Why teaching Indonesian?

While living in Indonesia we found no suitable teaching material to teach our six-year-old daughter Indonesian. My husband and I were learning at a small foundation, but their program took significant motivation from the learner and was not at all geared towards children. Children have so many unique advantages when learning a second language and yet we felt the options available were not leveraging that. This led us on a journey of creating our own material that was uniquely suited to the needs of young children learning Indonesian as a second language.

We spent months researching best practice options and looking into different methods. We consulted experienced teachers and asked them what they believed was needed. We looked at what teachers currently wanted and where we could create something that could help new teachers when they begin their journey teaching Indonesian. With a background in primary teaching and kindergarten, I wanted a program that was hands-on, interesting and perfectly suited to keeping children engaged and learning. We wanted to develop resources that are aligned with the Australian curriculum for Indonesian yet flexible enough to suit the various needs of individual students, different schools and a variety of teachers.

Now we are back living in Australia, teaching Indonesian in schools in the Australian context we see that the resources we began developing will help many beginning teachers. Teaching Languages is such a tough gig, and I believe most classroom teachers have no idea how difficult it is compared to classroom teaching.

Hearing stories of Indonesian language programs finishing up because of a lack of staffing is a reality of the Australian school context. And I completely understand. A few months in I too was asking myself why I was bothering. I have a huge passion for Indonesia. I love the culture and the language, yet I too was overwhelmed by the effort required to develop engaging resources, stick to my school’s plan, or develop my own, get on top of behavioural management and actually teach! I felt frustrated by the lack of resources available for Indonesian teachers.

It was from this place that I decided that something needed to be done to support new teachers with quality resources. I committed myself to spend time each week, not developing resources for my own classroom, but resources that could be used by many Indonesian teachers. After months of putting my heart into our resources, we have decided to launch with an online subscription method, to make it as accessible, adaptable and helpful as possible.

The beauty of a subscription model is that we will be continually adding new material throughout the year. As new topics are completed, new posters made and new activities finished they can be accessed instantly. We also know that most schools have good quality coloured printers and for a fraction of the cost of purchasing printed resources, teachers can print just what they need, when they need it. We cut down on waste by not printing things that aren’t needed, and you can fit the program to your school and students by choosing what you teach, and not feeling constraint by a textbook, workbook or set program structure.

I really believe that better, more accessible resources will enable teachers to teach better programs, and stay teaching for longer. This is the best outcome for students as they learn Indonesian, and will enable schools to support their teachers with a variety of resources for a fraction of the cost.