Grace Emilia Contributor Jakarta

More schools teach Mandarin language

Lao shi (teacher) Melani, a senior language lecturer at the Trisakti Institute of Tourism, also spends several hours a week teaching Mandarin at the He Ping School, a one-year-old language school founded by the Chinese Hakka clan in Jakarta.

Located in Glodok, the school has 200 students who attend three-hour classes twice a week.

"It is a social school to disseminate the mastery of the Mandarin language to Indonesian society, as each student only pays between Rp 30,000 and Rp 50,000 a month," says Melani, who formally trained at Beijing University.

Five of the schools teachers are senior lecturers, both in the mastery of the language and in teaching experience.

Since the restoration of formal ties between China and Indonesia in 1990, after a more than 30-year freeze, many independent organizations in Indonesia, including universities, have opened Mandarin courses and schools.

"There are currently 125 registered Mandarin courses in 23 cities in Indonesia," says Fasli Jalal, an official at the Ministry of National Education.

The Indonesian government is currently facing some urgency in teaching Indonesians foreign languages, as the country will enter the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in January 2003, which will allow citizens from other ASEAN countries to work freely in Indonesia, and vice versa.

Language courses are seen as one quick answer to the "harsh" reality of the country's unpreparedness to succeed in this highly competitive era.

With AFTA, almost all goods and services will no longer face barriers in entering Indonesia. The free trade accord will create wider opportunities for Indonesian professionals to work in neighboring nations, especially Singapore and Malaysia, where Mandarin language is commonly used.

AFTA could also pose a threat for Indonesian workers, because the country's education system does not equip students with the life skills to face the growing competition.

"Of 100 students studying from kindergarten to high school only 14 are able to further their studies at university, not to mention those who fail at this stage." says Ekodjatmiko Sukarso, the head of the Directorate of Community Education at the Ministry of National Education.

Specifically for the Mandarin language, the Chinese government is providing intensive support to Indonesia.

"Several universities from Guang Zhou and Fujian provinces, such as Jinan University, Fujian Teacher's University, Xiamen University and Huaqiao University, will be visiting Indonesia to provide free training to Indonesian teachers and instructors.

"We arrange for them to provide training in cities which have more interactions in the Chinese language, like Medan, Riau, Jambi, Palembang, Batam, Tanjung Pinang, Pontianak, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Bali," said Sukarso, adding that Indonesia will need lots of professionals and workers with a mastery of Mandarin to acquire foreign exchange, especially in the tourist sector.

At the same time, Indonesian teachers are also given the chance to study Mandarin free of charge in China.

"On June 3, 60 Indonesian teachers will depart for Guang Zhou and Xiamen. They will add to the 448 Indonesian teachers already trained in China," said Fasli.

Though unofficially, Taiwan is also providing such training.

"I'm was very happy to be selected as one of the 20 teachers from Jakarta to be trained in a language school in Taiwan this coming July. Besides those from Jakarta, there will be another 60 teachers from Bandung, Surabaya and Medan going. They provide everything for us except the airplane ticket," Melani said.

There are two types of systems for learning Mandarin, the Bejing system and the Taiwan system. Most Indonesian courses use the Beijing system because of its simplicity. The Beijing system, which uses Latin spelling and simplified characters, was officially introduced by the Chinese government in 1953. The Taiwan system uses classical characters and the more complex spellings.

"We are using the Beijing system but also introducing the Taiwan system to our students," said Salman A.M. Naning, branch manager of the Inter-Study Sahid Hotel, which began offering Mandarin courses in March 2000.

Discussing curriculum and the issue of learning systems, Fasli said his office cooperated with China to develop a proficiency test called the HSK, which is similar to the TOEFL for the English language.

"We have given the HSK test twice in Indonesia since May 2001. The latest one was taken by 1,200 participants and the third one will be given this coming October," he said.

Though gaining in popularity, learning Mandarin is considered difficult. Being a tone language, its word have different meanings when pronounced in different tones.

Because of the difficulty, only a few students stick with their courses to the end.

"I have been studying for six months but I cannot really remember much of the lessons because the teaching is only focused on characters, and not how to use the language practically," said Risa Simanjuntak, an English lecturer at the Maranatha Christian University in Bandung.