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.
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