Why Learn Indonesian?
Indonesian is the national language of the Republic of Indonesia. It is closely related to Malaysian which is the national language of Malaysia. Indonesian and Malaysian are spoken by more than 250 million people in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Southern Thailand.
The Australian Curriculum establishes that by the time they leave school, all young people will have developed Asian literacy through gaining foundational and in-depth knowledge, skills and understandings of the histories, geographies, societies, arts, literatures and languages of the diverse countries of Asia and their engagement with Australia.
South East Asia has undergone enormous change over the past thirty years and as Australia’s closest Asian neighbour Indonesia is a fascinating and affordable country in which to travel, study or work.
Indonesian at St. Joseph’s Primary School
Learning another language fosters students’ ability to think and reflect about the workings of language and to develop mental flexibility and problem solving strategies. At St. Joseph’s, we aim to develop our students’ skills as a learner in these areas:
- Thinking skills – Acquisition of knowledge, facts, ideas and vocabulary
- Communication skills – Speaking, Listening, Viewing, Presenting, Reading and Writing
- Social skills – Respecting others, recognising other have beliefs, viewpoints, religions and ideas that may differ from their own.
The Indonesian program can be further enriched when families support the learning:
- By talking about the language learnt with your child
- By encouraging your child to participate in non-compulsory activities. E.g. speech competitions
- By making use of free online interactive Indonesian resources
- By letting your child teach you