As an international university, President University has a strategic role to bridge the understanding between global youth. One way to achieve this objective is through the university’s summer course program. Relationships building and introduction of Indonesian culture become the focal points that President University upholds within the program. The program itself aims to enrich the participants with knowledge of Indonesian culture.
A total of six students from National United University (NUU) Taiwan and Osaka University of Tourism (OUT) Japan, two partner universities of President University, participated in the program on July and August 2019 respectively.
During the four weeks of their stay, the six students attended Indonesian language course, as well as cultural courses on playing gamelan, making batik, and performing martial arts.
“It is different, Indonesian language and English. The pronunciation is too different such as the a, b, c, and so on,” said Cindy a student of NUU, majoring in Finance. Despite the initial difficulties in learning Indonesian language, the students enjoyed the courses as they were conducted in an interactive way.
Participants enthusiastically learned Indonesian culture as they practiced a traditional martial art, played some gamelan instruments, and got first-hand experienced in making batik, the universally acknowledged Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity of Indonesia according to the UNESCO.
The Summer Course program was organized by the International Student Affairs (ISA) bureau of President University. During the program, they arranged visitations to Karawang (West Java), Kota Tua (Jakarta), and Kepulauan Seribu (Jakarta). On August 2019, the ISA took the students to Saung Angklung Udjo in Bandung to learn about Angklung, a traditional musical instrument unique to West Java. The students also had the opportunity to attend the flag ceremony to commemorate Indonesia’s independence day.