https://drive.google.com/file/d/16zOyY1VakBelAlRtHfEZ2Ga3WMdJnUGA/view?usp=sharing

For my cultural artifact, I decided to focus on two news articles and a video about a phenomenon in Indonesia surrounding anak Jaksel. Anak means child and Jaksel is an abbreviation of South Jakarta (Jakarta Selatan). This phenomenon refers to the trend of kids/teens from South Jakarta using a mix of English and Bahasa Indonesia in their everyday speech. For example, a sentence could be spoken in mostly Bahasa, but include common English phrases such as “literally,” “basically,” “you know,” and many more. A few reasons listed in the article include the desire to stand out, force of habit, and experience of study abroad.

The teens shown in the video were asked about their understanding of the term “anak Jaksel” and the use of proper Bahasa Indonesia. One of the interviewees, Vita, described how the mixing of the two languages is not limited to anak Jaksel, but it has become a trend among young people from all over Indonesia. Regarding the proper use of Bahasa Indonesia, all of the interviewees agreed that learning how to speak properly is a necessity as Indonesian citizens who were born and raised in Indonesia, but learning/speaking English does not make them any less Indonesian. Another interviewee from the video compares the use of English to Dutch and relates it to Indonesia’s colonization. Back then, there were some who mixed Dutch and Bahasa Indonesia, though it carried a negative image and was not encouraged.

Even though the phenomenon includes interesting aspects of linguistics such as code-mixing and has garnered an abundance of online jokes, some have voiced concern regarding its socioeconomic implications. There is heavy criticism on how the stereotype of anak Jaksel is not accurate, as the phenomenon mostly refers to the wealthier youth who attend international or private schools and frequently consume western media. Thus, it does not include the lower-class youth who also live in South Jakarta but have very different lifestyles and do not speak using the English/Bahasa mix. Other points of criticism include how the popularity of code-mixing may lead to a loss of Indonesian language and culture in the future.

I was not aware of the phenomenon and image of South Jakarta youth before, but I have been exposed to the mixing of English/Bahasa in the past when speaking to family and I sometimes use it myself as well. With the popularity of social media, spread of western pop culture, and development of English education in schools I think it is natural to want to incorporate English in everyday life. However, I agree that there should be an emphasis on building a strong foundation of Bahasa first, before learning English or making the habit of using English words. There are merits of bilingualism such as the wider spectrum of thought and more ways of expression, though I think it is different in the case of code-mixing. There may be issues that arise from the lack of mastery of both languages and the tendency to only speak in mixed sentences.

Julie and I have transitioned to the topic of Indonesian prefixes/suffixes because she realized it is something I have been struggling with recently. We started the lesson by watching a video that explains a few of the main prefix/suffixes in Bahasa Indonesia. The only one I was very familiar with was the di- prefix which indicates passive form. As for the other prefix and suffixes, I have heard of them and used them, but was very unsure of their actual meanings and when to use them.

The practice assignments that Julie gave me were sentence practice with the prefixes ber- and me- as well as some exercises from a workbook. The sentence practice was quite straightforward, as it was meant for me to show my understanding of the two different forms. Though this, I learned a very important point about the prefixes ber- and me- that I had never learned nor realized while using them. When using the prefix ber-, it only applies to intransitive verbs and me- only applies to transitive verbs, meaning that me- must precede the object. I had never made that distinction before so it was extremely helpful in determining which form to use when composing sentences. It made me realize that one of my weaknesses as a heritage learner is using my own “instinct” and not learning the proper grammatical forms. I still struggle with the suffix -kan, which is often paired with the me- prefix. So for our next meeting, I want to ask Julie what the difference in meaning is when using -kan, because in some sentences it seems as though the meaning does not change.

The workbook exercise was in the form of an article that had the root form of a verb and had me fill in the correct prefix or suffix in order for the sentence to make sense. At first glance, it seemed easy because it was essentially fill in the blank, though I did have trouble because I did not know some of the root words that were used. As a result, I had to use an Indonesian dictionary to (1)look up the meaning of the root word and (2)look up the different forms with the prefix/suffix. This is because some prefix/suffixes aren’t simply attached to a root word due to the linguistic composition. For example, memasak is masak (root word) with the me- prefix attached and memakai is pakai (root word) with the me- prefix. With masak, the prefix is simply attached, but pakai is changed to memakai instead of "mepakai" due to the linguistic rules.

Other than this, I have slowly been reading the novel Bukan Pasar Malam that Julie gave me at the beginning of the semester. The book itself is very short, though I have trouble reading it because the author uses a lot of difficult vocabulary and I have to constantly look up the meaning in order to understand the sentence. As I get farther, however, I have become better at using context clues to infer the meaning which speeds up the process.

My cultural artifact for this month is a documentary titled The Act of Killing which centers on the Indonesian genocide in the 1960s. I actually watched this documentary for my global studies senior seminar class, though I found it coincidental that Julie and I have discussed this topic (from a different perspective) in one of our meetings.

