Mistaking Indonesia

In the spirit of Curtis Keim's Mistaking Africa:  Curiosities and Inventions of the American Mind, a book I read before my trip to Senegal in 2010, I am determined to approach my trip to Indonesia by dropping any preconceived notions about its people and culture.  That's difficult to do.  For one thing, I am consuming reading material and have watched multiple videos in an effort to be prepared and to demonstrate my heartfelt interest in learning about the country.  If I heed my own classroom admonitions to my students, I'll remember that sources are written with a degree of bias; some greater than others.  For example, I love the PBS Globe Trekker series.  Its videos about Indonesia are very interesting and informative, but remembering that the show's producers likely edit out the mundane and opt for clips of its people and places that seem the most surprising and different to its (GT) audience, I've got to assume that there are more similarities between the U.S. and Indonesia than depicted in the videos.  Keim suggests that "Americans learn to understand Africans as they present themselves in all their diversity -- as "others" who are in fact not so different." (Gerhardt, March/April 2000)  I hope to learn to understand Indonesians as they present themselves, and discover the stories that are not, in fact, so different than mine.

A visual example of different perceptions, and sometimes misconceptions, can be seen by using Wordle.  Wordle is a cool e-tool that uses words or phrases submitted to configure a word cloud.  The words that appear larger were submitted many times.  Words that are smaller were suggested fewer times.  Amy, an English teacher from Massachusetts who traveled with me to Senegal, had her American students brainstorm words they thought of when they thought of Africa.  She then interviewed African teenagers and had them do the same.  After using those words to create word clouds, the students could see some similarities and differences in perspective.  I wanted to see what would happen when I posed the same task at my school.  See what you notice.

Amy's American students' brainstorm

African students' brainstorm

My middle school students' brainstorm

Besides Americans misconceptions about Indonesia, I wonder what myths I'll be able to bust that Indonesians believe about Americans.