Student Voices

SITG Dispatch from Indonesia

by Juan Leal Mendoza, Class of 2025 (Summer 2024)

Selamat siang dari Jogja! My name is Juan, a rising fourth year majoring in Political Science and minoring in Human Rights and Astronomy. This summer I had the opportunity to embark on a 2 month Foreign Language Acquisition Grant in Yogyakarta, Indonesia for Bahasa Indonesia!

I studied the language at the Wisma Bahasa Institute in Jogja (the colloquial name for the city of Yogyakarta). I decided to study Bahasa Indonesia this summer for two reasons. First, my interest in Southeast Asia—a region of both rapid growth and endless demographic and natural diversity. Additionally, Bahasa Indonesia is considered a Critical Language by the US Department of State, so it is a very valuable language for my career objectives in diplomacy. I will walk you through what my usual day to day looked like in Yogyakarta!

I wake up at 7 AM and walk to a local Circle K to grab a few breakfast goodies. I take the time between my breakfast and class to either call friends or family back home (with an exact 12 hour difference between the Island of Java and Chicago, it’s surprisingly easy to coordinate this), or review my course material. At 10 AM, I walk 2 minutes from my guest house to Wisma Bahasa, grab a cup of tea or coffee, and prepare for my classes to begin at 10:15 AM. My first session of the day goes from 10:15 AM to 12:00 PM. Classes are 1 on 1 with professors, so it is great to not only have lessons that specifically target what you need to improve the most, but also to create strong connections with your professors!

My lunch goes from noon to 1 PM. Generally, the sound of the midday Zuhr Islamic call of prayer echoing from the many local mosques indicates lunch time approaches. My classmates and I walk to a local Warung (Indonesian family-owned restaurant) and order lunch, as we converse on any number of topics. My classmates include journalists, diplomats, volunteers and PhD students, so I also learn a lot from just hearing their life experiences. Food wise, though, my personal favorite is the Lotek Telur—a delicious plate of cooked vegetables, tempe, tofu and eggs covered in peanut sauce. We always make sure to carry bottled water with us too—the 32 Degrees Celsius sun plus 60% humidity is nothing to scoff at!

My second and third sessions of the day are at 1–2:45 PM and 3:15–5 PM, respectively. Generally, these classes have a stronger focus on writing and reading in contrast to the morning’s focus on verbal communication. Regardless, every session is engaging as it is rewarding. Once a week I also have a teacher-led excursion within Jogja. These are very varied—ranging from visiting the Sultan’s Kraton Palace (Interesting fact: Yogyakarta is still governed by a Sultan!) to a Jeep Tour of the area surrounding the local volcano, Mount Merapi. It is wonderful to have spaces to complement classroom learning with deep cultural immersion in my host city.

When classes end at 5 PM, what I do after depends on the day. Sometimes I have to do some kind of work from back home, which I do in my guest house or at a café with friends. On other days my classmates and I do some local adventures. My personal favorite memory like this comes from a colorful Eid al-Adha parade, full of floats that linked Islamic and Javanese cultural elements in celebration of said holiday. Either way, I know the day is going to end with an excellent nasi goreng for dinner from another warung. After this, I generally do a little more review of my lessons and aim to be at bed at around midnight.

During the weekends, I usually go exploring somewhere else in the country. With over 6000 inhabited islands and 700 local languages, anywhere you go to Indonesia you will get a unique experience. Some of my favorite moments were exploring the breathtaking beauty of the hidden Rammang-Rammang Village in South Sulawesi, or watching a local Sunday league futbol game (or soccer or sepak bola, depending on who you ask) in Central Java’s Dieng Plateau. I have also had opportunities to advance my professional objectives, as when I visited Jakarta I had the opportunity to visit both the US and Colombian Embassies in Jakarta and meet with diplomats in their respective embassies.

Lastly, I want to emphasize my favorite aspects from my FLAG experience have come from embracing as many opportunities as possible for immersion. From the daily rideshare motorcycle rides through the neon-tinted streets to unplanned multilingual conversations with locals in mosques and museums, it’s so rewarding to get out of your comfort zone in an open-minded manner. Indonesia’s immense cultural heritage can be experienced in that way. You can hear one of the five Islamic prayer calls resonate through the city while seeing Muslims and Christians have lively and friendly conversation next to a Catholic church getting ready for mass. At the same time, this experience would not be complete without acknowledging the curiosity locals also have for oneself, the orang asing (foreigner). Many enjoy hearing of your background as much as you want to hear of theirs, and I have met wonderful, kind people through such casual conversations in islands, rideshares, and restaurants. The world is very big, but moments and experiences like those help make it more homey even thousands of kilometers away from what you know.

After my 2 months in Indonesia ended, I wrapped up my time in Southeast Asia by visiting family and friends in the Philippines for 8 days, an amazing moment in its own too before heading back home. If I was told at the beginning of my college experience that I would have the opportunity to study for a summer in this part of the world, I would not believe it in a thousand years. For that reason, there are a number of people I want to thank for this experience. First and foremost, the UChicago Study Abroad Office, for supporting this unique experience. To Wisma Bahasa too, for the continuous support and learning. Lastly, thank you to my family for their unyielding support now and always. Terima Kasih!