30 Junior High School (SMPN), Jakarta (Indonesia)
Collège – Lycée Charles Peguy (France)
February 2007
The Indonesia-France Culture Capsule exchange was organized between two junior high schools, one in the city of Paris and the second in Jakarta.
The visit of the ASEFUAN members in the participating classes gave them the opportunity to introduce the involved students with the partner country. The ASEFUAN member first showed a map of Asia, located Indonesia and Jakarta with the help of the children and said a few words about the population, culture and religion of Indonesia. Then the teacher organised a question session : the pupils asked as many questions as they wanted. Finally we organized the work to create a photo album that we would send to the Indonesian partner with the personal letters. It was decided in advance with the ASEFUAN partner in Indonesia that each school would send a photo album which depicts their everyday life environment : the classroom, the school, the streets, the shops where they go everyday, the playgrounds, the house/building where they live, a lunch or a dinner at home, etc.
The ASEFUAN member provided the teacher with a camera and the children where given the responsability of one or two picks each. It was very interesting since they really had to think about what was special in their everyday life even if it seemed to be so common for them.
The two parcels were sent at the same time and opened simultaneously in each class. On both sides, letters and photos have been a source of surprise. On the French side, pupils discovered that Indonesia was mainly a muslim country (the partner school in Indonesia was a muslim school). On the Indonesian side, the children may have discover the ethnic diversity of Paris (except for four or five pupils all the children were of foreign origins).
The teacher of the Class in Paris commented her experience in the Culture Capsule project: I really appreciated to participate in a Culture Capsule exchange for it was very beneficial culturally and linguistically for my pupils (fisrt grade of junior high school). For these pupils, who just started learning english, to write a personnal letter was not as easy as they thought it would be, but they were very enthousiastic. I was myself surprised by the resources they gathered. They were particulary motivated by the creation of a photo album that depicted their universe at school and in their famillies. And, when the parcel from Indonesia arrived, they were delighted. The opportunity to open a window to another culture really helps when learning a foreign language : the students found themselves in a situation of real communication which is often lacking in english classes. Anne Duchene, English teacher, Charles Peguy junior High school, Paris)
Report from Anne Duchene, Teacher of the French class
College Charles Peguy
“Dear Dinda, We opened the package in class on Monday, and the students were really excited and happy about the letters. We were also very impressed by the quality of the album you sent! It's really great, and very well illustrated! They all want more time to read it, and get to know more about Indonesia. I must admit though that the students found the letters quite difficult to understand, and need my help with the vocabulary and structures. Are the Indonesian students real beginners at English? The English they write wrote seemed much more elaborate compared with my students!!! We are going to spend some time next week preparing answers to the letters. I'll let you know how it goes. I showed the album to the schoolhead and she was also very impressed by your work! I'm really glad we managed to do this exchange, and I hope that the students benefit from this opening on another culture. Keep in touch, Take care, Anne”
Report from Indonesia
“Finally, after waiting for almost two years, the second culture capsule from Indonesia is ready to kick off in this early March. Adinda (AU-3) and Helene (AU-4)are managing to match 22 students from 30 Junior High School (SMPN 30) Jakarta and 27 students from Junior High School (College Charles Peguy) in France to participate in the project. Due to different numbers of students, Dinda asked 5 students of SMPN 30 to write two letters to complete the binomials for the exchange. The students are very excited to join the project. They have been very cooperative and creative in creating the album, the photos, the captions, and the stories in their letters. Some students of SMPN 30 have expressed their reasons to join the project. The comments varied from wanting to get new friends from France, to improve their English, to know the cultures in France, to wanting to see handwritings of the students from France. All in all, again the culture capsule has highlighted a valuable role of the ASEFUAN to bridge people-to-people relations and to promote better understanding especially amongst children of the two continents.”