BATAK LANGUAGE LEARNING BOARD GAME FOR URBAN BATAK COMMUNITIES

• Main Author: Eliah Franklyn, Dave
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/39011
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Bataknese is the third largest ethnic group in Indonesia after Javanese and Sundanese. Nevertheless, 31.67% (2,681,253 people) live outside North Sumatera province as a minority in multiple regions. Beside that, almost half of all the population live in urban areas. A lot of the people assimilated into the culture of the majority and affected by urban culture of the place where they live. Many people start to abandon the Batak language because they think that it is not relevant for city living. Because of that, this thesis is wrtitten to increase the interest of modern Batak communities that live in cities to learn the Batak Language. These days, Batak language can only be learned through textual books, online or offline, and also through direct interaction with the native speaker. Textual learning often makes people bored and create disinterest in learning it. On the other hand, learning through direct interacion is hard to be done since the target learners live in places where Batak is not a majority. With the development of game as an alternative learning media, it is hoped that urban Batak communities can get easy access and an increase in interest to learn the language of their ethnicity. In learning language, especially a vernacular language, the language and culture can not be seperated. That is why the mechanic and visual of this game is made based on the Bataknese philosophy and artefacts. Not only maximizing the aesthethic value of the game, these elements also increase the atmosphere and identity of Batak so it could be felt by the players. The game that was designed in this thesis aimed to appeal the Bataknese youth that live in the cities to learn their ethnic language and culture. Not only that, this game design was also aim to be the base of other vernacular language learning games in Indonesia.