The documentary is fully in Bahasa Indonesia with English subtitles. I could understand what they were saying for the most part, even without subtitles, though it was part of the documentary and could not be turned off. The director employed an approach that I have never seen in another documentary, which is essentially tricking the subjects. This documentary focuses on a man who actually participated in the mass killings in the ‘60s and he details his actions as well as expresses his view of the events. The director tricked him by saying that the documentary was actually for the purpose of creating a Hollywood-style cinematic recreation of the mass killings. To give context, the genocide was carried out by the Indonesian Army against those their accused of being part of the Communist Party, though it later extended to entire ethnic groups such as Chinese-Indonesians, since they associated the ethnic Chinese with the Communist party. The fact that the subject was okay with filming a (fake) recreation shows how much he believed in the cause. The perpetrators of this mass killing genuinely believed their actions were justified and decades later were still proud of what they had done. By the end of the documentary, the main subject eventually showed remorse for what he had done, only after filming the recreation. In the recreation, he played the role of one of the victims and through that he finally realized how atrocious his actions were.

While watching this documentary, I realized that I had talked about this topic with my language partner in one of our meetings. We read an article on G30S, the Thirtieth of September Movement, which was an attempted coup against the Indonesian Army. We did not get through the whole article, though I do remember reading about how the media outlets in Indonesia were taken over before several generals were kidnapped and assassinated. I did not know at the time, but this attempted coup was the main reason why the mass killings took place. Communists were blamed for the coup, which resulted in the purging committed by the Army.

An interesting aspect of this genocide is how well the Indonesian government is able to cover it up. As a result, this documentary had very negative reception in Indonesia and I imagine there is heavy censorship related to the topic. My language partner, Julie, also stressed how many Indonesians are unaware that this genocide actually took place, or they view it as something other than a mass killing. She encouraged me to ask my parents and other family members about this topic and see if they know about it, which is something I plan to do when I see them again.

Recently, Julie and I have been spending our meeting time reading and translating news articles. Since one of my main goals is to formalize my Indonesian vocabulary, much of our practice consists of studying through articles that use formal language. Something I noticed is how I think I understand the main point of a sentence because I understand the subject, etc. though my lack of understanding of one or two words completely changes the meaning of the sentence. As a result, I have been keeping a list of commonly used words in formal news articles. I like how Julie includes a variety of topics to read about which have included music, the Thomas Cup, Indonesian-Australian politics, and more.

In addition to articles, Julie also had me write an essay on an Indonesian artist, which was one of the bigger writing assignments. She chose the topic of Indonesian artists due to the fact that she had plans to travel to Amsterdam to visit her brother who is in charge of an Indonesian exhibit at an art museum. Coincidentally, I had actually gone to the VMFA the week before for another class, so the topic worked out very well. I chose to write about Raden Saleh because some of his paintings allude to historical events which I thought would be interesting to research and incorporate in my essay.

While writing the essay, I found the process to be more difficult than I thought. Julie had given me a few links as reference in order to conduct research on Raden Saleh. All of the websites were in Bahasa Indonesia, so even though I could read and understand them, I still had to write my own composition and it was hard to paraphrase from the sources because they were all historical facts. To avoid plagiarizing, I had to summarize the facts in my own words and a big part of that was looking up synonyms. It was very helpful, however, because I learned a lot of new vocabulary in the process. Finding appropriate synonyms was tricky because sometimes some words are only used in certain contexts, so I had to look up example sentences. Another difficult part was making the essay flow nicely with the use of transition words. I felt like I kept repeating certain transition words such as setelah (after) and karena (because). I also felt that I used the word dan (and) a lot and wanted to know if there was another word I could use to connect two nouns or clauses. Julie sent my essay back with corrections and there were fewer mistakes than I thought. One mistake was my use of informal language in the essay. I used the informal word bilang (say), which is only used in spoken Bahasa, instead of berpendapat. Another mistake was my incorrect use of prefixes. When discussing this, Julie remembered me saying that I wanted to work on them at the beginning of the semester, so our next big topic will be lessons and practice with prefixes and suffixes.

My cultural artifact for this week is about the Indonesian cultural fair and Gamelan Çudamani performance that took place a few weeks ago. Accompanying the performance were several Indonesian-related events hosted by the University of Richmond. In my four years in Richmond, I have never attended an event solely dedicated to Indonesian culture, much less hosted by UR, so this was a new and special experience for me.

The events I attended included the Indonesian cultural fair and a dance workshop. During the fair, I got the chance to meet a lot of local Indonesian people and practice speaking skills. I was nervous at first, but was able to effectively communicate, which goes back to my goal of learning more formal/academic Bahasa Indonesia rather than casual speech. There were various tables set up for Indonesian snacks, coffee, study abroad opportunities, and more. It was a very pleasant experience for me because it reminded me so much of my trips to Indonesia- it made me realize how long it has been since I was surrounded by Indonesian food, culture, and language. One of the tables even gave out my favorite Indonesian iced tea, teh botol, which is really hard to find in Virginia! After the fair, there were a few workshops on Balinese dance, music, and martial arts. I joined the dance workshop, which was very difficult! The dance did not have too many complicated moves, but what made it hard was the intricate hand movements. I tried my best to follow along, but it required a lot of precision and flexibility. I attended the fair and workshop with a friend of mine who was born and raised in Indonesia, so it was interesting because our experiences were slightly different as I am Indonesian-American. She expressed feelings of homesickness, while for me it was very new and fascinating.

