Why Building Connection is Important

On the 5th of August 2009, there was an excursion to the Indonesian Consulate with year 8 students who are studying Indonesian at Melville SHS.

We went by bus together and the way to consulate was quite far so I had enough time to ask the teacher that teaches Indonesian in Melville Senior High School how Indonesian is taught to the Melville student, about herself, and how Melville students see Indonesia



The teacher's name is Mrs O'Loughlin. She was born in Malaysia so that's why she studied Indonesian while she was in high school. She teaches the 8,9,10 grades at Melville and she uses videos to teach them about the culture in Indonesia. The first thing she taught at the beginning to the students of Melville was the daily conversation. What makes Indonesian so difficult to teach is the students don't know the importance of learning it. They just feel it just a waste of time. So we can say that we as the delegation from Surabaya should convince them that learning Indonesian is important to build a connection between us as neighbouring countries.