How the project first began

A sample of the first letters between the Year Four children at Fahan School in Hobart Tasmania and Wayuni in Malang, Java
The sample letters on this page should give an indicdation of the value of electronic mail communciations between children and adults for the development of an understanding between two different cultures. We hope you enjoy following the progress of our project with the children in Malang, East Java, Indonesia.

The following two letters are to the son of Eko in Malang who is in forma one at the local high school. He has completed part of his education in Australia so mhis English is very good. This is an important factor in the success of our project. Having a fluent English speaker in Indonesia to assist in translating our mail from Australia.

Our first letter to Brilly in Malang
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 08:55:19 +0100
To:ganis@mce.mce.ac.id
From:fahan@info.tas.gov.au (Fahan School)
Subject:HELLO BRILLY FROM YEAR FOUR IN TASMANIA
Dear Brilly,
We are in grade 4 and we are studying Tasmanian Aborigines. We really enjoy this. subject. We are looking forward to the May holidays. It is only five days away and we can't wait. We are looking forward to writing to you next term in only three weeks time. Our names are Ingrid, Madeleine, and Jacinta We are all nine years old. Jacinta has just had her birthday.

Write soon

Jacinta, Ingrid, Madeleine

 

Our first reply from Brilly in Malang
From indogtw!mce.mce.ac.id!ganis@bputih.indo.net.id Wed May 22 19:43:35 1996
To: Fahan School
Subject: Re: HELLO BRILLY FROM YEAR FOUR IN TASMANIA
From: Dr Eko Ganis Sukoharso
Reply-To: ganis@mce.mce.ac.id
Date: Wed, 22 May 96 15:31:27 WIB
Organization: Malangkucecwara College of Economics, Malang - INDONESIA


Dear Jacinta, Ingrid, Madeleine and all year 4,
I am really glad to be reading your Email. I am now studying at SMP I Malang (I think my school is the best in my town) I am enjoyed to be in Malang. I finished my Primary School at Wollongong-Australia
Do you know Wollongong? Just near Sydney. I was there 5 years. Could you tell me what does it look like Hobart is? My dad was there, he said Hobart is a beautiful city, but He did know much. I will introduce you all, my little brother at year four same as you. His name is Bram. Could you send him an email?

Thank you,

Brilly

First letters to Fahan School from children at SDNP Malang June 17th 1996
The following letters to and from the children in Malang and Hobart are included on this page to provide a record of how the children in both countries develop an understandig of each others culture.

 

Hallo teman-teman . Nama saya Gunawan Pujanarko,saya kelas IV ,naik ke kelas V.Sama seperti Angki dan teman-teman di Australia,bukan ? Apa kabar teman-teman di Auustralia semuanya ?.Kami semua baik-baik saja Teman-teman di Malang ini banyak tempat-tempat wisata ,jadi kalau kalian kemari dalanglah ke tempat-tempat ini ; 1,Pantai Balekambang.2,Sendang biru.,3.Sengkaling.4.Songgoriti5,Selecta dll.
Salam
Gunawan

Hallo Nejad Shamir, Nama saya bahtiar.Saya kelas IV naik ke kelas V,kamu juga bukan ? Saya ingin memberika nama-nama tempat wisata disini;Yaitu : Cobanrondha
Salam manis
Bahtiar wp

 

  • Further letters from Wahyuni's class on June 17th 1996
  • Further letters from Wahyuni's class on August 5th 1996
  • Information about the children at Fahan and SNDP Malang
    The purpose of sending information on each child in both classes was to allow both classes to do some mathematical analysis of the data. The girls and boys are planning to create a database of the information and then to graph the results so as to provide an opportunity to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between the children in both classes.