Teaching Bahasa Indonesia to Foreigners through Having Meals in Depot.

Teaching Bahasa Indonesia to Foreigners through Having Meals in Depot1

by

Luita Ariwibowo _{and Ike Revita}

1 Introduction

There are two prominent approaches in teaching language, namely traditional and functional approach. The traditional approach is focused on the form or the structure of the language. This approach has been longly used until the birth of the functional approach. The functional approach is rooted in sociolinguistics which views language as the system of its speech community. This approach is well-developed as the answer of the structuralists’ failure--the propponents of the traditional approach-- explain the aspect of communiation in teaching language. Consider the following examples:

(1) Dimana kamu tinggal ‘Where do you live?’ (2) Dimana Bapak tinggal? ‘Where do you live?’

Sentence (1) and (2) are interogative filled by question word

Dimana ‘where’, subject kamu ‘you’ predicated by tinggal ‘live’. This is the way the structuralists analyze sentences. One thing forgot is the use of the sentence. Is it proper or not? Formally, an interogative is used to ask question in which the hearer is supposed to give response by answering

1 _{Presented in International Seminar Teaching Indonesian Overseas FIB UGM Yogyakarta,}

9-10 Mei 2007

 _{Indonesian Department, Airlangga University Surabaya}

that question. This sentence, however, is not interchangeble. In the sense that sentence (1) can not be adressed to the hearer of sentence (2) and vice versa. That pronoun kamu, in Bahasa Indonesia, may only be adressed to those who are of the same age with the speaker but not to the old is underestimated by the structuralists.

This phenomena is commonly found within interaction between Indonesian leraners and Indonesian native speakers. Once,the writers got story from a professor addressed by kamu by an Indonesian learner he taught. This is a ‘silly’ problem to be considered. To avoid such missuse in communication, an Indonesian learner is of importance to be provided with the real context. In the sense that, the Indonesian learners are introduced with the familiarly natural setting of communication. One of those settings is having meals in depot.

This paper is aimed at describing teaching Indonesian to foreigners through having meals in depot. Since having meals is an activity routinously done by everybody, it assumed that the instict to keep survive abroad (through having meals) may profoundly motivate the learners to learn Indonesia. Secondly, the various activities done in depot like ordering food, asking information about the food, and paying the food can stimulate the learners to have practice. Hence, teaching Indonesian to the foreigners is integratively conducted. This paper also describe the benefits and weaknesses of this method as well as the parameter of the learners’ success in learning Indonesian.

2. Having Meals in Depot: Is it Important?

As the ‘Student City’, Yogyakarta is visited by many people from various ethnics and countries. Some of them are as the tourists and some others are as the students who want to continue their study. Those who are staying for quiet long time (more than 6 months) in Yogya is categorized as penduduk musiman seasonal citizen. This brings about Yogyakarta becoming heterogenous followed by the mushroom of depot. Depot is defined as a smallhome selling food (Moeliono, 1990). This depot is run traditionally and non-traditionally. The traditional depot is usually run by household with selfservice sytems-- each customer may take the meal as the like and must be paid before thay have it. Meanwhile, the non-traditional depot is usually non self-service in which each customer is served by waiter/waitress. The traditonal depot is commonly visited by students ‘anak kos ‘ since the taste and the price of the food is suitable with them. Those who firstly visit the depot is of possibility to get confused with the system and the food provided. This willfirce the toask and dig the information, specially about the food, to the owner or the waiter of the depot. The question can be ini apa ‘what is this’, namanya apa ‘what is the name?’, apa rasanya ‘how does it taste?’,

terbuat dari apa ‘what is it made from?’, etc. These questions are some of the questions might be questioned by the Indonesian learners and are spontaniously uttered. In the sense that, the communication takes place

naturally involving the real participants. This is of great cruciality in learning process (Cahyono, 1995).

