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The ABC’s of Friendship

By Jillian Clark

Special Correspondent for FFI

For 20 English teachers from Jakarta, Indonesia, the chance to come to the United States was the opportunity of a lifetime.

It was also the beginning of a new chapter for Friendship Force International (FFI), the flagship exchange of a program to bring together teachers across the world.

During the three-week visit, the teachers were hosted by the Friendship Force clubs of Lake Hartwell, GA., and Charlotte, NC. and by community friends of Anderson University. In each city they visited schools and libraries as well as experiencing the unique local culture.

Week One was a TEFL Global 1 (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) professional development workshop at Anderson University. The online program introduced them to new techniques for teaching English as a non-native language and for uncovering and addressing students’ individual academic needs.

Co-exchange director Murisna Helni remembered one of her own teachers who told her, “If you want to travel around the world, learn to speak English.” The Friendship Force exchange, her first visit to the US, was a fulfillment of that aspiration, but also a learning experience to help her pass on the dream to her students.

Everyone agreed that one of the most enlightening parts of the exchange were the opportunities to observe American schools and talk with students and teachers.

They were puzzled to see students relaxing in their chairs instead of sitting up straight and conversing with the teacher instead of raising their hand, a casual but effective classroom style unfamiliar to the Indonesians. “Maybe when I get home I will reduce my lecturing and encourage them to do self-inquiry – explore things themselves,” Helni said.

The American students had many questions about Indonesia. The ambassadors explained that it is the fourth most populous country in the world and that Jakarta is a modern city much like American cities. Exchange Director Asniaty Syaufii presented a book about Indonesia to each library the ambassadors visited.

A favorite experience for the ambassadors was the family dinners they shared at home with their hosts’ children and grandchildren, as they do with their own families in Jakarta.

When she returns to Jakarta, Helni says, she will dispel the misconceptions about Americans that arise out of Hollywood. She says her students may have the impression that Americans are selfish or that they don’t value marriage and family, but the Friendship Force home stays painted a much different picture.

The teachers were also eager to share their own country and culture. “I don’t want to come here just for smiling and shaking hands,” Helni explained. In brilliantly colored native dress they performed a traditional dance and played the Angklung, a folk instrument made out of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame common to southeast Asia.

FFI president George Brown believes that teacher exchanges provide a special opportunity for expanding the Friendship Force mission. For over 25 years, the Friendship Force has connected individuals and families, but “If you bring two teachers together, you really have the potential of connecting communities through the schools,” George Brown explained.

All the ambassadors and hosts felt that special bond so characteristic of the Friendship Force experience, but it became even more meaningful for Mr. Koko Sarwoko, whose wife gave birth to a baby boy while he was on the exchange. In honor of the lasting ties of friendship formed between communities across the world, he named his son Anderson.

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