| | AUSTRALIA - It was an honour for me to be an Indonesian representative on a course held in Australia. |
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Before joining my training course in Australia, I had been told that Australian English was difficult to understand. After my time at DITC, I thought this perception was quite exaggerated as DITC members spoke normal English that could be easily understood. However, when I started my course I did encounter some of the more difficult aspects of the English language. Almost all of the course attendees and lecturers spoke very fast and used various expressions that were new for me. At first, I could barely understand some of their expressions. For instance, when one of them tried to ask me what airline I was going to use to fly back to Indonesia, instead of asking with a formal English structure he asked me with his own expression “With who will you fly with?” or something similar. I answered that I was going to fly alone. Some of my colleagues laughed and some of them did not understand the point of the question. | |
| I consider Indonesian English is better than some of our neighbouring countries because a lot of Australians on the course told us that the Indonesian pronunciation when speaking English was better and of course easier to understand when compared with other non-English speaking countries. | |
| The course that I attended – The Foreign Officer Underwater Medicine (FOUM) Course – is also a Medical Officer Underwater Medicine (MOUM) course. A Medical Officer in the RAN refers to a medical doctor. Consequently, the course was designed for medical doctors, not only from the knowledge given but also in the practical aspects of the course that required diagnosing and treating diving sickness patients, which is a medical doctor’s responsibility. That is why the FOUM course is suitable for medical doctors/ general practitioners. The course itself is a newbie course, so it is definitely a suitable course for all Indonesian Navy medical doctors. | |
| This course is also highly suitable for the Indonesia Navy’s training requirements. Though we have our own Underwater Medicine Course that is held annually in LAKESLA Surabaya, it is still important for us to compare our training methods and of course the latest science in this specialised field. | |