Furhermore, having meals is a kind of activity daily done. At least, everybody has two meals a day. For Indonesian learners staying in Indonesia, having mealsin depot is another test to challenge them whetjhr they can survive or not living in the country where they learn the language. The learners, therefore, are not recommended to have meals in the reastaurant or fast food restaurant because the waiter/waitress are able to spaek, at least, English. If this is so, the aspect of practical and cultural learning process can not be applied that is contradictive with traditional depot. Traditional depot is traditionally managed in which everything is having to dowith family. This is also reflected by the use of Indonesian or Javanese language to interact. In this depot, the learners will find the nuance, in terms of the visitors dan the waiter/waitress, indicating the real Indonesian culture such as the culture of queue to take the food, the culture of thoughtfullness to take the food as much as needed and consider that those who are in line behind also need the food, and the culture of honesty when the food had must be paid.

3 Having Meals in Depot: Integrated Skills in Teaching Indonesian

Teaching Indonesian to foreigners through having meals in depot has fulfilled the four aspects of language teaching--reading, writing, speaking/listening, and structure. Consider the following dialogs:

(3) V : Ini apa namanya, Mbak? ‘What is this?’ W : Ini gudeg. ‘This is gudeg’.

V : Gudeg terbuat dari apa? What is gudeg made from?’ W : Dari gori. ‘From gori’

V : Apa itu gori? ‘What is gori?’

W : Gori itu nangka muda. ‘Gori is the unri pejackfruit. V : Rasanya pedas ya, Mbak? ‘Is it hot?’

W : Tidak, manis. ‘ No, sweet’

(4) V : Berapa, Mbak? ‘How much is it?’ W : Lima ribu lima ratus. ‘Rp.5.500.-‘ V : (Give the money in 50.000)

W : Ada uang pas? ‘Do you have any exact change?’ V : Uang pas? ‘Exact change?’

W : Uang yang sesuai dengan harga makanan yang mas makan. Saya tidak punya uang kecil untuk kembaliannya. ‘The number is as much as the price of your meals.I don’t have any change’.

V : Uang kecil? ‘The change?’

W : Kembalian uang mas. ‘The change of your money’ V : Saya punya uang pas. ‘I have the exact change’.

These two discourses reflect how the Indonesian learners dig the information about the food and how to pay the food. From these two activities, three skills in learning process had already done, namely speaking, reading through the mastery of some vocabularies, and structure. Other skills can be applied in the non-selfservice depot which prepares the menu table. So, the learners may read some menus provided and writes the menu choosed. Eventhough only reading and

writing simple information, but this can be the starting point to come to the more complicated one.

4 The Implementation and The Evaluation

Teaching language is commonly conducted in class. The class is the replication of the reality exclusively fulfilling the demands of authenticity and naturalness of use (Johnson and Johnson, 1999).The classroom can be designed to create the natural speech event. Unfortunately, the naturalness of the native speakers’ culture can not be fully presented in the class.The language is dynamical in line with the dinamicality of the users (Revita, 2006). So, the distinctive feature of language context is of impossibility to be found/created in class.

This consideration creates another implementation of Indonesian teaching, namely teaching in class and out of the class with the following steps:

A. In Class

1. Giving the basic information in relation to the need of the visitors of depot, starting form taking the food until paying the food (form the time entering until leaving the depot). This is related to the concept of universal grammar (Flynn,1986).Chomsky (1980) said that universal grammar is a unit of properties, conditions, and the like which reflects the initial condition of language learned as the universal grammar becomes the basic to develop the next language learning.

2. Giving the basic information about the culture or habit related to the activities of having meals in depot, such as the culture of in line, the culture not to mix the food taken, or the culture to use right hand.

B. Out of the Class

3. Giving the explanation about things that are not understood by the learners within the activities in depot, like dialog in (4) in which the learners do not understand the meaning of uang pas or

uang kecil. If the explanation is not needed, let the learners learn by themselves.

