The Consul of Information, Social and Cultural, Hermanus Dimara, in a statement received by Antara here on Tuesday expressed his appreciation for the high interest of the high school students to learn Bahasa Indonesia.
Since February 2017, 26 seventh-grade students at the state school have studied Bahasa Indonesia as compulsory subject through a distance learning by the New South Wales Language School (NSW).
Once in a semester, Ida Harsojo and Danielle Elvy from the NSW School of Languages travel over six hours from Sydney City to the small city to have a face-to-face meeting with the students.
On Monday, August 28, 2017, they have a class with the students. That time they teach Indonesian by simulating some activities of trading in a market, cooking fried rice, and understanding traffic lights.
During the trading simulation, students used rupiah currency to practice and experience a direct bargaining process such as batik clothes, and fruits, like the one takes place in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, a staff member of the Consulate General in Sydney, Joanne Hajjar, who also learns Bahasa Indonesia as a second language, also delivered some inspirational messages to the students to continue to pursue Indonesian.
"I keep learning Bahasa Indonesia because Indonesia will become a very important country in the region. As Australias closest neighbor, I see how important Indonesia is to the Australian people, especially the younger generation," Joanne explained.
The Indonesian Consulate in Sydney actively supports the promotion of Indonesian language in its working area, which includes New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.(*)
Reporter: By Libertina Widyamurti Ambari
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
