But sometimes, when it’s a lesser-used language, finding someone of the right caliber can be a real challenge.
“But in this particular case, we are happy to have Widya, which is right on our doorstep in Prague,” Otoupal said.
