Final Reflection

[Casey Murano]

My original motivation for learning Bahasa Indonesia was that I was applying for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant position there. Knowing the national language was a practical step that would allow me to connect with the culture and effectively communicate with my host community. However, studying Bahasa Indonesia through the SDLC turned out to be extremely formative in my work as a language learner and cultural explorer...and an artist! I was pleasantly surprised by how well this course connected with my global sustainability geography class, sociology class on race and crime, and figure painting course, and senior thesis art project. In fact, this semester was a pretty cool experience for me living life as an interdisciplinary, socially-engaged artist.My original motivation for learning Bahasa Indonesia was that I was applying for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant position there. Knowing the national language was a practical step that would allow me to connect with the culture and effectively communicate with my host community. However, studying Bahasa Indonesia through the SDLC turned out to be extremely formative in my work as a language learner and cultural explorer...and an artist! I was pleasantly surprised by how well this course connected with my global sustainability geography class, sociology class on race and crime, and figure painting course, and senior thesis art project. In fact, this semester was a pretty cool experience for me living life as an interdisciplinary, socially-engaged artist.As a language learner, I found phonetics very tricky; fortunately using the international alphabet was not crucial for my studies of Bahasa Indonesia similar pronunciation to English. (Learning about it was still helpful because I was able to see some differences). If I were learning another language like Korean that has a completely different alphabet, the international phonetic symbols would help mediate that relationship. On the other hand, I discovered that I really like grammar and syntax. I enjoyed lessons where we learned verb structures and word order. However, learning Indonesian with the context of SDLC 105 opened me not just to the structure, but the semantics of the language. It was fascinating to learn about the Sapir Wharf hypothesis and how language ultimately shapes our worldview. By learning Bahasa Indonesia, a language spoken in a very different cultural context, my worldview expanded, and apply this to my studies of Indigenous language in the United States. I was able to see how Farida sometimes perceived things differently than I did. I am excited that she will be on campus next semester so that we can continue learning about one another’s cultures. Even though I am an artist who spends countless hours in the studio painting (and is a therefore a kind of cultural producer), I tend to live under a bit of a rock when it comes to American culture. I don’t watch much TV, listen to current music, scroll through social media, or pay attention to the sports teams. The iceberg model helped me to reframe culture as the deep values and traditions, and recognize that as an artist, I am not just producing visual culture, but also the values of society: I am an active cultural explorer! Art, like language, helps shape how we think about time and relationships. Similarly, from the people-powered organization United States Department of Culture, I realized that artists are actually cultural workers who can help cultivate a culture of “equity, empathy, and belonging.” Learning about Indigenous cultures, such as the Pondok Damar in Kalimantan Indonesia for my final cultural presentation helped me see that culture mediates our relationship with the land. These insights were helpful for my senior thesis art project. My favorite part of the class was the group presentations. I liked getting to learn about what other students were learning in their language studies and think this was an effective way to build community. SDLC 105 was a unique experience that deepened my connection with Indonesian culture and also helped me find connections across other cultures. I'm grateful for this opportunity to learn the importance of language and communication this semester.