Learning Culture in Indonesian Language

Three months ago, I came to Indonesia, Banda Aceh, for the first time, and now I am taking Indonesian language class at Universitas Syiah Kuala. Immediately after my arrival, the classes have started. During these three months, within the framework of the language learning and cultural class, me with my friends from various countries such as Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Gambia, USA, Kyrgyzstan, and Bangladesh, travelled to several cultural places in Banda Aceh, including Aceh museum, Tsunami Museum, libraries, local small enterprise of Coconut Fibre, and other interesting places in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar.

I like the cultural class because it gives me much exceptional and new culture knowledge. When you come to one country, if you do not know the language, cuisines, culture, customs, and history of that country, it will be very difficult for you to live there. Knowing the culture of the place you live in will help you to understand the local societies more easily and absolutely will be exciting.

Once, the class took me and my friends to a local craft place. I saw various and colourful handicrafts and products such as Songket, Aceh Traditional Hat, Aceh clothes, coffee, traditional cuisines, and so on. I interested to know more about that, like how it is made, the materials, and others, and the people there introduced me about them. In fact, the culture, history, and handicrafts of Aceh are impressive. I liked all the cultural programs held by the university under office of International Affairs arrangement. Traveling with fellow students during the cultural class gives me the strong motivation to learn more. The advantage of this program is that I can immediately practice what I have read. This helps me and my friends to understand the topic quickly and remember it easily.

However, sometimes I found difficulties as well. One of them and the most memorable is that when I first came, I did not know Indonesian language at all. I had no idea what people were talking about. It was difficult for me to understand them. Gradually, with motivation and help from the language instructors, I began to speak Indonesian language. Yet, the thing that still gives me difficulty is Indonesian food. Indonesian people like to eat spicy food and it is quite difficult for me to get used to it. Despite the difficulties, advantages of the program are more than that. I enjoy learning Indonesia language and the culture in Aceh.

I am so thankful and appreciate for the teachers, they teach and share us everything, and our lessons are not limited to only learning a language, but also exchange opinions on free topics, which is very valuable for our self-development.