As for the performance, it was very intriguing, and I had never seen anything like it in the past. I am not very familiar with gamelan music, so I did not know what to expect. During the fair, they did play a few pieces, though every song they played had a calm and serene vibe. With that said, I definitely expected something similar for the actual performance, but it was completely different given that the group makes experimental music. There was a focus on both the music and the visuals, so there was not a dull moment. There were theatrical elements, because the dance and music worked together to tell a story. There was an intermission in between, but the first part seemed to focus on “land” elements, whereas the second part showcased their new Titra (water) production. The performance also included some dialogue, though I could not understand it because it was either in Javanese or Balinese. As I said before, the group is relatively experimental, so they mix a lot of traditional elements with their own spins. The music was very dynamic and loud, which made for a fun performance. The last part of the performance even included a portion where they played louder than usual and encouraged the audience to make noise with them. It was very touching to hear about the group itself- many of the members are related and their arts/techniques are passed down from generation. For this performance, many of the younger members took on leadership roles so they were eager to perform. After the show, my friend and I met a few of the performers and supported them by buying their merchandise.

Last week, Julie and I continued to work on my reading/translating skills through articles. Last week, she assigned three articles about the Indonesian food tempeh. For the first article, I read it aloud to her during our meeting and translated it paragraph by paragraph. Even though I generally feel comfortable speaking Bahasa, it was quite a challenge for me to translate each sentence because there were always one or two words I did not know. This made me realize that most of the time, I only get the “big picture” when reading (formal) Indonesian articles and due to the gaps in my vocabulary, I miss some of the finer details. In order to fill those gaps, I have been taking notes on any new words I come across so I can remember them. One thing I noticed was that a lot of the words I did not know were actually formal synonyms of words I already knew. For example, I know that ‘kata’ or ‘bilang’ means ‘say’, though a more formal version I learned through the article is ‘mengatakan’. It is not a word commonly used in conversation, which is why I rarely hear it. I also realized since I am far more used to the informal versions of words, it becomes harder for me to internalize the formal versions, so it is definitely something I want to work harder on. Thus, I appreciate Julie’s approach to introducing new vocabulary words through formal articles because it is an effective way to learn proper vocabulary. She assigned the remaining two articles as homework, so I essentially did the same thing (read it myself and took notes on any new words).

This week, Julie showed me an Indonesian news site called VOA Indonesia that she wants me to use regularly. The site includes videos, daily podcasts, and article on a variety of topics which is a helpful resource to get exposure to the language every day. She emphasized how news sites can especially be helpful to language learning because not only is it relevant to our own lives, but it can become a routine habit and almost a “passive” way to improve reading skills. This is something I am familiar with because I also study Japanese and regularly read news in Japanese for class and practice. We read one article about recycling and another video about an Indonesian student who became a successful software engineer. Similar to last week, I was able to follow and understand the main point of each but missed a few details due to unfamiliar words.

Also, I got to meet Julie for the first time in person this week at UR’s Indonesian cultural fair. As I may have mentioned in a previous entry, Julie was out of town for the first half of September, so our meetings were conducted virtually. However, she returned in time for the fair and we were able to finally meet in person. The fair itself was amazing- in all my time as a student here I had never attended a cultural event solely dedicated to Indonesia. I felt very comfortable there and was able to connect with the local Indonesia community.

For my cultural artifact, I chose the Indonesian movie Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens. My language partner assigned this movie to me, though I had heard about it a few months ago because it is part of Netflix’s Asian American & Pacific Islander Collection. Though it is an Indonesian movie and fully in Bahasa Indonesia, much of it takes place in New York City so there is some English here and there. For learning purposes, my language partner suggested that I use captions in Bahasa Indonesia rather than English. The movie follows the main character, Ali, who is in search of his mother who moved to New York to follow her dreams of becoming a singer. There was conflict between his mother and late father, so the issues extended to Ali as well. When he arrives in New York, he meets his mother’s former roommate who lives with three other Indonesian ladies. There is also a romantic subplot involving Ali and the daughter of one of the ladies. For the purpose of this cultural artifact journal, I would like to focus on the Indonesian ladies and the daughter.

