Events News

AIA Members Visit to Wisma Indonesia

On the evening of Monday 3 April 2023, the Indonesian Ambassador, His Excellency Dr. Siswo Premono, and his wife, Dr. Marsia Pramono, kindly invited the Australia Indonesia Association (AIA) ACT Committee and their spouses, the AIA Indonesian teachers, and the AIA Indonesian Language students to join them for dinner at the Ambassador’s residence called “Wisma Indonesia."

 

The evening provided a wonderful opportunity for the AIA Indonesian language students at all levels to meet and practice their Bahasa while enjoying a wonderful range of Indonesian dishes for dinner and great company. 

 

Prior to the dinner, the Ambassador spoke about the problem of the reduced number of students in High Schools and Universities in Australia who are studying Indonesian.  The Ambassador thanked AIA-ACT for having established a very successful program to teach Indonesian to Adults that has grown over the last 15 years from a small group at one level to classes now for 50-60 students at six levels from novice beginners to Advanced level.

 

AIA-ACT President, Les Boag, thanked the Ambassador (Bapak Siswo) and his wife (Ibu Marsia) and the Indonesian Embassy staff who also attended for their kind invitation and provision of such a wonderful venue with a great range of traditional dishes for a banquet dinner and the opportunity for all the students to practice their Bahasa.  Les especially thanked them for “making us all feel so welcome and the night being such an enjoyable experience”. 

Three students, Will Lee, Todd Curtis, and Emily Hill gave a presentation about their motivation and progress in learning Indonesian.   Vice-President Indonesia, Ibu Yetty Daly presented their Excellencies with a floral bouquet to thank them for their kind hospitality.

 

The evening concluded with some well-enjoyed ukulele playing and singing by Ibu Marsia, Ibu Betsy Phillips, and singing by Ibu Yetty.  

 

Supporting the learning of the Indonesian Language by adults and at ANU are two of the key roles of AIA (ACT) to achieve our aim of promoting friendship and understanding between the people of Australia and the People of Indonesia.

 

Les Boag commented:  “I must mention the dedicated efforts of Pak Phil Domaschenz that has enabled our Indonesian Language lessons to be so successful. Pak Phil has done an amazing job organising the classes since they began and the success of the classes is directly attributable to him.  I also thank our native-speaking Indonesian teachers who have done a wonderful job teaching all the students and motivating them to learn Indonesian.”