4. Directly or indirectly helping the learners within interaction by doing the interference.

Such 1 - 2 of teaching/learning process will be applied in depot and 3 –4 teaching/learning process will be applied in class. In the sense that the theory is given before the learners come to the real ‘world’and the experience after being in depot will be discussed in class.

This is the first step to come to the next step. This first stepis still done in group accompanied by a supervisor. Each group may comprise 3-4 students with one supervisor. The supervisor may introduce some vocabularies related to the food or things related to depot/depot activities. For instance, gudeg is composed by unripe jackfruit, coconut milk, and palm sugar as well as the process of making gudeg.

The next step is individual activity in which the learners are allowed to have meals alone in depot. In this activity, the learners have to do things alone and find the way out by themselves. One thing to be consider is the teacher must inform the recommended depot in order the learners are safe consuming the food. By learning by doing, the learners may easily memorize and learn some new informations.

If it is possible,the learners are asked to interact in a meal place where the level of difficulty getting higher—angkringan. Angkringan is the place to have meals where everything is run very traditionally. An angkringan is not a small house but wagon-like which can be moved. The keeper of angkringan is usually not able to speak English. So, interaction in angkringan is very challenged. If it is not possible, the learning can be conducted by role play in class.

The parameter of the learners’ success in mastering Indonesian can be measured by the number of vocabularies mastered reflected from the variations of the lexical choice, the proper use of the lexicon in sentence and the proper if sentence use in interaction, this related to the mastering of Indonesian culture, and the periodical writing report written by students (per month or per two weeks). The parameter also,furthermore, can be seen from the standard evaluation designed by the institution.

5 The Benefits and the Weaknesses of Learning Indonesian through Having Meals in Depot

As being explained previously, there are some benefits of applying this activity as another implication of teaching Indonesian to foreigners, namely:

1. This media can be applied anytime because depot (whatever the name) can be found in almost everypart in Indonesia.

2. The learning is conducted integratedly since the four skills of mastering language are included.This integrated learning is one way to avoid the boredom of the learners. Sometimes, keeping learning one skill is boring. By learning within authentic language, the learners are challenged to interact naturally (Rebecca, 2001). In line with this, the research demonstrates that almost 90% of second/foreign language learners said that structure is the most boring lesson (Pollard, 2001).

3. This acitvity indicates that learning Indonesian is not only for academic purpose, but also a means to interact and share with others.

4. Learning through the activity of having meals in depot may stimulate the learners themselves to dig and to find the formulas of language as well as the Indonesian culture based on their own experience (students-based learning). This may ease the learners to master Indonesian because they learn from their own mistake. Yule (1996) said that the mistakes the

learners made are not things to forbid the progress of the second/the foreign language learners, but the key to actively study applied by the learners by communicating using the very language.

5. Learning by doing gives good impact to the learners. In class discussion, the learners may have impressive conclusion. For example,when they have no exact change to pay and the owner of the depot does not have the change either, this owner of the depot will say, ‘You may pay sometimes’. This indicate that the owner berleives in them and no worry that the customers will run away. The culture of positive thinking of Indonesian people is their conclusion.

6. The writing report made by the students is of quite satisfaction because the report is based on their own experience.

The weaknesses of this implementation are:

1. It is not applicable to those who are blank in Indonesian because this will be the handicap for the learners.Moreover,the waiter/waitress cannot speak Indonesian fluently. This problem can be solved by learners assistance.

2. Since this is related to the food consumed, the problem of inappropriateness may arise. The learners are of likeliness to get stomachache. This problem may be minimalized by recommending certain depots to be visited which guarantee that

the foods are higienis and adaptable to any stomache. The teacher/institution may also cooperate with those recommended depots.

3. This acitvity needs many instructors/supervisors, especially group activites, unlike in class that only needs a teacher. The solution is the involvement of the selected college students to assist the learners.

