Indonesia flourishes as country struggles

Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Sanur, Bali

Political and social instability in Indonesia has created an increased interest in learning the Indonesian language and culture, a professor of Indonesian studies said here on Monday.

Arief Budiman, head of the Indonesian Study Department at Melbourne University in Australia, told reporters that Australian scholars and experts had shown an increasing interest in learning Indonesian languages over the last few years, especially since 1997 when Indonesia was hit by several major crises.

"People want to read news and analysis on economic, political and social conditions in Indonesia in order to understand the problems," Arief said at the opening of the International Conference of Indonesian Language Instructors at the Grand Bali Beach Hotel.

Indonesian has been popular in Australia for a number of years. Public schools such as those in the Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia have even included Bahasa Indonesia in their required curriculum. There are more than 22,000 Australian students learning Bahasa Indonesia and 38 universities with Indonesian Language Programs.

"Some universities, including the Australian National University, Monash University and Melbourne University, have established Indonesian study centers," added Arief.

The three-day conference, which started on Monday, involves more than 300 experts on Indonesian language from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and the United States.

The meeting is jointly organized by the Bali chapter of the Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation, the Indonesian National Language Center, the Ministry of National Education and the Association of Indonesian Language Instructors.

The event is aimed at sharing experiences and problems on how to teach Indonesian to foreign students. It is also intended to improve the methods of teaching and learning Indonesian as a second language.

Dendi Sugono, head of the Indonesian National Language Center, admitted that there is still a lack of effective methods to teach Indonesian to foreigners.

"There should be improvement in the provision of Indonesian language instructors. So far, we still don't have formal institutions for those who want to become instructors," he said.

Learning Indonesian is not easy. "Instructors must be creative enough to arouse their student's interest," he said.

Indonesian language instructors in Australia and Russia shared their experience.

Lucretia Prang, an instructor of the Country Indonesian Program at Northern Territory University in Darwin, Australia, has developed a cultural exchange program. "The Country Language Program gives students the opportunity not only to acquire knowledge in Bahasa Indonesia but also in the customs and religion of a different society," she explained.

She invited students to visit Lombok, an island near the resort island of Bali.

Having experienced very little in regard to the various religions within Indonesia, the Australian students visiting Lombok are given plenty of opportunity to meet other people, she said. A visit to some Islamic boarding schools as well as a Hindu kampong has broadened the horizon of many students.

The program is available for nonstudents and professionals and aims to improve relations between Indonesia and Australia, which have been rocky in the last few years mainly due to misunderstandings between cultures, she explained.

Veronika Novoseltseva, an Indonesian language lecturer at Moscow State University for International Relations in Russia, found it hard to obtain adequate materials in Indonesian.

"We need a professional book on the Indonesian language. My students need to understand both the language as well as its social, cultural and political contexts," she explained.