One of Victoria's Indonesian language teachers, Helena Anggraeni, shares how Indonesian language teaching is conducted in her classroom and how it impacts the students.
Helena Anggraeni teaches Indonesian language at Dromana Secondary College in Victoria. She has been teaching Indonesian in Australia since 2008.
Ms Anggraeni said that the number of students studying this subject decreases as they progress to higher a grade.
"They [students] are thinking about whether language can help their careers," Ms Anggraeni told SBS Indonesian, discussing on how students in Year 9 begin to consider their majors and career interests and whether learning a language is relevant.
Ms Anggraeni said that besides career considerations, culture also plays an important role in attracting Australian students to study Indonesian language.
If the culture is interesting, they are interested in the language.Helena Anggraeni - Indonesian language teacher, Dromana Secondary College
With informal or slang Indonesian used in most of everyday conversation, Ms Anggraeni admitted that learning the language is challenging. She said Indonesian language needs to be "made as close as possible" to students' everyday lives.
What methods do Ms Anggraeni use to teach Indonesian to her students? What teaching ideas do she think can make Indonesian "more interesting" for Australian students?
Listen to the full podcast.