An aspect of the movie I appreciated was the representation of first- and second-generation Indonesian immigrants in the US. This is something I have never seen portrayed in the media (at least, about Indonesian immigrants specifically). When Ali first meets the ladies, he immediately refers to them as ‘tante’ (aunt) after finding out they are Indonesian. This tendency to act familial with other Indonesian people is something that is common in Indonesian culture. Despite living in New York City, the tantes never let go of their heritage as seen with the style of their apartment and food they ate. Overall, it seems like they did not face heavy pressure to assimilate into western culture. One aspect of assimilation may be their “flashy” styles compared to Ali’s real aunt who lives in Jakarta. Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population and Ali’s real aunt was no exception as she was shown to always wear a hijab and modest clothing. There was one scene that juxtaposed the differences of her and the tantes living in the US- Ali was on video call with his aunt and she was shocked to see the ladies without a hijab and wearing western clothing. The tantes also embody the “hard working immigrant” image, as they work several jobs such as masseuse, housekeeper, etc. A plot point includes their dream of opening an Indonesian restaurant and its name is wordplay referred to in the title ‘Ratu Ratu Queens’. Ratu ratu means ‘queens’ and the borough they live in is Queens. Throughout the movie, their mannerisms were very natural and reminded me of my own Indonesian tantes.

Another character I found interesting was Eva, who is the daughter of Ance (one of the tantes). As a second-generation Indonesian, she was the character I related to the most. I mentioned that there was some use of English in the movie, and most of it was spoken by her. This is because she was born in the US, but raised by her Indonesian mom, so Bahasa Indonesia naturally became her heritage language. Every Indonesian character in the movie speaks to her only in Bahasa so she understands it very well, though she always replies in English. This is something I had never seen in other TV shows or movies, but something I do a lot with my parents if they speak to me in Bahasa.

I am glad to have watched this movie (as I rarely watch Indonesian movies) and this one was especially interesting because it included both Indonesian and Indonesian-American perspectives.

My self-directed Bahasa Indonesia class this semester started a bit late because there were delays with finding a language partner. Sadly, my language partner from last semester was only available for the 2020-21 school year due to the end of her Fulbright Program. Because we got a chance to become friends last semester and she knew a lot about me and my language level, it would have been convenient to continue learning with her, though I am excited to learn with my new language partner, Juliani/Julie. She is currently out of town, so we have been meeting virtually until she comes back on 9/20.

Through our first meeting and some preliminary assignments, Julie has a sense of my Bahasa level as a heritage learner. As such, she wants to focus on refining my Bahasa Indonesia through reading articles, books, and other materials. There will be more of a focus on reading and writing rather than listening and speaking. My first assignments consisted of reading two articles on the pronoun ‘anda’ (you), watching an Indonesian film, and creating a short presentation on a topic of my choice.

She chose the articles on the pronoun ‘you’ because it is seen as the neutral pronoun that can be used with those of a higher and lower status. Of course, in English we only have one ‘you’ pronoun, so I understand why she would want to emphasize this at first. However, through my Japanese studies, I am already familiar with the concept of politeness and hierarchy in language (especially pronouns). For the movie, she had me choose between the comedy-drama Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens or the biographical movie Kartini. As I had already studied Lady Kartini in the previous semester (and watched scenes from the movie), I decided to watch the former. Julie suggested that I watch it either without captions or using the Bahasa Indonesia ones, and I chose to watch it with Bahasa subtitles. However, there were times where I did not understand a scene, so I used English captions sparingly for better context. Lastly, Julie asked me to create a short (only written) presentation about any topic to practice my writing skills. I chose to do it on music and was able to present it to her and receive feedback.

Something I want to work on is improving my formal vocabulary. I noticed this while writing my presentation because I felt that I kept repeating certain transition words or using the informal versions of words. Also, during our latest meeting, she had me read an article aloud and later translate it aloud as well. My biggest issue doing that was not knowing key vocabulary, so I would understand most of the words in a sentence, but not know the most important verb or subject. Thus, I only grasped fragments and ended up not knowing the meaning of the sentence as a whole. For me, it was definitely frustrating to be able to understand 90% of a sentence, but still completely miss the point/meaning.

Hi everyone!

For my final presentation, I got permission from Michael to do mine a bit differently- it is fully in Bahasa Indonesia rather than English. In addition, I presented it in front of my language partner (Farida) and several other native Indonesian speakers (I was so nervous!). I also answered a few questions from the audience towards the end. Unfortunately, we had some technical issues on Farida’s end, who was hosting the session. She disconnected due to an outage, so I had to wrap up the meeting a bit informally and earlier than expected.

The actual presentation was about "Mental Health of Students in the US." I discuss things such as a typical schedule and assignments that college students receive, and how it affects our stress levels, productivity, etc. I also talk about part-time jobs, extracurriculars, and balancing academics/extracurriculars/work. Finally, I introduce some of the on-campus resources such as the Well-Being Center and CAPS.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LhMBjo24SUYRk-Dd9mr7SUr-qgR--Y3V/view?usp=sharing

For my final cultural artifact, I chose to write about Kampung Inggris Pare. This is the “English Village” in East Java. The purpose of this village is for Indonesian people to learn and immerse themselves in English. Everyone in this village makes an effort to speak English at all times, and most of the buildings here are English “courses.” They are called courses, which actually mean school (they are essentially intensive language schools). I watched a video on one of the many courses offered in this village, which is called Kampung Inggris LC (Language Center).

