Yus Badudu
The Teacher of Indonesian Language Teachers
Yus Badudu came to prominence when he began hosting the program Developing the Indonesian Language broadcast by the state-run TVRI at the end of the 1970s. He wrote dozens of books, articles and academic texts about issues pertaining to the Indonesian language. He is one of a very few Indonesian language experts who were widely known. Yus once said that the teaching of the Indonesian language and of literature was a big failure in schools, since students had never become skilled, both in using it orally and in writing it.
Suharto's New Order regime was often offended by Badudu's criticism of officials who could not speak Indonesian properly. His expertise and popularity regarding Indonesian went even beyond that of the Language Center institution. In the past, it was not unusual to hear language teachers say: "According to Yus Badudu"
Today, at the age of 87, Yus lives a quiet life in Bandung. After suffering two strokes, this man whom language expert Anton M. Moeliono called "the teacher of language teachers" does not say much. He has been overlooked and underappreciated by today's public. Tempo met with Yus.
September 17, 2013
Sunlight bathed the hills of Dago, Bandung, on a Sunday in early July, two days before the start of Ramadan. At a spacious home with a yard about as big as two basketball courts and a tall lychee tree, located at Jalan Bukit Dago Selatan No. 27 in the housing complex for lecturers of the Padjadjaran University, Jusuf Sjarif Badudu was seen enjoying his old age together with his wife, one of his nine children and two of his grandchildren.
The home
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