Japanese language classes a hit at Islamic school

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It is around 12:30 in the afternoon. All other students went home immediately after the bell rang almost one-and-a-half hours earlier.

Faisal Gozali, 17, however, is still talking with six of his classmates. Nothing is extraordinary about the discussion, except that they are all speaking in Japanese.

"I enjoy speaking in Japanese because it helps me master the language. I hope it will someday help me find a job as I have heard that a lot of job vacancies today require Japanese as one of the qualifications," he told The Jakarta Post one Saturday.

Virtually all Japanese companies operating in Indonesia require their employees to master, or at least understand, Japanese.

Faisal, along with 57 other third-year students of MAN 4 Islamic state high school in Pondok Pinang, South Jakarta, has been studying Japanese since the third semester.

MAN 4 has been offering Japanese as a major course since 1998, making it the first Islamic high school in the capital to teach the language.

At least 49 second-year students are studying the language in the school.

MAN principal Muchyidi said helping students master the Japanese language was one of the aims of MAN 4, one of the 38 model Islamic schools in the country.

"As a model school, we have several achievements. For example, students studying Japanese achieved an average mark of 7.8 in last year's national exam. They also have repeatedly won various Japanese speech competitions in Jakarta," said Muchyidi.

To prove its seriousness in maintaining the program, the school sent a teacher to Japan two years ago to study how to manage the curriculum of the language program. She is now back teaching Japanese at the school.

Japanese teachers at the school have also been trained by a Japanese language expert from the Japan Foundation, Marimoto Yukako, to improve their teaching methods.

Unlike MAN 4, state senior high school SMUN 81 in Jatiwaringin, East Jakarta offers Japanese courses to first and second year students only.

"Japanese has been offered here since 1985 as the majority of students prefer to study Japanese rather than French, German or Arabic," said Rudy Dermawan, the school's Japanese language teacher, who has been teaching the subject since 1999.

According to Rudy, around 480 students are studying Japanese for two hours every week.

"There are only two Japanese teachers here. I teach 11 classes and my colleague, Ms. Rina Pertiwi, teaches six classes," Rudi said.

Although the time allotted to study Japanese at the school is very limited, SMUN 81 students have demonstrated incredible achievements in Japanese language competitions.

One of the school's students, Kinanti Fitra Asri, was first runner-up of the National Japanese Speech Competition held by the Japan Foundation last April. She was given a Japanese Speech Award and a chance to travel to Japan for two weeks.

"I love studying foreign languages. I chose Japanese because I like Japanese animated cartoons and comics, and I want to be a translator of Japanese books," said the first-year student.

Rudy said that he believes that teaching Japanese language would help his students not only master a foreign language but also give them the chance to enroll in student exchange programs and avail of scholarships offered by various Japanese institutions.

"Kinanti is a dream come true," the 44-year old teacher said. (006)