A great day in my life

It started out with a simple question : « do you mind visiting our school tomorrow? » asked Mycel, a student we had met at a local museum.

This was a golden opportunity. I was again given the chance to exchange with the youth of another country and possibly have an impact on perceptions of Western culture, such an important issue in Muslim countries.

We visited a rural school close to Yokyakarta. It was obvious that Mycel had told everybody that foreigners were going to visit the school. As we walked towards the main office, classrooms stopped functioning, literally. Excitement was building in the air. The children were now much more concerned with looking outside the windows than listening to the teacher.

We walked into our first classroom. We had prepared a set of questions for the children so that they can practice their English. One of the questions was “What comes to mind when we say “Canada”?

I was very naive in my expectations. I thought that the kids would answer “snow”, “cold”, “big country”. Instead the unanimous answer we received in all the classes we visited was “Justin Bieber”.

Wow. I have never heard a song from the pop star but these kids sure as heck know what he is all about. So for the rest of the trip whenever I was asked about my country, I would say “I am from Canada”…”You know, Justin Bieber…”. I think the Canadian government should provide Justin Bieber with a compensation package for being Canada’s most well-known ambassador in the developing world (don’t ask me if this is good or bad).

Other questions included “What do you like most about Indonesia?” or “What would like to change in Indonesia?” The answers for the latter were always the same: corruption in the government (Indonesia is doing poorly in the Corruption Index from Transparency International).

The kids also had questions such as “What is your favorite Indonesian food” and “What is your profession”. This was a tricky question, as Ania and I both work for the federal government. In Indonesia working for the government is bad. Very bad. It means you are corrupt and sleazy. Ania and I worked hard to explain, without offending anyone, that we do good things for the people in our country.

We had so much fun with the kids. It was a magical day.

Oh, by the way students at the school are spending 36 hours a week in the classroom. They have school on Saturday and plenty of homework to do. And I am not talking about classrooms with computers, fast Internet access, and other distractions that make it so easy not to learn: I am talking about a wood stool, a table and the old chalkboard.

Asia is studying hard. As a result Asia is rising. The Western world should take notice before it is too late.