THE class was quiet. All the first-year students of Sales Department 1, State Vocational High School (SMK) 1 Surabaya, were listening attentively to a cassette recording. It contains a conversation between two people who cannot pronounce mild e (like in telah) and strong e (like in enak) properly. The teacher, Erlina Piliang, asked, What ethnic group do the speakers belong to? The students loudly answered, Batak!

Suddenly the class became noisy.