Indonesia: Life In The Islands

Caitlin's Corner

This Monday I got suckered into running another teacher's English conversation class after school. Rather than actually teach any kind of lesson, I decided to host "Caitlin's Corner," basically a forum where everyone agreed that they could ask me any question if I could ask them any question. I'm not entirely sure everyone understood the disclaimer, but I forged ahead any way. Some speaking points we covered:

"Do you guys think it's OK to be gay?"
The answer was overwhelmingly no. Some of the more articulate kids actually made some very thoughful comments. Iraky, one of the kids in my class who actually might be gay, said that homosexuality was not allowed in the Qu'ran or Islam. When I asked him what he would do if his brother turned out to be gay, he said he would be very upset because his brother was going to lead a very hard life outside of society. I was impressed with his vocab and his emotion when he talked about it. Maybe it hits close to home...

"Who knows what the Holocaust is?"
Like I wrote earlier, I have a sneaking suspicion that when Suharto censored Indonesian history books, he eliminated any mention of the Holocaust. These kids confirmed it. Not only had they never heard the term "Holocaust," but only three of them had ever heard of Hitler. After I explained what happened during the Holocaust, a few of them denied that it could have occurred. I told them next week we're going to watch "Schindler's List," which probably shouldn't get back to the principal. They listened very intently when I talked and most of them seemed a little shocked that they didn't know about the Holocaust. I moved on to a new topic when they started to ask some pretty gruesome questions about death camps.

"What do you think about abortion?"
We couldn't even discuss this one. Everyone in the class, about fifteen kids, said unequivically that it was wrong and would never, ever be allowed to happen in Indonesia. Although I doubted the truth of that statement, they were pretty adamant about it.

"Euthanasia? Anyone?"
After clearing up the obvious "youth in asia" confusion, there wasn't much more to say. Under absolutely no circumstance would anyone in the room consider the other side of the issue. They said euthanasia was murder (and for the record I agreed with them, just trying to get them to use critical thinking skills), and one girl asked if Americans always murdered their parents like that...so I had to suspend discussion and reassure everyone that no, we don't all kill our parents when they get old. I'm pretty sure no one fully understood what I was talking about.

"Would you ever date or marry someone who wasn't a Muslim?"
Again, no. Not just for religious reasons though--one of the girls in the room who was wearing a jialbab suddenly spoke up and said Islam was like a culture and way of life and it would be difficult to marry someone who didn't share your upbringing and way of doing things. She got an A for the day for that comment. Iraky conceded that he would consider marrying a Christian, but NEVER a Hindu or Buddhist. He didn't really give a reason. The one Christian girl in the room said she wouldn't marry a Muslim because she didn't want her kids raised "that way," and then I hurredly brought the discussion to an end.

"Who can think of an important debate issue in Indonesia?"
I was thinking something political, maybe along the lines of what we had been talking about. Iraky's hand shot up:
"I think it's terrible that Miss Indonesia cannot compete in the Miss Universe pageant because she does not wear a swimsuit. In Islam, you cannot draw attention to your body like that, and the Miss Universe pageant should accept that."
OK....well, I guess that's a valid point. I gave Iraky an A+ for the day.

I think Caitlin's Corner went pretty well. All the kids listened the whole time and contributed. There's always the danger that they're missing key points and misunderstanding a concept (or just chalking it up to the immorality of Western culture) so I tried to make everything clear. I get the feeling they get talked down to a lot, and I know their English is underestimated. I went into the class pissed that I had them unloaded on me, but it ended up being the best class I went to this week.

posted by Caitlin @ 9:58 PM