On Friday March 3rd, the Indonesia Nederland Youth Society (INYS) briefed two Frans Seda students from Tilburg University prior to their departure to Indonesia. Both students, Nathan Spiro and Yanwei Yang, are studying Management in Cultural Diversity and will be in Indonesia for three months. As preparation, we asked them to fill in a short form that provided the INYS trainers with some more detailed insights about the purpose of their research and their current knowledge on Indonesian language and culture.
After an introduction by Jaap van Gent from the Frans Seda Foundation (FSF), as well as Omid Feyli and Zarrea Plaisier from the International Department of Tilburg Foundation, the INYS trainers Reza Pamudji and Dimple Sokartara started the INYS Pre-departure Briefing. After mister Feyli’s presentation, the INYS trainers elaborated on points mentioned earlier and tried to give more examples and present real-life situations, which will be very useful for the students to keep in mind during their research. Bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia as well as cultural differences were covered, followed by a crash course in Bahasa Indonesia. The tailor-made training focused on the students’ needs and left room for questions in between the presentation slides. This way, all their concerns and curiosity could be covered while at the same time explaining the most important topics for one who has never been to Indonesia before. Abellia Anggi, FSF alumni, has also been of great help sharing her experiences of being an exchange student, and originating from Indonesia.
Briefing students for exchange is one thing, but filling them in about a foreign country takes even more time. The INYS trainers could go on and on about what to expect in Indonesia, but of course time was limited. The students and the INYS trainers decided to have lunch together, to talk on a casual note about the expectations and experiences.
All in all, the INYS trainers experienced the briefing as a very useful moment for the students as well as for INYS. It is great to acknowledge that an increasing number of youth are eager to learn more about the Indonesian culture even without having any connections to the country. The INYS hopes that their efforts of bringing Dutch and Indonesian youth together will play a great role in facilitating interest for both countries.
The Frans Seda Foundation would like to thank Tilburg University for hosting the meeting and the INYS and in particular Dimple & Reza for their time and efforts to train our students. We wish both Nathan and Yanwei all the best in Indonesia and look forward to hear about their journey and highly interesting research findings.
Learn more about the Indonesia Nederland Youth Society (INYS) and our Twin Scholarship Programme