5 Conclusion

Learning Indonesian to foreigners through having mealsin depot is named learning from the nature. This learning is regarded effective and eficient because the learners directly interact with the native speakers by Indonesian with Indonesian native speakers. Learning by doing and from their own expreience is much more interesting than just learning in class or replicative situation. As one of daily activities, having meals in depot is likeliness to be done by everybody. Furthermore, depot can also be found in almost every part in Indonesia. Consequently, this is of applicability in Indonesia. Teaching Indonesian by having meals in depot has fulfilled the four skills needed--listening/speaking, structure, reading/vocabulary, and writing.

7 Bibliography

Cahyono, Bambang Yudi. 1995. Kristal-kristal Bahasa. Surabaya: Universitas Airlangga Press.

Chomsky, Noam.1980. Rules and Representation. New York: Columbia University Press.

Flynn, Suzanne. 1985. A Parameter –Setting Model of L2 Acquiisition. Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company.

Johnson, Keith dan Helen Johnson. 1999. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Moeliono, Anton. 1990. Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: BAlai Pustaka

Norton,Bonny and Kelleen Toohey. 2002. “Identity and Language Learning”. Dalam Robert B. Kaplan. The Oxford handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pollard, Nani. 2001. ‘Pengajaran Bahasa Indonesia untuk Pembelajar Asing melalui Cerita Tradisi Lisan’. KIPBIPA IV. Denpasar Bali. Rebecca. 2001. ‘Integrated Skills in the ESL/EFL Classroom’. ESL

Magazine. Vol.6. No.1. January/February. Washington: ERIC Clearing house on Languages and Linguistics.

Revita, Ike. 2006. ‘Cyberspace dan Filsafat Bertutur Masyarakat Minangkabau’. Simposium Internasional Dies Natalis ke-60 dan Lustrum ke-12 FIB UGM. Yogyakarta. 16-17 Maret.

Yule, George.1996. The Study of Language. 2nd _{Ed. Cambridge:}

2. Giving the basic information about the culture or habit related to the activities of having meals in depot, such as the culture of in line, the culture not to mix the food taken, or the culture to use right hand.

B. Out of the Class

3. Giving the explanation about things that are not understood by the learners within the activities in depot, like dialog in (4) in which the learners do not understand the meaning of uang pas or uang kecil. If the explanation is not needed, let the learners learn by themselves.

4. Directly or indirectly helping the learners within interaction by doing the interference.

Such 1 - 2 of teaching/learning process will be applied in depot and 3 –4 teaching/learning process will be applied in class. In the sense that the theory is given before the learners come to the real ‘world’and the experience after being in depot will be discussed in class.

This is the first step to come to the next step. This first stepis still done in group accompanied by a supervisor. Each group may comprise 3-4 students with one supervisor. The supervisor may introduce some vocabularies related to the food or things related to depot/depot activities. For instance, gudeg is composed by unripe jackfruit, coconut milk, and palm sugar as well as the process of making gudeg.

The next step is individual activity in which the learners are allowed to have meals alone in depot. In this activity, the learners have to do things alone and find the way out by themselves. One thing to be consider is the teacher must inform the recommended depot in order the learners are safe consuming the food. By learning by doing, the learners may easily memorize and learn some new informations.

If it is possible,the learners are asked to interact in a meal place where the level of difficulty getting higher—angkringan. Angkringan is the place to have meals where everything is run very traditionally. An angkringan is not a small house but wagon-like which can be moved. The keeper of angkringan is usually not able to speak English. So, interaction in angkringan is very challenged. If it is not possible, the learning can be conducted by role play in class.

The parameter of the learners’ success in mastering Indonesian can be measured by the number of vocabularies mastered reflected from the variations of the lexical choice, the proper use of the lexicon in sentence and the proper if sentence use in interaction, this related to the mastering of Indonesian culture, and the periodical writing report written by students (per month or per two weeks). The parameter also,furthermore, can be seen from the standard evaluation designed by the institution.

