Teaching Bahasa Indonesia: from American to Japanese Students

This February until mid-March, I will be teaching Bahasa Indonesia to international students from Kanda University, Japan, at Indonesian Studies Program of Malangkuçeçwara College of Economics.

Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program 2013:
Instructors and students with the Rector
of State University of Malang

This is my first involvement in this program despite I have been involved in similar program namely Critical LanguageScholarship (CLS) program sponsored by the U.S. State Department since 2011, where there are several American students who learn Bahasa Indonesia at Center of Indonesian Studies of State University of Malang.

Despite my major is English language teaching (ELT), the foundation is just the same with teaching Bahasa Indonesia to these students, teaching students with foreign (or second) language. I have been learning both theoretical and practical concepts of this language learning.

As I am facing different students, from different countries, the approaches are indeed different. For American students, a more free and critical discussion are preferable; in addition, the American students who participate in the CLS Program are mostly senior students and even doctoral students who study Asian Studies or even Indonesian studies at their university in America. Moreover, their expectation is very high! My passion in American culture as well as experience in learning in the United States in 2011 allow me to feel more comfortable being engaged in the language classroom activities.

with the students and instructors
during the opening ceremony of Program Bunga 2014
at Malangkucecwara College of Economics

On the other hand, Japanese students tend to be more passive. This might be some factors such as the learning culture in Japan or the students’ language proficiency level. As this is my first time teaching Bahasa Indonesia to Japanese students, I need to adjust myself and my teaching style into the more communicative one by inviting more students to get engaged into in-depth analysis and discussion, minimizing the gap between the instructors (sensei in Japan) and the students, standing on the equal position.

The other special thing being part of these programs is how I am standing not only as language instructor, but rather being figure who bridges the two different cultures. This is both interesting and challenging. This is interesting as knowing different perspectives allows me to be more tolerant, open-minded, as well as knowledgeable in terms of international studies. It is challenging as I need to open my eyes, both standing as an instructor as well as Indonesian ambassador to promote soft diplomacy within these countries.

This soft diplomacy, for me, is more effective is promoting more business as well as understanding within these countries in international world. This is the moment when I can promote Indonesian cultures to the international world as well as improve the cooperation within these countries.