INDONESIA’S CULTURAL DIPLOMACY THROUGH THE INDONESIAN LANGUAGE FOR FOREIGNERS PROGRAM IN CAMBODIA

Abstract

This research is motivated by Indonesia's diplomacy to Cambodia in disseminating BIPA, as a discourse to make Indonesian an international language especially in the ASEAN region through the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh Cambodia with the aim of research to find out efforts to introduce Indonesian in Cambodia through teaching BIPA and find out the obstacles faced. The methodology used is descriptive qualitative using secondary data obtained from books, journals, government publications, and official website from government. The results of the study show that learning Indonesian has spread to 11 institutions in Cambodia. Through schools, colleges, and the general public. The aim of Cambodians learning Indonesian is to visit Indonesia to see tourist attractions, study culture, cooking, dance, traditional music, and wish to continue their studies in Indonesia. During the Covid 19 pandemic, BIPA continued to run using zoom. One-time zoom of the most followed participant 114 people. Obstacles encountered in learning BIPA, namely students having difficulty adjusting to class schedules, which has an impact on discipline in learning, the influence of the mother tongue, namely Khmer, the inability of participants to speak English, the inability of students to read Latin letters, and the BIPA teacher cannot speak Cambodian. It can be concluded that the diplomacy of BIPA learning has received a good reception from Cambodian citizens, which is marked by the fact that more and more BIPA learning places have been opened. Starting at PUSBUDI, universities, and schools. Even the Cambodian military or special forces also learn Indonesian.