Languages at JIS

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Celebrating Indonesia Week at Pondok Indah Elementary with batik and Bahasa Indonesia
Language connects us to each other and helps us define and understand culture. Your language and voice will add to our diversity and community at JIS.

Do you hear what we hear?

As you wander around the school on any given morning, you will hear the Indonesian greeting, Selamat Pagi, spoken between students, faculty and our Indonesian Host Country Staff. In classrooms, instruction is in English but learning and connecting are in many languages. While we have much yet to understand and implement in this area, we support a multilingual community that respects and celebrates the cultures, contributions, Mother Tongues and perspectives of our families from over 60 nationalities. 

English as an Additional Language

Related to curricula, JIS sets challenging expectations for all learners and then helps support the journey for students who are learning English while they learn everything else. We are committed to developing each students' proficiency in English, our language of instruction, in the most integrated, natural and supportive settings possible. 

  

Host Country Language: Bahasa Indonesia

Beginning in Grade One, all elementary students take Indonesian lessons for a minimum of 90 minutes per week. The Middle School requires each student to take either Indonesian language classes or Indonesian Studies. Students may then continue their Indonesian Studies as their foreign language requirement for the IB or take individual Indonesian language classes in 9-12th Grade.

Bahasa Indonesia is a rewarding language to learn because of its simple structure. Indonesia is rich in hundreds of ethnic languages, however Bahasa Indonesia  linguistically unifies its residents and is spoken throughout Jakarta.

Modern Languages currently offered at JIS                                                                                                                                                                                                           Elementary School: Indonesian

French after school ( PEL)

 

Beyond Indonesian, formal Modern Language instruction begins in Middle School and continues up to Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate levels. In the High School, foreign languages include high level work for students with native and non-native language knowledge and we offer a self-taught mother tongue class in languages for which student numbers do not justify a full language program. Please see Course Description Guides on MS and HS pages for more details. 

Middle School: Spanish, French, Indonesian, Mandarin

Korean after school

 

High School: Spanish, French, Indonesian, Mandarin, Japanese

Mother Tongue programs currently offered ( IB level): Korean, Indonesian, Norwegian, Italian, German, Danish, Japanese, Finnish.

JIS Academy: Indonesian for beginners.

 

In 2011-2012, JIS will offer:

  • 8 different levels of French and Spanish, and 6 levels of Mandarin.
  • Indonesian will be offered at 8 levels as a foreign language, and 6 levels as a Mother Tongue.

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to our students express how Language support impacts their learning.

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Language in Action

In 2010, PEL students assembled backpacks which student Ambassadors distributed to young earthquake survivors in Padang, Sumatra. The backpacks included simple English readers that students had translated by hand into Bahasa Indonesia. In this way, PEL learners used the gift of language to build bridges with new friends in need.