Guest teaching

Yesterday a “friend” of Helfi came to the PKBI office to chat with Helfi, Sumi, and I.  She introduced herself as an English teacher and Batanghari University in Jambi.  A little later she proposed the idea of me coming in to her class and talk to her students.  A little while after that she asked what I suspect was her secret purpose all along, would I come to her class tomorrow and talk to her students about youth development in America?  Her face displayed expectation of a positive response so I acceded, the opportunity sounding interesting on its own.  The next day however when my commitment wavered due to errands I had to run for my next visa renewal, she pleaded that she had told 150 English students I would be there to speak to them, she had not told me that!  Upon reaching the school I received many curious stares as usual, the only thing stranger than a foreigner here is a foreigner driving a motorbike.  The stares and giggles (you would be surprised at the level of maturity of university students here) continued to the classroom that so packed there were rows of students sitting on the floor and standing against the wall.

After the teacher directed the students through the group presentations on their research about youth in Indonesia, I introduced myself and we began the well-anticipated Q&A period about youth in America, led by a real American!  After I went briefed over the different stages of youth development in the US, with the various age hurdles like getting ones driver’s license and reaching the legal age to drink, the students set in with the theme they really wanted to discuss: sex and dating in America.  After working at a family planning organization I am no longer shy about discussing sex-related topics and I also wanted to dispel myths about all the immoral “free sex” Americans are having.  Like most Indonesians the students were also extremely interested in the fact that most youths in America move out of their parents house at the age of 18 because that is unheard of here unless absolutely necessary to attend university far from home.  The strong familial ties here dictate that youths live with their parents until they get married and start their own families, but even when visiting a friend last night I saw that her and her husband still lived her parents house for financial reasons.  It was entertaining to explain the desire of independence in the US since it is also uncommon for young Indonesians to have part-time jobs unless of course necessary to support the family.

The discussion could have lasted the rest of the afternoon with the students' overflowing curiosity, but when the hour was up it was time for me to head to the immigration office.  I think the teacher had become a little uncomfortable with the audacity of the student’s questions and my candid- but also more positive and realistic- explanation of American dating that attempted to dispel the myths created by scandalous popular culture images.