This diverse anthology of traditional tales from across the Indonesian archipelago includes short stories, origin myths, historical legends, poetry, diary entries, news reports and dialogues. Each of the 20 stories is presented in parallel English and Indonesian versions on facing pages, making this a great resource for intermediate language learners.
Although written in the Indonesian national language, the stories hail from many different ethnic cultures and include a number of female characters who reveal the challenges faced by women in Indonesian society. In adopting this approach, the authors make the stories relevant and engaging for students, as well as provide fascinating windows onto the regional cultures found among these islands.
The stories in this volume include:
- Forbidden Love - A story from West Kalimantan that tells of the tragic love between two first cousins who had to pay a hefty price for their love
- Freshwater Dolphins of the Mahakam River - A story in the form of blog reports from Borneo telling the legend of the freshwater dolphins in the Mahakam River and the challenges faced by the peoples of East Kalimantan
- Pitung, the Hero of Batavia - A story from Jakarta in which a Robin Hood-like figure who stole from the rich to pay the poor, played a heroic role in defending the poor against foreign-run gangs in colonial times
- And many more!
Authors Katherine Davidsen and Yusep Cuandani are experienced language teachers who use these texts in their high school classes at international schools in Jakarta to fulfill the requirements for International Baccalaureate and Cambridge IGCSE curriculum courses in Indonesian language and culture.
The stories are graded in terms of difficulty. Each one is accompanied by a set of discussion questions, a detailed vocabulary list, cultural notes keyed to the text and online native-speaker audio recordings. An extensive Indonesian-English glossary is provided at the back of the book.
