Discontinued Blog
This is a note to inform any readers that this blog is being discontinued. You can find the same content at my other, better blog at -
Thank you for your support.
DavidG
This is a note to inform any readers that this blog is being discontinued. You can find the same content at my other, better blog at -
Thank you for your support.
DavidG
There's a Javanese saying:
RAME ING GAWE; SEPI ING PAMRIH
In Indonesian it translates to: Rame dalam kerja; Sepi dalam pamrih,
which in English translates to: Work hard without expecting rewards (literally - busy in work; quiet in reward).
It's a pretty hard philosophy to try and adhere to. The Javanese continues on with what translates roughly to - for the sake of the Harmony of the world.
In everything we do, we should do it for the sake of doing, without expecting or wanting to gain anything from it - no reward, no praise, not even being remembered for what we have done in our lives once we die - all that is 'pamrih'.
Talking to my Javanese brother-in-law about this, he chuckled and replied - "Yes, that is right. But for Javanese these days, it's no longer 'rame ing gawe; sepi ing pamrih' but - 'rame ing pamrih, sepi ing gawe' :)
Why Aren't Australians Learning Indonesian - A Response to "Bahasa Indonesia - Australians Don't Want to Learn Indonesian" (Indonesia Matters November 19th, 2007).
Having studied Indonesian at university level, then in-country and then teaching the language for five and a half years in an Australian primary school I've been exposed to much of the attitudes of many Australians towards Indonesia and Indonesian (mistakenly called 'Bahasa Indonesia' by English speakers; 'Indonesian' is the English term for the language).
The particular school I taught Indonesian in had a high representation of Air Force and Army children; the parents of some had served in East Timor. Surprisingly at first, but then encouragingly, it was these parents who most supported the teaching of Indonesian in Australian schools.
However, it is true that since the late 1970s, numbers of tertiary students enrolled in Indonesian language studies has dramatically dropped. Several close friends of mine have taught Indonesian at the tertiary level for the past 20 or so years. We often talk about the perceptions of Australians towards Indonesia.
Contrary to what is claimed in the 'Bahasa Indonesia' article, many of us in the language 'business' firmly believe that perceptions of the general Australian public towards Indonesia are a prime factor in the decline of interest in Indonesian. Almost everything that is reported on Indonesia in the Australian media is 'bad press'; negative publicity on everything from terrorism, corruption, seeming inconsistencies in the treatment of Australians in the Indonesian courts compared to Indonesian citizens, and that ever-present but more or less simmering below the surface belief, particularly among older generations, that Indonesia will one day attempt to invade Australia (well, we defeated the Japanese, defeated Communism - supposedly, so now we need something else to fear - how about an Indonesian invasion?).
Indonesia doesn't figure very prominently in people's perceptions of economic opportunities. Think foreign investment in Asia and people immediately think of China, Korea and perhaps India. The slow but steady struggle of Indonesia out of the monetary crisis that other countries seemed to recover from far more quickly doesn't help.
For school students - primary and secondary - they just don't have the same level of exposure to Indonesia as they do for Japan, China or Europe. Every Australian student has been a fan of at least one Japanese cartoon on Saturday morning TV, they all know about Judo and Karate, they are probably driven around in Japanese cars, and those shops that are popping up here and there that sell Japanese and Korean kitsch items from erasers to Evangelion figurines are very popular. As a primary school teacher of Indonesian, I am constantly asked by my students why they can't learn Japanese instead.
Migration may have something, but not a lot, to do with the language learning situation in Australia. Migrants such as Vietnamese, Lebanese, Greeks, Taiwanese and others feature prominently in Australian society. They tend to form fairly visible communities that colour our cities and add a unique cosmopolitan feel to life. Indonesian migrants tend to blend more with the wider community. That is also a good thing. They at least avoid Hansonist accusations of forming 'ghettoes' and not wanting to integrate with Australian society. They are less prominent, do not live in certain areas of the city, but when events occur such as Halal-bi-halal and food markets, they all come out of the wood work. Nevertheless, the teaching of languages of prominent migrant groups such as Vietnamese, Arabic and Greek is also still very limited. Chinese on the other hand is taking off, particularly in schools located in and around the Taiwanese and Hong-Kong 'pockets'.
From the perspective of teachers and language programs, the implementation of travel bans by the Federal Government in the wake of the Bali and Jakarta bombings did not help. Suddenly universities and schools were no longer allowed to send students or teachers to Indonesia for in-country training or professional development. Exchange programs were halted or reduced in terms of time and quality. Indonesian teachers watched as their Japanese and Chinese teaching colleagues were sent overseas for language training, while we had to make do with the odd in-service session here in Australia.
