Kang Guru radio program wins laurels

By Greg Clough

JAKARTA (JP): Stepping on toes is a good way to improve your English. That is the opinion of Kang Guru from the land of the kangaroo, here in Jakarta to help Indonesians leap the international language barrier.

Kang Guru is the popular English language teaching program on Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI).

Funded by AusAID, Australia's foreign aid agency, the Kang Guru project is part of the Australian government's development cooperation program with Indonesia. Recognizing the importance of English in national development, AusAID set up Kang Guru in 1991 to help Indonesians study English while learning about their country's neighborly relations with Australia.

Forty-two RRI stations now broadcast Kang Guru across the archipelago.

Kang Guru also publishes a free English study magazine and has sent 400,000 copies of the magazine to registered listeners, community centers, schools and libraries throughout Indonesia. Kang Guru will continue into 1997 with a fifth grant from AusAID to the Indonesia Australia Language Foundation to produce 40 new programs and four more magazines.

Pronounced like its national symbol namesake, the words Kang Guru come from two of Indonesia's many languages.

Guru means teacher in Indonesian, the national language. Kang is a Sundanese word from west Java and means brother. This brotherly teacher ethos is seen in Kang Guru's emphasis on cross- cultural awareness in language learning.

As was often remarked by former Australian foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans, there are perhaps no two neighboring countries in the world as culturally different as Australia and Indonesia.

Culturally aware communication is, therefore, vital.

Evans's successor, Alexander Downer, echoes this sentiment in Kang Guru's most recent newsletter.

"It is important the people and governments of both nations learn more about each other. I commend Kang Guru and RRI for assisting Indonesians to develop their English while learning more about the relationship between Australia and Indonesia," says Downer.

Other government figures appearing on Kang Guru include Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, former prime minister Paul Keating, Indonesian Minister of Information Harmoko and Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro.

Kang Guru features not only politicians, but also stories with artists, entertainers, diplomats and language specialists. These have included entertainer Berlian Hutauruk, folk singer John Schumman, artist Jerry Tung, ambassador Alan Taylor and novelist Glenda Adams.

The focus on both Australian and Indonesian guests reflects the program's increasingly bilateral outlook. The program has changed since it was first established to promote Australia.

Kang Guru was set up by AusAID to provide information about Australia and to teach English. This was considered too parochial and the program tended to talk about jolly swagmen and redback spiders. Now the focus is more bilateral, looking at bilateral cooperation in the arts, science, defense, tourism, education and trade.

The change is made in line with the future of good neighborly relations. Over 200,000 Australians visit Indonesia each year and the number of Indonesians visiting Australia is increasing.

Stories at the people-level of the relationship are very popular and Kang Guru often gets letters from Indonesians telling of meeting an Australian tourist and practicing their English, or of stories about small scale cultural exchanges. Such stories never appear in big media, but they are happening everyday between Australians and Indonesians.

Letters

Since 1991, 40,000 Indonesians have sent 35,000 letters. All letter writers become registered members and receive the free Kang Guru magazine.

Letters come not only from all over the archipelago but also from all over the world. RRI's short wave stations throughout Indonesia are heard as far way as Germany, Bangladesh, the United States, Japan and Malaysia.

A listener in Louisiana, America, recently wrote to say he enjoyed the show because he was both a short-wave radio enthusiast and an English teacher.

Kang Guru's teaching approach is different from traditional radio teaching methods. The BBC and Radio Australia use a more teacher-based approach. They use "repeat after me" drills and tend to focus on beginner levels.

Repetition drills are fine for the teacher-monitored class room. But by radio, the listeners could be saying the drills incorrectly, which reinforces bad pronunciation.

Teaching beginners by radio is unproductive. Beginners need close supervision. Besides, at that level the language is slow and unnatural and not suited to FM and AM radio programming.

And Kang Guru has an obligation to provide information about Indonesia-Australia relations. This would be too difficult using a basic level of English. It aims for the listener who has about 1,000 words as well as some basic English listening ability gained at high school.

Even at this level the language has to be carefully scripted. Lots of translation and repetition of key phrases are used to ensure listeners grasp the general meaning.

As well as presenting stories about the two close neighbors in the form of vocabulary and grammar exercises, Kang Guru also gives listeners language learning tips. Often these are suggestions from the listeners themselves, including such original advice as stepping on people's toes.

One listener wrote in to say she had found a foolproof way to practice her English. Simple, she wrote, just find a queue with some tourists in it, look for a white foot and accidentally step on it. It is a great way to practice making apologies and starting a conversation!

So, Aussie expats, next time an Indonesian stands on your toes, don't get angry. Be a brother teacher and with a big smile, ask: "Can I help you with your English?"