Young Indonesians take on the Mandarin challenge

JAKARTA — Around 20 years ago, Lu Fang landed in Indonesia from China to begin her career as a Mandarin teacher. Now, she is thrilled as more Indonesians love to learn the Chinese language and its culture.

Lu's journey to the Southeast Asian country began after a friend of hers in China told her about a private school in the Kelapa Gading area in North Jakarta, which was looking for a native Chinese teacher to give Mandarin lessons to preschool and elementary students.

"Since 2003, many private schools in Indonesia have started giving Mandarin lessons to their students. So, I decided to fly down to become the school's teacher. It's very exciting," said Lu, who hails from the Chinese city of Xi'an.

Lu, who still works at the school, found that more Indonesian children have been passionate about learning the language in the past eight years.

"Some students used to be afraid of learning it. Mandarin has four tones, and its characters, for them, are hard to write. Now, I see more students enjoying learning it. Perhaps, the internet has also helped them to learn Mandarin in many ways," she said.

Her students, including Annemarie Dealova, Siyu Huo and Liu Junji are able to speak Mandarin fluently. All of them began learning it at an early age.

Dealova, now 11, has been learning Mandarin since the age of 3. Learning Mandarin tones and pronunciations used to be challenging for her, but persistent practice has improved her skills.

"Learning Chinese characters was difficult at first. I had to memorize the characters and keep practicing a lot. Now I'm better at them," she said.

For 12-year-old Siyu and 10-year-old Liu, who are both of Chinese descent, learning Mandarin was interesting, fun and easy. Learning the language was helpful as they enjoy visiting China for family vacations. Mandarin, they said, helps them to communicate and interact with the locals confidently.

Their school principal, Januati Halim, said her school offers Mandarin as a subject since it is one of the most spoken languages in the world.

Moreover, China's investment and trading in Indonesia continue to increase, highlighting the importance of Mandarin, which will contribute to the students' future, particularly when they work at or with Chinese businesses or institutions, she said.

"The ability to speak Mandarin can help boost career prospects, offering benefits in employability, business opportunities, as well as cultural understanding," she said.

In September last year, the Chinese embassy in Indonesia, in collaboration with Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, inaugurated a Chinese cultural space within the mosque complex. Named "China Space", it fosters bilateral cultural and educational exchanges, and cooperation between China and Indonesia.

The classroom not only offers Mandarin lessons and showcases traditional Chinese culture, such as silk paintings, porcelain and panda dolls, but also demonstrates a number of Chinese technological achievements, represented by satellites and ship models, and miniature Jakarta-Bandung high-speed trains.

For over a decade, China has been Indonesia's largest trading partner and a significant source of foreign investment. The two countries will commemorate the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in April.

Both Halim and Lu expressed hope that the cooperation between the two countries would increase further, saying: "China and Indonesia should maintain their continued trust and support."

Xinhua