Australian teenagers set for rare audience with Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Ten Australian high school students will meet with President Soeharto at his office this morning for a rare audience which might even leave their Indonesian counterparts envious.

The students from St. Stephen's School in Perth will also dispense with the need for the translators that normally accompany the President in his meetings with foreign guests -- All of them are trained in Bahasa Indonesia and will have a chance to use it.

The students arrived on Sunday to start a two-week study tour while honing their Indonesian language skills. They are accompanied by their language teacher, Ms. Wendy Young, principal Rev. Gavin E. Collinson JP and two parent supervisors.

The ten grade-12 students have all been learning Indonesian for about four years.

Rev. Gavin told The Jakarta Post that the school has held four or five study tours for students participating in Indonesian language courses.

"We have two trips coming this year, these students are from year-12 and we have another one from year-11 coming in September." he said.

St. Stephen's has incorporated Indonesian its curriculum since 1985, when it became a compulsory course for eighth grade students.

There are currently 200 students enrolled in the Indonesian course, most of whom are taking it as an optional subject.

"Our school has the largest number of students learning Indonesian in Western Australia," Rev. Gavin explained.

He noted the importance of the language since Indonesia is a growing trading partner and Australia's closest neighbor to the north.

"To this stage the largest Asian language being taught is Japanese, but Indonesian is growing very rapidly," he said.

One of the students, Julie Peterkin, said the close proximity and a previous trip to Bali helped her decide to learn Indonesian, "It's not like learning a language that's on the other side of the world where you probably never go there."

Both Michael Illinaworth and Melissa Barrett who have never been here said they liked the language and decided to continue Indonesian as an option after the compulsory grade eight course.

When asked if they now spoke the language fluently, Michael said "we're getting there."

The students said they have had some opportunity to exercise their Indonesian and have found it to be quite useful.

"Especially when we're bargaining," Melissa enthusiastically said.

Language

Meanwhile Julie displayed her delight at her ability to converse in the language, unlike her first trip here, "I could actually meet and talk to people and understand what they're saying."

Another student, Laurina Bullen, remarked at people's surprise at their ability to speak the language. "It's a real shock when we come up to them and speak Indonesian."

After their audience with Soeharto, they will leave for Solo, Central Java, where they will tour the area and visit the fabled Prambanan temple and Yogyakarta.

From there, they will continue their journey to the holiday island of Bali before finally heading home to Perth.

Meanwhile, from Canberra it was reported yesterday that Australia will give Indonesian students preferential treatment under its immigration rules, Reuters reported.

Indonesia will be added to the list of countries whose students are given easy visa processing and better work rights for dependents, the Immigration Department said in a statement.

Countries are put on the preferential list if there is a low risk of their students overstaying their visas. (07)