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Life in an international school in Jakarta
Jakarta is continuously booming, and with that comes more and more foreigners. The city has many international schools, the most prominent being British School Jakarta (BSJ) and Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS). I was very fortunate to have been able to attend the former. Here is an insight into my life in an international school.
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Surrounding ourselves with people from all around the world exposes us to international languages. (Shutterstock/*)
J
akarta is continuously booming, and with that comes more and more foreigners. The city has many international schools, the most prominent being British School Jakarta (BSJ) and Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS). I was very fortunate to have been able to attend the former. Here is an insight into my life in an international school.
First of all, surrounding ourselves with people from all around the world exposes us to international languages. I guess this can be seen in both a good and bad way. The good thing is that we learn a little of a lot of languages and we become fluent in English through daily usage. The bad thing is that most of the Indonesians (myself included) aren’t exposed to Indonesian culture enough; we don’t speak the language everyday, which in my opinion is a shame because we should be more exposed to our own culture and heritage.
(Read also: Why Indonesians should write about Indonesia in English more often)
Secondly, we are notorious for having commitment issues because we see too many people come and go. We’ve become accustomed to saying goodbye, which makes it difficult for us to attach to others because we try to avoid saying goodbye altogether as it is always a sad situation.
Thirdly, the love/hate relationship we have between schools in Jakarta is very obvious. We compete with each other both academically and on the sports field. Through such competitions we get to know people from other schools, or as we call it, “kenalan”. Of course not everyone takes part in these competitions and you will find a range of people: from those who socialize with people from all over Jakarta all the way to those who barely know other people in their own school, which brings me to my next point.
The range of people you find in these schools (much like any other school I assume?) is very wide. You’ll find those who are very rebellious but also those who are highly innocent, or as we call them, “alim”. The stereotype of international schools having “party people” is true, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t have people whose sole focus is their schoolwork.
But one thing for sure about being in international school: the friends you make here are the ones you’ll keep forever, especially with the help of social media.
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An aspiring high school student who is too blessed to be stressed. Currently finishing her sophomore year at British School Jakarta, her hobbies include reviewing restaurants, updating Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/jov
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