Exploring Indonesia During IEW
Muhammad gives us a private tour
During International Education Week this year, I made a video talking about Indonesia and uploaded it to YouTube. I wanted to take part in this event, because I wanted to represent and share my culture with my American friends and host family.
As Mohamad Hatta, former Indonesia president said:
Culture cannot only be maintained, we must struggle to change and develop, because of the culture itself, as a thing that can grow, able to be gone, and able to move forward.
As I made this video, I learned a few things about my country, too. I realized that there were many things that I could explore since Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world. It was hard to decide what I wanted to present in my video since there are a lot of interesting things about my culture.
Even though I couldn’t present my culture as usual in America, luckily we have technology that allows us to connect across the world. So, I not only presented it to my American friends but also people across the world.
My Community Coordinator, virtual pal, and virtual host family really loved this video. My virtual pal was curious about indomie, which is Indonesian ramen. She asked if there are any different flavors of indomie, and I explained to her that there are a lot of different flavors of indomie, basically the flavors of Indonesia food. And my host mom said that she learned several things. She thought Bali and Sumatra weren't part of Indonesia. So, I’m glad I made this video and fixed some misunderstandings that she had about Indonesia.
I'm really happy that they were interested in and gained a better understanding of Indonesia by watching my video. I am going to continue to represent my country by sharing my culture and answering everyone's questions about Indonesia throughout this program.
—Muhammad (YES, Indonesia), Virtual Program
See video description on YouTube for complete list of sources used
