VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

An English Language Training for 18 ASEAN disaster response officers held by the Indonesian government in collaboration with the United States Embassy is focusing on disaster management.

"The instructors have very broad language proficiency, but they try to communicate in the context of disaster management," Director of the Executive and Custom Language Programs, Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey, Alicia Brent Nurse, said in Jakarta, Friday (19/07/2019).

In the English language training for disaster response officers, there was also a communication environment and context such as working with a national unity system in a simple way, she explained.

Thereafter, the disaster response officers who were trained also implemented the framework of the disaster system and each of them took on a different role in the class.

This aims to make everyone participate in and truly contribute the knowledge they have, she explained.

"Even though their English competence is still low, we continue to encourage them to expose as many things as they know," she said.

In addition, disaster officials are also encouraged to collaborate and exchange ideas regarding disaster management with other people in their fields.

In this case, the ASEAN disaster response officers would learn from each other, she said.

"For me personally, doing this is very challenging, as this will enrich knowledge and closeness to the environment," she said.

Collaboration among members or disaster response officers in ASEAN must include the knowledge of English language skills which would make it easier to respond to things, Director of the Regional English Language Office (RELO), the US Embassy, Jakarta, Dr. Bradley Horn said.

This is the reason for holding an English language course. (ANTARA)