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More Indonesian Students Studying Mandarin as China Rises
Irvan Tisbabudi | January 10, 2010

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Valkyrie
4:53am Jan 13, 2010

And, it used to be Japanese. I agree, it's relative, 'cause it depends on who you're "making love" with.

yozeir
2:41am Jan 13, 2010

Yeah, learn English. Just don't put too much "R" in every worrrrds. Less "machine gun" people.

Jeanne Hachette
2:11am Jan 13, 2010

Simon, just spent four years working in China. For most of the people there, the key to have a better job is to speak English. So it depends where you are. If you deal with South America, you better learn Spanish to survive because they hate to speak English. So everything is relative.


Simon
9:10pm Jan 12, 2010

Salimharko, the education system in much of the world DOES put a strong focus on Mandarin. They increasingly do speak it. The PM of Australia is fluent. My daughter, in Australia, was told it was a recommended subject and millions of kids across the world are learning it. Fluent Chinese translators are earning big money worldwide. What is the advantage of not being able to speak one of the most spoken and important languages on earth?

It's certainly of more help internationally than Bahasa which, outside Indonesia and Malaysia (and they all do business in English and Mandarin) no-one cares about.

But as Peter says, English too. Knowledge is power and China has only just begun it's rise.


Jeanne Hachette
9:05pm Jan 12, 2010

Better to learn English Valkyrie. I think people focus too much on China and forget about a sleeping giant waking up : India. India has a bigger population than China, most of the Indian business people speak English better than those from mainland China and it is a democratic nation . Also , India is closer to Europe so we can expect the economy to do even better in the future. The volume of business with Indonesia is growing. Indonesia need to develop tourism , so English is the language to master if people want to improve their chance of a good job and be able to provide a good service to the tourists.

The Chinese are coming, and more Indonesian students are preparing for their arrival by studying Mandarin, both in Indonesia and in China.

Experts agree that the number of Indonesians studying Mandarin had begun to rise before the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement took effect on Jan. 1. And they expect the number to accelerate in the coming years as trade between the two countries increases, and as the booming Chinese economy becomes a stronger force in global trade.

Two Indonesian universities that offer majors in Chinese literature, Bina Nusantara University (BINUS) and the University of Indonesia, are seeing accelerating enrollment in their programs.

Agustinus Sufianto, a lecturer in Chinese literature at BINUS, said the university is expecting an increase of 15 percent to 20 percent in the number of students enrolled in the program this year, after an increase of 10 percent last year. He added that the program had begun recruiting Chinese lecturers.

“There are currently more than 400 students enrolled in the Chinese literature program,” Agustinus said.

UI has about half as many students enrolled in its Chinese program, but is seeing faster growth — 30 percent in 2009 and an expected 40 percent surge in 2010, according to Madona Sulanti, program coordinator.

More significant, perhaps, is that more than half of the students in UI’s program, which has been traditionally dominated by Chinese-Indonesians, are indigenous Indonesians, or pribumi , Madona said.

Count Stefan, a senior at Santa Theresia High School in Jakarta, is among those young Indonesians looking to take advantage of China’s ascendancy by studying its official language when he enrolls at university next year.

“I’ve decided to change my college major to Chinese literature from communication. I think there will be more opportunities for me as a result of the FTA with China and fewer students choose this major compared to more common majors like business,” Stefan said.

Meanwhile, the number of Indonesian students studying in Chinese universities surged by 42 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to Xie Yi of the Chinese Embassy’s cultural section in Jakarta.

As China and Indonesia increase business and diplomatic ties, an increase in the number of proficient Mandarin speakers will go a long way toward ensuring those ties are strong ones, said Djimanto, secretary general of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).

“The ability to conduct solid communication translates into a solid business relationship as well,” Djimanto said.

Dendy Sugono, the head of the Language Center at the Ministry of National Education, said proficiency in Mandarin among Indonesian businesspeople will be greatly appreciated by the Chinese.

“I’ve heard complaints from Chinese businessmen regarding their dissatisfaction in using translators while making business deals with Indonesians because it takes away the essential ‘party-to-party’ feeling,” Dendy explained.

Rizaldi Parani, a sociology lecturer at Pelita Harapan University, said China sees Indonesia not just as a market but as a place for long-term investment.

“The way I see it, an investing process would require a longer communication process, so I think it’s more important for Indonesians to learn to speak Chinese than people from other Asean countries,” Rizaldi said.