The Hokkien Language Class was one of the four Language Classes that are held in BINUS Square. The tutors from this class are four Medanese people who are also university students living in BINUS Square. The type of Hokkien taught in the class was Medan Hokkien, which a local variant of Hokkien spoken among the people of Chinese descent in Medan, Indonesia. It borrows a lot of English and Indonesian words which makes it unique such as the Zhangzhou dialect. It is also least rarely written in Chinese characters as the Indonesian government during the New Order Era had banned the use of Chinese characters, and it has stuck with the people of Medan ever since. This makes it easier to study the Medan Hokkien since it usually does not use Chinese characters and has made it more accessible for people outside Medan who are interested in learning this language. The class was held by BSSC’s Culture Division, which strives to facilitate the Boarders of BINUS Square that are looking to learn or improve their Hokkien language skills.

The classes did not exclusively teach the Hokkien language itself, but also incorporates other fun activities such as playing games and singing which were coupled with the learning of the Hokkien language during those activities. The tutors were very open to questions during classes so that certain Hokkien words that the students might’ve often heard from the other boarders could be found out during the class. Since a lot of the boarders living in BINUS Square are from Medan, the students could quickly utilize what they had learned during the classes they had attended.

After the Hokkien Class was concluded, which lasted for 6 meetings, questionnaires were handed out to the students of the class where it could be inferred from their responses that a whopping 96% of the students left a positive review of the class, where the respondents claims that the classes were interesting, useful, and the ease of access in the class are comforting for them. Information regarding the classes was also easily obtained and the class staffs, member of BSSC’s Culture Division, behaved nicely and accordingly in class, both to the tutors and students. As a final note, we could conclude that the Hokkien Class had been a wonderful experience for both the tutors and students, where they could practically make use of what they had learned in class during their stay in not only BINUS Square, but BINUS University as a whole which boasts many Medanese students. We hope that what we’ve gained during this class can also be used to improve the future classes that will be held.