Culture Bridge:A Holistic Approach to ASEAN Languages and Cultures as a Bridge to Regional Understanding Among SIKL (Indonesian School Kuala Lumpur) Students

Abstract

The deepening integration of ASEAN demands that the younger generation possess strong intercultural competencies as a foundation for sustainable regional cooperation. Students of Sekolah Indonesia Kuala Lumpur (SIKL) are in a unique position as Indonesian diaspora in Malaysia who directly experience the multicultural dynamics of ASEAN in their daily lives. This study aims to explore the experiences of SIKL students in building cross-cultural understanding of ASEAN through a holistic language-culture approach. This study uses a qualitative approach with an intrinsic case study design that focuses on the experiences of SIKL students. The research findings reveal the process of building cultural bridges among SIKL students, such as a layered identity transformation, indicating that students experience an identity evolution from nationalist-exclusionary to regional-inclusive through five stages: dissonance awareness, cultural curiosity, experiential learning, perspective integration, and advocacy development. The existence of a holistic learning ecosystem shows that the success of the holistic approach is supported by the synergy between the integration of formal curriculum, informal peer interactions, family cultural transmission, and community cultural immersion. Thus, students can demonstrate their role as "Cultural Bridges" who actively mediate intercultural understanding within their communities.