THE INTRODUCTION OF INDONESIAN CULTURE IN BAHASA INDONESIA CLASS FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES BY USING THE CULTURAL COMPONENTS AT ISI YOGYAKARTA Prima Dona Hapsari Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta hapsari_dn@yahoo.com Abstract Learning Bahasa Indonesia becomes a new trend for speakers of other languages. They need to learn it for having good communication skill and because of some purposes. The speakers of other languages who come to Indonesia for different purposes, then, also would like to learn and understand the Indonesian culture and its unique characteristics. Therefore, one of the important steps to introduce bahasa Indonesia and Indonesian culture is started from bahasa Indonesia class for speakers of other languages. This program is intended to help them have more understanding in both bahasa Indonesia and Indonesian culture. Moreover, this program is supposed to give answers for some questions and the learners’ needs in the process of learning bahasa Indonesia and Indonesia culture. The paper discussion focuses on the cultural components and the cross-cultural understanding in bahasa Indonesia class for speakers of other languages. Moreover, this paper also analyzes the common problems happened in the class and how they are solved in order to succeed the process of learning the language and culture. How to introduce and convey the cultural components in bahasa Indonesia class, and how to give the important values for the learners to have better understanding in knowing the Indonesian characteristics through the process of learning bahasa Indonesia and Indonesian culture are other questions which are discussed in this paper. Keywords: cross-cultural understanding, cultural components, bahasa Indonesia, Indonesian culture I. INTRODUCTION Learning Bahasa Indonesia and Indonesian culture for speakers of other languages has been tremendously increasing nowadays. People from other countries come to Indonesia for different purposes. They need to learn it for having good communication skill and because of some purposes, such as to do a scientific research, learn Indonesia and its people, have a project in Indonesia, develop the relationship between their country and Indonesia, and many more. In spite of the fact that Bahasa Indonesia is being well accepted by them, it is the government and educators who can provide friendly facilities and environment for them. Therefore, by learning Bahasa Indonesia and Indonesian culture, they would become parts of our warm hospitality to speakers of other languages in Indonesia. The speakers of other languages are supposed to have good adaptation to any different points of view, background, social life, language and culture, and so forth. In other words, they should learn the language and culture, know the society well, and adapt with anything related to the country they live in. Therefore, there is a great way to introduce Bahasa Indonesia and Indonesian culture through Bahasa Indonesia class. Bahasa Indonesia for speakers of other languages is intensively developed to answer all problems that may occur during the introducing process of learning Bahasa and culture. The government has launched the program to help and facilitate learners from other countries in learning bahasa Indonesia as well as Indonesian culture. The program, named Bahasa Indonesia Bagi Penutur Asing, is supposed to actively support the successfully guidance to speakers of other languages who need better understanding and knowledge on Indonesia thoroughly. The paper aims to discuss how to introduce and convey the cultural context in bahasa Indonesia class and how to give the important values for the learners to have better understanding in knowing the Indonesian characteristics through the process of learning bahasa Indonesia and Indonesian culture. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Culture and Language