Languages - Indonesian
What an absolutely amazing term we have had in Indonesian!
We started the term by welcoming Filomena, a teacher from our sister school in Timor Leste who visited for a week; and Ilham from the Australia Awards, who helped our students each week acting as an ambassador for Indonesian language and culture learning. It has been amazing to have such passionate and engaged educators joining us this term to allow the students to have authentic experiences with language and culture in the classroom.
Our year 7 and 8 mainstream students have spent the term learning how to describe their friends in Indonesian. They described activities their friends liked, talked about their personality, and introduced their names, nicknames, age, school, and where they are from in Indonesian. All students completed a profile of their friends, and teachers were blown away by the amazing quality of work our students produced.
Our year 8 HAP students learnt how to talk about their dream house, describing both massive mansions and small dwellings that they hope to one day live in. They described their rooms, and the people they live with and how they interact and move about their lives in their dream homes. Their final assignments showcased the beautiful homes they hope to live in, as they spoke to the class in Indonesian. After two years of learning Indonesian, their pronunciation and understanding of language shone through in their verbal presentations.
Next term, year 7 students will start learning about Indonesian school systems, and how to explain their school in Indonesian. They will finish this unit with a class tour, where they tell their teacher and class about their favourite subjects and spaces in the school. All of our year 8 students will engage with everybody’s favourite subject: FOOD! Students will learn about the delicious variety of food in Indonesia and how to order in Indonesian. If you want to get head start on this unit, feel free to check out any of the incredible Indonesian restaurants around Melbourne and the outer suburbs.
Students have also been practising greetings, such as Apa kabar? In Indonesian, this phrase literally translates to “What’s news?”, but it’s used the same way we would say “How are you?” in English. In class, students usually respond with phrases like baik (good), kurang baik (not so good), or baik sekali (very good). It’s a simple but important part of everyday conversation.
Earlier this term we celebrated Indonesia’s Independence Day (Hari Merdeka) with a range of activities both in class and during lunchtime each day. In class, students enjoyed traditional games such as congklak (a bead-counting strategy game) and paper plane flying contests. They also tried es bandung – a manis (sweet) and segar (refreshing) pink drink made with rose or cocopandan syrup (sirup), sweetened condensed milk (susu kental manis), water (air), and ice (es). At lunchtime each day, the celebrations continued with kerupuk (cracker) eating competitions, wayang (shadow puppet) making, Indonesian film club, and traditional dress-ups. Ilham also helped to share his own experiences in running independence day activities in Indonesia. A big thank you to all students who joined in and helped make each activity fantastic!
ASEAN-Australia BRIDGE Program Update
On Wednesday 17th September, a student from each Year 7 class took place in a special workshop as part of the ASEAN-Australia BRIDGE program. Their project focused on storytelling as a way to share cultural traditions under the theme Caring for Country, Caring for People. Students worked in teams, using their creativity to design a story.
The program is a wonderful opportunity to connect with students from our sister school ESTV Aileu in Timor Leste, practice teamwork and problem-solving, and learn how to communicate clearly across cultures.
The students decided on creating a story about a cat who travels through Australia, to end up fishing on a boat off the coast of the Northern Territory. The cat then ends up in a storm and washes up onshore in Timor Leste. Our sister school will finish the cat’s story in Timor Leste, where all we know is that it falls in love with the mountains where our sister school is.
In November, the students will present their story to all schools in the program across Australia and South-East Asia. They will also be sharing their story with their classes, and with their year levels.
Terima kasih to everyone for your ongoing support of Indonesian – we look forward to sharing more cultural and language adventures next term!
Renae Smith
Languages Domain Leader