Growing Asian languages at home

Along with the entrance of many Asian dramas into Indonesia's television channels, the interest of people to learn about languages and cultures is also gradually increasing, opening up more pathways for students to find dream jobs.

Full House, Boys before Flowers, or the Asian Pop Sensation Jeong "Rain" Ji-hoon can be considered as the beginning of growing interest of people with the Korean langauge.

The coordinator of Korean language at the University of Indonesia's International Language Institution (LBI UI), Usmi, said that the Korean language in Indonesia was now developing quite fast, having started in around late 2004 with many Indonesian migrant workers becoming interested in working in Korea.

But the booming of Korean drama series on the country's television channels highlighted the growth of exposure to Korean culture at home, she added.

"When I asked my students the reasons why they want to study Korean, many of them answered that the dramas, the songs, or the artists were also behind their decisions," the lecturer of Korean literature at UI said.

Siske Annisa, a student at LBI UI, said that the Korean dramas broadcast on TV had become one of her reasons for learning the language.

"Although it was not the main reason, I found it very useful to have so many Korean dramas on our local TV station as well as Korean songs as they are also my tools in studying the language," she said.

Siske is studying at the Korean second basic level at LBI twice a week. She and a group of students also have a chance to learn Korean with a Korean native teacher once a week.

"A Korean-speaking person can be helpful for my listening and speaking practice, but for the structure, I prefer a local teacher so that I can understand it better," she said.

Siske said that besides her interest in Korean drama, she also noticed that Hangul, the original native Korean phonemic alphabet broken into syllabic blocks, was quite attractive, making her more interested in joining the course.

"I'm so glad that I don't only learn about the grammar, the structure, but I also learn about the culture there which I think is pretty different from ours," she said.

Apart from that, Usmi also highlighted that learning Korean nowadays would benefit the college students a lot as more Korean companies and investors were coming to Indonesia and looking for Indonesian people who could speak the language.

"Some companies have started to approach my students at college, offering the students jobs soon after they graduate," Usmi said.

The undergraduate Korean literature program at UI itself just started in 2006.

It cooperates with some universities in South Korea to expand its network, giving bigger opportunities for students to study there.

Meanwhile, another Asian language that will still be essential in the future is Japanese.

Although the Japanese language and culture has been known in the country for more than four decades, it just started to thrive in the mid-90s.

"Now, the language has become very popular among high school students. About 90 percent of Japanese language students in Indonesia are students at schools which now have a specific language program," the director general of Japan Foundation, Kanai Atsushi, said.

As with Korean, they usually fell in love with Japanese through its pop culture, such as the Japanese comic, manga, and dramas, he said.

"They later learn Japanese to understand more about it. But most Indonesian college students learn Japanese to continue their studies in Japan," Kanai said.

In 2008, a total of 1,791 Indonesian students studied in Japan, with technology being the most coveted major there, according to a survey by the Japan Student Services Organization.

Kanai said that in learning Japanese, the hardest but the best fun part was learning Kanji.

"Each Kanji has its own meaning, but once you learn it, you'll find that that is the key to the language," he said.

Now, at least 50 people are taking part in the advanced level Japanese course at the Japan Foundation.

The dean of UI's school of humanities, Bambang Wibawarta, said that knowing a country from its soft power, such as the pop culture was a good start to understanding a country's culture, that would lead to something bigger.

"Nowadays, to expand our network and create cooperation with other countries, we have to know the culture of the countries first. And by learning the language, it will be helpful as language is part of culture," he said, adding that it could also be a great additional portfolio for someone.

Bambang said that in the Asian region, Japanese, Korean and Chinese could now be classified as the favorite languages, and used both in formal or informal events.