Even though it is technically a village, it is more akin to a college campus or student complex. Most, if not everyone, who lives in Kampung Inggris Pare is a student. As expected, they are mainly from Indonesia, but there are also students from Malaysia, Thailand, East Timor, and more. These students are typically high school graduates who want to prepare themselves for university or the international workforce by studying English. The main modes of transportation are motorcycles and regular bikes. While many of the buildings are courses, there are still restaurants, food stalls, cafés, various stores, parks, etc. Like I said before, it is very similar to a large college campus! From the video, I also learned that there are various extracurriculars and outside activities offered. Additionally, in school, students are expected to do a lot of difficult things like formal presentations, daily assessments, and more. To my understanding, each individual course has several levels of English classes.

This semester, I am taking an ESL Teaching class, which my language partner, Farida, is coincidentally taking as well. As part of that class, students are expected to get hands-on experience teaching. Farida was able to connect our class to BEC (specifically through her friend, Mr. Fuad, who is a BEC administrator), one of the courses in Kampung Inggris Pare, so I have had personal experience with students there. Actually, BEC was the first course ever offered in Kampung Inggris Pare, and if I remember correctly, Mr. Fuad’s father was the founder and one of the pioneers of Kampung Inggris Pare, which is so amazing to me. The students I taught were in the advanced level, so most of our lessons centered around discussions on various topics in order for them to develop difficult and specific vocabulary (in addition to speaking, listening, pronunciation practice, etc.). Since my job was to teach them English, I unfortunately did not have many opportunities to practice my Bahasa Indonesia with them. However, since our class was mostly discussion based, I learned a lot about Indonesian life and culture from the students. Our topics included housing, empathy, compassion, and goals. From our housing topic, I learned that many of the students in Kampung Inggris Pare live in boarding houses with other students. I especially liked our topic of goals, because I learned a lot about the students’ aspirations. Many of them want to become entrepreneurs and start businesses. Other goals included becoming a teacher, airport worker, and psychologist. Though our discussions, I learned that Indonesian students share a lot of similar interests with American students.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x4HYS72cJd81ucU4_hMjzGpL3ihrkMwi/view?usp=sharing

I am sad that my Indonesian studies are coming to an end this semester and also that my language partner, Farida, is going back home to Indonesia soon. I truly learned so much from her this semester and not only that, but we have so much in common and I consider her a friend rather than just a language partner or instructor.

Our last few weeks were spent wrapping up our lessons, which was the A1 unit. When I continue next semester, I will be moving onto A2. I had a midterm a few weeks ago, which went a lot better than I expected. It included multiple sections that effectively incorporated listening, writing, and reading. The actual content was fair and included several units we had studied before. My only issue was forgetting certain vocabulary. I understood pretty much all the questions, instructions, and the grammar points included, but there were a few words that I had to guess the meaning for. I used context clues and process of elimination, however, so I think it all worked out well. I was nervous before because I did not actually know how/what to study for the exam. I understood that the A1 level was derived from a textbook which Farida introduced to me and showed me the PDF for in the beginning of the semester, but it was not something we explicitly looked at. Most of the time, the lectures would be from PowerPoints she created, so I studied by reviewing those and looking at new vocabulary I had written down in my notebook.

Since we had a midterm, I assumed we would have a final exam as well, but instead we have a final presentation. This final presentation is one I had to create (with Farida’s help) all in Bahasa Indonesia, about an American topic, and presented to her Indonesian colleagues and students. I chose the topic of mental health in American universities. She prepared me for this presentation by dedicating our last few lessons after the midterm to useful things such as transition words, slang, and formal language (specifically for delivering a speech). These lessons were very interesting because I had never heard of most of the content before, and they were extremely helpful when creating my presentation. The lesson on transition words/phrases is definitely something I referred to when creating/thinking about my presentation. There were a lot of adverbs and prepositions that I had heard before in Bahasa, but never knew the actual meaning of, so it was very valuable. Learning about formal speeches was probably the most difficult one. We went over the opening, body, and closing of a speech (we later modified it to fit a presentation rather than a speech). Most of the language used in the opening/closing is extremely formal so I was not familiar with them at all. Something we also did after midterms was listen to her fellow Fulbright colleagues give presentations on Indonesian subjects. One was on Balinese culture and the other was on Ramadan practices in Yogyakarta. I had actually remembered about these presentations just now, but she may have included them to show me examples of a presentation in Bahasa Indonesia as a form of preparation. To be honest, I am very nervous to present, which is happening on Tuesday evening! I have had assignments in the past where I had to converse with native Indonesian speakers, but this will be the first time speaking in front of several native Indonesian speakers and delivering a presentation. Wish me luck!

