Bahasa Go!

Not only I met my Arabic tutor while I was staying in Indonesia in 2018, at the same time I also”accidentally” became a language tutor too!

Starting Point

It started when a Japanese friend who had been staying in Indonesia for some time, asked me to teach Bahasa Indonesia. So the whole year I was able to stay in Indonesia, I could learn Arabic and also teach Bahasa Indonesia in Japanese!

I love learning and reading books in different languages, but it has never occured to me to teach a language as a tutor. I didn’t have experience teaching, and although I am a native speaker of Bahasa Indonesia, I never “learned” the language in a linguistic approach.

But I did say yes to my friend. And we started our lessons just like that.

Apparently she had been studying Bahasa Indonesia by herself, and sometimes took online tutoring. Her problem was that although she knows the grammar and has enough vocabularies, she can’t use it on the street! In other words, she wanted to be fluent, and also be able to converse in coloquial Bahasa Indonesia.

So we spent our lessons mostly outside; visiting parks, wet markets, shopping malls and museums. I was not even sure what I was doing, am I tutoring or tour-guiding? But, it turned out that it was the way my friend wanted to learn her new language, the way to reach her learning goals.

Learning Goals

My first year of becoming a tutor gave me the motivation to continue teaching Bahasa Indonesia after I came back to Japan. After some freelancing for awhile, I decided to commit to a tutoring (online and in-person) Bahasa Indonesia at an Asian Languages School in Tokyo.

In this school I was able to tutor different persons with different goals. Unlike my freelance tutoring that mostly conducted as “conversation practice”, my school lessons are pretty much structured. My students at school are mostly businessmen learning Bahasa Indonesia before being stationed there.

Even when teaching structured lessons, the language lover part of me really work to make Bahasa Indonesia a TOY, rather than a TOOL, for communication. I want them to find the fun and challenge in learning a language, not only Bahasa Indonesia, but also their next language, whatever language it will be.

Of course there are also others who learned Bahasa Indonesia for travelling, business trips, temporary stay, or to have smooth communication with Indonesian family, friends, colleagues, or workers. But, some of them simply love learning new languages and new cultures; almost like myself!

And this is what I love about my job, it is the way to meet my kind of people, and have fun talking to them (while we are learning).

Learning Styles

Although I said there are many students who learns a language with the same motivation as I do, I found them having quite different styles. While I am a learner through reading and writing, most of my students are visual or auditory (or both) and prefer learning through video streamings or podcast episodes. They keep asking me for recommended youtube channels or podcasts to help them learn indepentdently.

I realize it is partly because of generational difference. Coming from the generation that born before social media, I find the contents keep changing ever too fast! Of course I understand that languages do undergoing changes to keep growing and adapting to the speakers’ needs, but dedicating a language channel only to introduce the “current slang” seems trivial to (someone like) me!And I don’t like my students to learn something that merely “disposibles”.

So again, eventhough I adhere strictly to the structured class, I still create my own lesson materials with tips and advice on how to spend time learning outside the tutoring class. I even signing up on few language learning apps to share learning materials and encourage my students to use them. They are merely notes, simple quizes or flashcards, sometimes songs’ lyrics, but it was on the foundation. The part that they will need to build their language learning on.

Learners’ Types

Another thing I learned by being a language tutor is the types of learners.

The Communicators

I noticed the type of students who want to grab as much as they can and use it right away. They don’t mind making mistakes, and they take language as a tool of communication, to convey what they want to say. They go right into their own journey, watching Indonesian movies, listening to Indonesian music, picking up a bit of grammar point here, and another bit there. With students like this, I usually started the lesson with “So what are we going to talk about today?”.

The Grammarians

At the other side of the bench, there is the type of students who want to master the grammar first, and focus on one particular style of expressing themselves. This type usually take time to pick the right words, avoid making mistakes, and taking slower pace to learn. The grammar lessons are delivered as planned, and comprehension is periodically evaluated.

Although they both started at a 10-lesson-package, and both can extend to 100 lesson package or more, the approach is totally different. Tutoring communicators, I act as a communication-punch bag, ready to take any shots on my students’ new found words and talking style. While with grammarians, I act as facilitator to help them find way to their new “why?” and “How?”.

One thing for sure, both types usually take the language as lifetime interest. Unlike the students who took up the pre-determined (minimum) lessons needed before departing to Indonesia, who then usually drop the lessons once they felt they have achieved their (sole) goal, both the communicators and the grammarians keep finding new goals and new objectives to pursue! Not to mention new ways of enjoying (I say cultivating) their new language skill to literature, entertainment, culture, and even business opportunities!

What type of learners are you? What do you expect in a language tutoring session? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.