For students in Australia, Bahasa Indonesia is often seen as the throwaway subject — too easy, too close, or just not important. But for Silvy Wantania, Indonesian teacher at Melbourne High School and President of the Victorian Indonesian Language Teachers’ Association (VILTA), language isn’t just about passing doing well in class. It’s a way to build relationships — with others, and with ourselves.

After more than two decades of teaching in Australia, Silvy works with two main demographics: Australian-born students of Indonesian descent, and non-Indonesians who choose to learn Bahasa Indonesia as a foreign language. As the challenges differ, so does the approach. But the point stays the same: to make the language feel alive and relevant.

In this episode, Silvy Wantania joins Billy Adison Aditijanto on The Perantau Podcast to share her experience keeping Bahasa Indonesia engaging for the next generation. We discuss why student interest is stagnating, how pop culture like Dilan 1990 and Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? unexpectedly draw in non-Indonesian students, and the crucial role diaspora parents play in keeping the language from fading away.

This episode invites us to reflect: if Indonesia still matters, why is the language being left behind?