5 The Benefits and the Weaknesses of Learning Indonesian through Having Meals in Depot

As being explained previously, there are some benefits of applying this activity as another implication of teaching Indonesian to foreigners, namely:

1. This media can be applied anytime because depot (whatever the name) can be found in almost everypart in Indonesia.

2. The learning is conducted integratedly since the four skills of mastering language are included.This integrated learning is one way to avoid the boredom of the learners. Sometimes, keeping learning one skill is boring. By learning within authentic language, the learners are challenged to interact naturally (Rebecca, 2001). In line with this, the research demonstrates that almost 90% of second/foreign language learners said that structure is the most boring lesson (Pollard, 2001).

3. This acitvity indicates that learning Indonesian is not only for academic purpose, but also a means to interact and share with others.

4. Learning through the activity of having meals in depot may stimulate the learners themselves to dig and to find the formulas of language as well as the Indonesian culture based on their own experience (students-based learning). This may ease the learners to master Indonesian because they learn from

learners made are not things to forbid the progress of the second/the foreign language learners, but the key to actively study applied by the learners by communicating using the very language.

5. Learning by doing gives good impact to the learners. In class discussion, the learners may have impressive conclusion. For example,when they have no exact change to pay and the owner of the depot does not have the change either, this owner of the depot will say, ‘You may pay sometimes’. This indicate that the owner berleives in them and no worry that the customers will run away. The culture of positive thinking of Indonesian people is their conclusion.

6. The writing report made by the students is of quite satisfaction because the report is based on their own experience.

The weaknesses of this implementation are:

1. It is not applicable to those who are blank in Indonesian because this will be the handicap for the learners.Moreover,the waiter/waitress cannot speak Indonesian fluently. This problem can be solved by learners assistance.

2. Since this is related to the food consumed, the problem of inappropriateness may arise. The learners are of likeliness to get stomachache. This problem may be minimalized by recommending certain depots to be visited which guarantee that

the foods are higienis and adaptable to any stomache. The teacher/institution may also cooperate with those recommended depots.

3. This acitvity needs many instructors/supervisors, especially group activites, unlike in class that only needs a teacher. The solution is the involvement of the selected college students to assist the learners.

5 Conclusion

Learning Indonesian to foreigners through having mealsin depot is named learning from the nature. This learning is regarded effective and eficient because the learners directly interact with the native speakers by Indonesian with Indonesian native speakers. Learning by doing and from their own expreience is much more interesting than just learning in class or replicative situation. As one of daily activities, having meals in depot is likeliness to be done by everybody. Furthermore, depot can also be found in almost every part in Indonesia. Consequently, this is of applicability in Indonesia. Teaching Indonesian by having meals in depot has fulfilled the four skills needed--listening/speaking, structure, reading/vocabulary, and writing.

7 Bibliography

Cahyono, Bambang Yudi. 1995. Kristal-kristal Bahasa. Surabaya: Universitas Airlangga Press.

Chomsky, Noam.1980. Rules and Representation. New York: Columbia University Press.

Flynn, Suzanne. 1985. A Parameter –Setting Model of L2 Acquiisition. Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company.

Johnson, Keith dan Helen Johnson. 1999. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Moeliono, Anton. 1990. Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: BAlai Pustaka

Norton,Bonny and Kelleen Toohey. 2002. “Identity and Language Learning”. Dalam Robert B. Kaplan. The Oxford handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pollard, Nani. 2001. ‘Pengajaran Bahasa Indonesia untuk Pembelajar Asing melalui Cerita Tradisi Lisan’. KIPBIPA IV. Denpasar Bali. Rebecca. 2001. ‘Integrated Skills in the ESL/EFL Classroom’. ESL

Magazine. Vol.6. No.1. January/February. Washington: ERIC Clearing house on Languages and Linguistics.

Revita, Ike. 2006. ‘Cyberspace dan Filsafat Bertutur Masyarakat Minangkabau’. Simposium Internasional Dies Natalis ke-60 dan Lustrum ke-12 FIB UGM. Yogyakarta. 16-17 Maret.

Yule, George.1996. The Study of Language. 2nd _{Ed. Cambridge:}