This is not to say that all Australians have negative perceptions of Indonesia. In fact, most Australians, like most Indonesians, have more important issues of putting food on the table and paying the bills to worry about, than worrying about what the news has to say about our nearest neighbour. Most Australians still rate Bali as high-on-the-list holiday destination and most Australians, if given the opportunity, will gladly attend an Indonesian event to enjoy the food and entertainment.
Perhaps it is also up to the Indonesian communities living in Australia to try and increase public awareness of who they are and what they represent. Cultural events are good. Restaurants are also a good thing. Unfortunately, in my city at least, Indonesian restaurants tend to have a dismal track record. They open up, change management, are expensive, and close down again. In the meantime, the Vietnamese continue to serve up high-quality food, cheaply, under the same management, resulting in long-lasting small-scale restaurants that see their customers coming back again and again. In a city of two million, I can think of only one Indonesian restaurant and two smaller 'snack-bar' operations, compared to 30 or so Vietnamese restaurants. In fact, as a student of Indonesian in the late 1980s, our class usually had to resort to going to a Malaysian restaurant for a bit of cultural exposure as there were no Indonesian restaurants available.
Having said all that it should also be noted that Australians in general have a very low interest in a serious study of any foreign language. As an island nation, we tend to be somewhat insular, detached from the wider world. We have no bordering neighbours. We do not have a history of foreign occupation, nor do we have a history that demands fluency in a second or third language as is the case in countries such as Switzerland. If we do not have a deeply ingrained perception of the need for a second language, we will not make it a high priority to learn one.
Here's a really interesting multimedia presentation on Australian Aboriginal culture. Takes a while to load, but worth the wait -
Here's a link to an Australian Government project I was involved in the writing of a few years back in conjunction with Geoff Woollams and Ananta Arifin of Queensland University of Technology and Philip Mahnken of The University of the Sunshine Coast. -
DEST NALSAS Indonesian and Japanese Readers -
http://studio.qantm.com.au/onlinelanguageresources/main.htm
Click on 'Indonesian' then roll the mouse cursor over the squares to access units and lessons.
Click on the middle square of the top right corner to see all those involved in production.
These are particular lessons in each unit that I authored -
* Kehidupan Sehari-hari
-Agen Rahasia (I had a thing for monkeys)
- Sehari di Sekolah
- Cita - cita
* Dunia Saya
- Keluarga Saya
* Makanan & Kesehatan
-Resep (want to learn how to make 'klepon'?)
* Agama dan Kepercayaan
-Cerita Hantu dari Jawa
* Dunia Manusia
- Rumah Apa yang Anda Sukai?
- Di Kota Saya
-Rumah Saya
Better layout and more photo-friendly than this one. Some more, archived, Indonesia-related posts too.
Having learned most of my Indonesian in Central Java it came as a bit of a shock when I started working at my current school in Jakarta and being confronted with the Jakarta Chinese variety of Indonesian. I can't say at this point in time just how much it differs from Central Javanese Indonesian other than it is often spoken at break-neck speed - much faster than one is used to hearing in Java.
I find the Jakarta Chinese variety of Indonesian a fascinating code and wish I had more time to devote to a serious analysis of it.
One difference is the counting system that one often hears. I think it comes from the Hokkien language. The following is a summary of what I found on a scrap of paper that my wife noted from a Jakartan friend - the writing and pronunciation follows Indonesian orthography -
1 - ce
2 - nok
3 - sa
4 - si
5 - go
6 - lak
7 - cit
8 - pe
9 - kao
units
10s - cap
100s - pek
1000s - ceng
10000s - ban
1000,000s - tiao
100 - cepek (one and unit of 100s)
200 - nopek (two and unit of 100s)
300 - sapek
500 - gopek
etc
1000 - ceceng
10, 000 - ceban
100, 000 - cepekceng (one hundred and unit of 1000s)
150 - pek go - (unit of 100s and 5)
15,000 - ban go (unit of 10,000s and 5)
Corrections and further enlightenment greatly appreciated.
Great! I just stumbled upon someone else who goes by the username 'ausdag' (also an Australian) who contributes to some fashion model forum with lots of pics of bikini-clad women!!! Well...it ain't me! And no, I wasn't looking at bikini forums. I was simply, in a moment of boredom, googling various different names.
On that note, google David Goldsworthy and you get many results revolving around three main personalities
- of few of myself (interested in Indonesia, Javanese music and language)
- more of Dr David Goldsworthy of the University of New England (Armidale, Australia) - interests - funny enough, Indonesia, Indonesian music
- many more of Prof. David Goldsworthy of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia - author of many publications on....well, among other things, Indonesia, Indonesia-Australia Relations
Must be something about the name David Goldsworthy and Indonesia.
