Each time when you log in to Indonesian Online account, the IP from where you log on is recorded, and hence we know from what country you accessed Indonesian Online.
We don’t consistently keep track from where our customers log in, but within the last four days, we had log-ins from 14 countries: 6 from Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Viet Nam; 4 from Europe: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom; 2 from the Americas: Canada, USA. We also had multiple logins from Australia.
By and large, our customers are fairly equally divided between Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. But within these geopolitical regions, there are large differences. In the Americas, almost all of our customers are from Canada and the USA, and almost none from Latin America.
I am not aware that we have a single customer from Latin America, Africa, or South Asia, nor have I seen an IP address pointing to one of the countries of those regions. The same is true for the dozens of countries where Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages are spoken.
And that brings us to a related topic. In what countries is Indonesian taught? This question is difficult to answer as the picture constantly changes. Indonesian is taught in less than 60 research universities.
We found 13 countries that have at least one university that teaches Indonesian. Most are located in Asia, followed by Australia and Europe:
By far the single most important country for Indonesian language studies is still Australia where Indonesian is not only taught at most research universities but also at high schools, and in some places also at intermediate and primary schools. Each year, Indonesian is taught to about 100,000 students in Australia. Compare that to less than 500 for the entire United States.
In Europe, the only country where the Indonesian language is taught at more than two universities is Germany. Indonesian is taught at universities in Berlin, Bonn, Cologne, Constance, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Passau, and many of these universities afford full professors in Indonesian. Unfortunately Indonesian language studies are rare outside of Germany. One should think that teaching and learning Indonesian is widespread in the Netherlands, but there is only one Indonesian language program at Leiden University. In France, Indonesian is taught in Paris and La Rochelle, and in Russia in Moscow and Leningrad. Among the remaining 40 European countries, Indonesian is only taught at one university in Naples, Italy.
In the United States, nine universities (UCL Berkeley, UCL Los Angeles, Cornell, Hawaii, Michigan, Yale, Ohio, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin) offer permanent Indonesian language courses. In the past, many Indonesian language programs in the United States were chaired by a professor. Now, the only university in the US that still employs a professor for the Indonesian language is the University of Hawaii. However, when the current professor retires, the university will either close Indonesian for good, or continue offering Indonesian beginner courses taught by a tutor.
In Asia, Indonesian is taught in only six countries: China, Israel, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. China alone is reported to have more than 10 universities with Indonesian language programs.
Do you know of any other places where Indonesian is taught? Please let us know!
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