The cultural artifact I chose for this month was a video and article about a coming-of-age ceremony in Bali. Specifically, it is the tooth cutting ceremony called Upacara Potong Gigi. There is no specific age for this ceremony, though they must be teenaged. Even though the ceremony is called “teeth cutting,” there is no actual cutting, just filing of the teeth. This ceremony is used by Hindus in Bali, so there is a lot of religious meaning behind it. Its purpose is to cleanse the adolescent of any bad energy or traits that could manifest in them, which include: kama (lust), lobha (greed), krodha (anger), mada (intoxication and insanity), moha (arrogance), and matsarya (envy).

Something interesting I noticed was that the atmosphere of the ceremony reminded me of an Indonesian wedding. This makes sense in many ways, as weddings are also a symbol of growth and maturity. I have only attended one, though it was so extravagant and memorable. Specifically, the women’s makeup, hair, and outfits were reminiscent to the bride and other female attendees of that wedding. Other common features I can point out include the use of flower petals and water. For this ceremony, the water was used to drink and rinse their mouth, but in the wedding I remember the bride and groom dipping their feet in separate bowls of water. Perhaps both are symbols of cleaning.

In class, we went over the most common religions in Indonesia, and of course Hinduism was on the list. However, I did not realize how widespread it is in Bali (87%). Since Indonesia is home to the largest population of Muslims, I thought Islam would be the majority religion in many of the islands, especially a well-known one such as Bali, however, it is not the case. This year, I studied Hindu art in one of my classes, so I am now aware of many common motifs, symbols, and themes. Back when I visited Bali in 2016, I had almost no knowledge of Hindu art, so I could not recognize anything specifically. I do remember taking time to appreciate any new architecture or statues I came across, and I also remember thinking they are a bit different from general Indonesian culture, but I just thought it was expressions of Balinese culture (though now I am thinking they are most likely very Hindu-influenced). It is always interesting to study the effects of religion on culture and many aspects of society, because it can be a very strong influence.

In the United States, I do not believe we have any coming-of-age ceremonies. I think many thoughts concerning coming-of-age relate to reaching certain ages such as 16 (able to drive), 21 (able to consume alcohol), etc. So it is always interesting to hear about other culture’s view on maturity and adulthood. Additionally, I also study Japanese and there is a Japanese holiday that celebrates coming-of-age called Seijin no Hi (成人の日), which also contains a ceremony called seijin-shiki (成人式). These ceremonies are held in governmental or school buildings and usually speeches are given by officials/teachers. The age of maturity is 20, so those who have turned 20 are welcome to attend the ceremonies and wear traditional Japanese clothes.

I have been continuing my studies as usual, going through Farida’s curriculum and learning about various topics. Recently, we have been studying Indonesian music, houses, and daily activities.

During our lessons lately, I have been noticing that Farida will introduce or show me something (video, pictures, article, etc.) related to our unit, then ask for my opinion or understanding. She has always done this from the start, but now I feel that she does it more often, which I enjoy. It allows me to express my opinion and understanding (or lack thereof). It also highlights some cultural differences between the US and Indonesia.

Farida informed me that we are supposed to have monthly assignments in her class, though we actually forgot about the one for February. As a result, she gave me a smaller assignment which made up for the forgotten one. The assignment was about Hari Kartini (Kartini Day). Ibu Kartini is a heroine figure in Indonesia, so Hari Kartini (April 21) is a holiday with feminist roots that celebrates her accomplishments related to the emancipation of women and advancement of their education. As for the assignment, it was to film a video of me singing the Kartini song and delivering a small message to the women of Indonesia. I thought this was very appropriate, given our current unit about Indonesian songs. This video is actually for Farida’s friend, who is putting together a compilation of Indonesian women doing the same (so the end product will be all of us singing together, then our individual messages). I thought it was a very neat project that I was proud to be part of. From this assignment, I got to learn more about feminism in Indonesia. Even in modern days, Indonesia is a country who is a bit behind in terms of gender roles/hierarchy. It has definitely improved, but there are still traces evident in society. So it was very interesting for me to learn about a feminist leader and holiday in Indonesia. Additionally, I learned more vocabulary (especially beautiful, poetic language) from the lyrics of the song, as well as from creating my message for the video.

This month, I have another monthly assignment which consists of me interviewing one of Farida’s colleagues using mostly Bahasa Indonesia. I have actually done this type of thing in her class before, so I am not too worried, though I noticed that while preparing questions, I still have trouble understanding the question markers and production of wh-questions. For example, apa in Indonesian means “what,” and apakah can also mean what, but the -kah suffix denotes a yes/no question. It can be mixed with other words, for example, bolehkah, which asks for permission, “may I…” Even though the concept seems straightforward, I have a hard time internalizing it because when I spoke Indonesian as a child/with my family, I never heard this, or I never realized what it meant. From this experience, I can see how being a heritage learner can be a strength, but also a weakness. It can be a strength because we may already be familiar with a number of grammatical structures, vocab, etc., though it can also be a weakness because we internalize our previous knowledge (which may be fragmented, informal, etc.) and it can be difficult to bridge those gaps.

