On Monday, September 20th, 2021, Dr. Nurhayati, the dean of the Faculty of Humanities Diponegoro University, gave a speech, which marked the opening of the 2021 Summer Course organized by the Japanese Language and Culture Program of Diponegoro University’s Faculty of Humanities, which was held from 20th – 26th September 2021 through meetings on the Zoom application.
This year there were 11 overseas participants who registered for the Summer Course program, such as from the USA, Mexico, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, and so on. The theme for this year was “Knowing Indonesian Culture Through Religion: Islamic Series”. Materials about Indonesian culture, Islam, and its development in Indonesia were delivered by several expert speakers, such as Mr. Arido Laksono, M. Hum, Dr. Amirudin, M.A, Mrs. Afidatul Lathifah M.A and Mr. Andy Bangkit Setiawan, Ph. D. In addition, there was also Basic Indonesian language class delivered by Mr. Iwan Setiya Budi, M.A.
The event which lasted for 7 days went quite smoothly and was not only attended by foreign participants, but also by Diponegoro University students. Participants from abroad were also active in asking and discussing the material until the last day. They were also active in exchanging culture with students from Diponegoro University. One participant from South Korea read a poem titled “A Poetry to the Indonesian People”, another participant from Japan was playing a sanshin which is a musical instrument from Okinawa.
It is hoped that all of this Summer Course participants will be able to know the culture of other countries and that foreign people will also become more familiar with Indonesia, especially Islamic culture in Indonesia, and basic Indonesian language.