My artifact this month was a video about the largest shopping malls in Indonesia. The video showcased various malls in different parts of Indonesia, through most of them were in the larger cities. All of the malls were grand and unlike the malls I am used to in the US. They all had multiple floors and basements and many big stores that are unique to Indonesia (or Asia in general). While malls mainly reflect the lives in big Indonesian cities, I do believe they are a large part of life there, which is interesting because that might not be the image that someone who is not familiar with Indonesia might think of.

When I visit Indonesia, I always go to Jakarta because that is where most of my family live. In Jakarta, I think it is safe to say that shopping malls are the one of the centers of life. They make up a large part of city life and it is impossible not to pass one when in the city. My language partner, Farida (who is from Surabaya), and I often joke about malls being the only place to go when visiting Jakarta. When I go to Jakarta, we would go to the mall almost everyday to eat, shop, or just walk around. The malls I have been to that were included in the video are: AEON Mall, Grand Indonesia, and Gandaria City. Similar to many malls in Asia (though unlike in the US), these malls usually include larger department stores or even grocery stores that make up a large portion of the space. Back then, my favorite thing to do in the mall was browse the food court. The food courts are so much larger than I am used to and included so many options I was not familiar with. My favorite places were the ones that sold boba and cute desserts. Especially during my first trip there, I was not used to seeing so many types of cuisine in a single food court. Back then, where I lived in the US, most food courts had American food and typical chain restaurants, so there was never a large selection of Asian food. As a result, every time we went to the food courts or a restaurant in the mall in Indonesia, I always wanted to try somewhere different.

On the other hand, I think it is important to also realize the inequalities present in Indonesia, especially Jakarta. Because despite the abundance of these grand shopping malls, there is a very prominent socioeconomic gap in Indonesia. It is very common to pass by people living in undesirable conditions on the street and in impoverished neighborhoods even in Jakarta. The extravagant lifestyles reflected by these shopping malls are in no way reflective of the actual living conditions and lifestyles in Indonesia. Indonesia is a large country made up of thousands of islands, so the lavish picture portrayed by Jakarta does not apply to the majority of Indonesian life and culture.

This month, Farida and I continued meeting three times/week and our topics included family, public places, and animals/pets. I am feeling a lot more comfortable speaking in Indonesian and have noticed a decrease in my usage of English. I also feel that a lot of gaps in terms of vocabulary and grammar have been filled. For example, the words manja and sepi. For manja, I have heard this word being used by my family growing up, though I only had a sense of its meaning and never knew its true meaning/translation. My family often used it when my siblings and I were lazy, or when our pets acted clingy. As a result, I knew the context/when to use it, but could not express it in English. Its actual translation is “spoiled,” which makes sense, though I still feel as if the Indonesian-English translation does not 100% align, as manja mostly refers to childish actions. As for sepi, I had always thought it meant empty or not crowded, though it actually means “quiet” and is used to describe places (not people). Another grammar point I learned, though I am still mastering is the passive form. Since I am a heritage speaker, I have been aware of its usage in Indonesian, but never internalized the fact that it is indeed the passive form. An example is makan, which means “eat” and its passive form is dimakan “eaten.” So passive form is created by adding the prefix di- to a verb. Even though I know its meaning, I still have trouble using this in regards to the appropriate subject/object, though it is something I am working on.

Recently, Farida has also incorporated video assignments as homework. She would give me a few questions or a prompt after our last class on Thursday, which would be my assignment due over the weekend. I would have to film a video with my answers to practice speaking (the first requirement was ~2 minutes, and the most recent one was 3-5 minutes). My first video was about an article I read about Indonesian celebrations and my second one was about an animal I like but cannot keep as a pet. In general, I usually do not film videos for any of my classes and I personally do not like to be in front of the camera, though I found these assignments helpful! Of course, they took several takes as I would either forget what to say, make too many mistakes, etc. but I found that I learned a lot from the process and the videos themselves. I became more conscious of words I tend to repeat/overuse, filler words, and my pronunciation. One example is my use of the word terus which literally means “continue,” though it is often used in the context of “and then…” much like a transition word. I never noticed how much I tend to say this, and I am glad I did, because there are better, more precise words I can use in place of it. Another example is the 'tu' sound found in many Indonesian words such as: satu (one) and itu (it). I realized that when I pronounce these words, I use a harder ‘t’ sound, which makes it sound more like a ‘d’ sound. I never realized this before and was only made aware through listening to my speaking in the videos.

An aspect of the class that I appreciate is Farida’s use of meaningful conversation. I am also taking a Teaching ESL class this semester (which by coincidence, Farida is also taking!) and we went over the importance of meaningful activities. These activities are ones that incorporate aspects of the learners’ lives in order to make lessons engaging and relevant. I found that in most of our speaking classes, Farida tends to center the conversation around our personal lives, so there is more substance to the conversation, and we are able to talk about our own interests, experiences, etc. I definitely enjoy this more than, for example, speaking about general topics that we have little interest in or no opinion about.

The cultural artifact I chose for this month was a video about the traditional Indonesian fabric/dyeing technique called batik. The technique centers on using wax as a method to color the cloth, which is also considered an ancient art form.

The most notable aspect about batik is the many patterns and motifs. In the video, the presenter mentions a few which correspond with a place and/or theme:

1. Motif Tujuh Rupa: originated in Peklongan, includes a lot of motifs related to nature (animals/plants), mix of local culture and ethnic Chinese culture.
2. Motif Batik Sogan: identical to the area of the Javanese court, classical palace motifs (in the past, used by Javanese royalty but now used by everyone).
3. Motif Batik Mega Mendung: from Cirebon, popular in Indonesia and worldwide, cloud motif which represents patience (reflective of the nature of life, artisans/users of this type of motif must also exercise patience).
4. Motif Batik Gentongan: from Madura and cannot be found elsewhere, unique process using a barrel (soaked and stored for a certain amount of time).
5. Motif Simbut: includes a shape resembling taro leaves, simple repeating motif, from Badui tribe in Sunda.
6. Motif Batik Parang: one of the oldest in Indonesia, diagonal motif (pereng), motif that resembles letter “S,” symbolizes continuity/eternity through ocean waves.
7. Motif Batik Kawung: the oldest motif in Indonesia, includes a pile arranged in four square corners, founded in Java, represents self-control, clean heart, etc.
8. Motif Batik Pring Sedapur: from Magetan City, must be preserved through research of the development of the decorations, pring sedapur means “cluster of bamboo trees likened to strength.”
9. Motif Batik Priangan: developed in Priangan region and representative of the beauty of the region, use of flora and fauna motifs.

Even though there exist many batik motifs, I think the fact that they are all considered “Indonesian batik” is representative of the unity present in Indonesian culture. This reminded me of a previous lesson in which an aspect of Indonesian culture is their collective identity. When learning about the different motifs, I was surprised that none of them were directly influence by religion, especially by Islam (seeing as Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world). I have taken a religious art class in the past, and the different symbols (nature, patience, continuity, etc.) reminded me of other forms of religious art, so I was expecting some mention of it.

In a class lesson, Farida went over some popular tourist spots in Indonesia, one of which was Yogyakarta. I learned that it is common to purchase batik when visiting Yogyakarta as there are many batik vendors there and stores selling batik. I have been to Yogyakarta once and I remember visiting a batik store in one of my trips to Indonesia, though I cannot remember if it was specifically in Yogyakarta or Jakarta (where I usually visit my family). Even so, I was young and did not understand the motifs, so I hope to be able to go back one day and appreciate the different designs.

During the first two weeks of the semester, I got to meet Farida, the language partner for Bahasa Indonesia. We utilize a hybrid structure, with 1-hour online sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a 1-hour in-person session on Wednesdays, and an asynchronous portion on Fridays. I think it is a nice balance to maximize learning opportunities.

Even though I am Indonesian, I was born and raised in the US and do not know a lot of other Indonesian people outside of my family, so it is nice to be able to communicate with Farida. She knows it is my heritage language, so she tries to speak in Bahasa as much as possible, as I am already familiar with basic grammar and vocabulary. I still find myself mixing in English when I speak in Indonesian, so I want to work on producing purely Indonesian sentences. Essentially, there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge of Indonesian language, so I hope to fill those gaps and develop my speaking, listening, reading, and writing abilities.

With Indonesian being my heritage language, I mainly spoke it as a child, so it did not fully develop, especially when I started going to school. I noticed that were many things I did not know or realize about the language, one being the differences between formal and informal speaking. This was evident on our lessons about pronouns- I knew all the informal ones but I had never heard of the formal versions. When I speak Indonesian around my family, I mostly use informal, so it was difficult for me to distinguish between the two. As a result, I somewhat internalized Indonesian to be a mainly “informal” language, but I now know that this is not the case. It was further emphasized in another lesson about honorifics.

For our lecture and speaking classes, I started learning about greetings, pronouns, and introductions (self and other people). As I mentioned above, the hardest part about the lessons were learning about the formal versions. I had never heard of most of the formal words before, so I had to take extra steps to remember the distinctions. I appreciate the structure of the class, as it mixes several language skills such as speaking and writing. For example, Farida might lecture for a few minutes about the topic and introduce key points, but then she will have me create sentences by speaking or by writing in the chat or a Google doc. This was especially helpful when learning about pronouns because I had to use each different pronoun but also switch the subject/object around. Our language table and asynchronous portions focus more on cultural lessons about Indonesia. Our lessons have included public spaces in Indonesia and transportation. I find these lessons helpful to learn about life in Indonesia as well as its history. Since I have visited Indonesia several times, I am also able to contribute my previous knowledge and expand on it. These lessons have included the usage of videos, then comprehension questions afterwards to assess my understanding or clarify the content. For the asynchronous class, I have a journal assignment afterwards which I find helpful to practice my writing skills. During every class session, I write any new vocabulary or grammar points that come up.