One of the milestones in Indonesian history was the Youth Pledge or Sumpah Pemuda. Sumpah Pemuda itself is a nationalist movement that young Indonesian are committed to as a mark of Indonesian identity. It contains 3 points or decisions, and one of which is to use the Indonesian language as the national language. It can be stated that using the Indonesian language symbolizes and signifies the identity of Indonesia. Indeed, it is inevitable that in the effort of making the Indonesian language the unifying national language, it requires preserving and developing the language to ensure its relevance throughout the ages. To achieve this goal, Badan Bahasa, a government institution dedicated to language development, was formed with the task of maintaining and developing the Indonesian language. One of the efforts made by the Badan Bahasa to enrich the Indonesian language is to compile the Indonesian Corpus to enhance and strengthen the language. 

One of the researchers involved in the Indonesian Corpus project is Almira Fidela Artha, a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Airlangga. This lecturer, who specializes in corpus linguistics, explained that the Indonesian Corpus is an extensive data base for the Indonesian language, and the data were collected from various articles. "We collected them from Indonesian-language journal articles and various disciplines, such as art, religion, medicine, and so on. We are even collecting linguistics corpora and data in spoken language," she said.

Currently, Almira serves as the person in charge and data collector for several ongoing Indonesian Corpus projects. "Recently, this year, we have to complete two things. The first is the Indonesian Corpus in the field of speech. The second is the Indonesian Corpus in the field of religion. The field of religion has been completed. Now, the field of speech corpus is still in progress, with a target completion date of November, although it should have been completed in October." In addition, she also serves as the activity coordinator for the Indonesian Dictionary Association (Perkamusi). 

Almira explained that her involvement in this project began when she attended a lexicography seminar in Guangzhou, China. "Well, I met some Indonesian there. Coincidentally, they were from Badan Bahasa. It was in 2019, if I'm not mistaken," she explained. This chance encounter led to her joining the Badan Bahasa project. 

In her work, there are some challenges that she faces. According to her, the first challenge is time. The main reason why time becomes one of the challenges is that collecting and processing articles requires a long process and has certain limitations. Then, the second challenge is the process of combining and integrating other linguistic fields, such as semantics and sociolinguistics, into her work. While doing it, she must be adaptive or have broad knowledge. "I'm still trying to find new things to do. So, this is the latest thing—-I’m researching a linguistics corpus, but it's related to ecolinguistics," she explained.

Furthermore, Almira explained that this Indonesian Corpus research has practical applications, one of which is related to political discourse. For policymakers, this can be something to consider before making decisions. With a linguistic corpus, legislative members can map the pros and cons of public reactions found in the news and social media. For instance, they can analyze public sentiment towards a proposed policy or political figure. This allows policies to be made in accordance with the needs of the wider community and avoids criticism from the public. "We can also find out what kind of ideas are popular in politics, such as what the positive sentiments are like, what the negative sentiments are like. In the end, if we pursue this, it will actually be very easy for us to make policies and so on," she explained. 

Moving on to her early days in research, Almira revealed that she found excitement in conducting research when she was in graduate school. "Why did I only realize this now? Because I had a professor who was super dedicated to me to the point that I had reached my career journey, and his name was Dany Arnos Kwary," she said. Working as a researcher assistant with him also boosted her confidence in conducting research techniques such as writing, explaining, etc.

For undergraduate students who want to develop their research skills, Almira advised them to participate in activities such as PKM and grants from BRIN without worrying about whether they will win or not. "The important thing is to move forward first. It's silly to be typical of a reckless person. So, start researching whenever and wherever you can. Make time for it," she explained. She added that assignments from lecturers, such as mini-research projects, can also be developed into full-fledged research. Thus, it does not stop when the course ends, but is taken more seriously and explored further.

Looking ahead, Almira predicts that the future of linguistics research will be characterized by massive interdisciplinary collaboration. This trend necessitates that researches, including linguists, develop the ability to adapt to other scientific fields, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP). "One of the key challenges we face is the need for human evolution in the face of these changes," she emphasized. However, she also reassured that language research will continue to be relevant in the future, as language remains an integral part of society.

Finally, Almira advised students to maximize their time in college as much as possible. Learning from her own experiences, she advised students to be active academically, such as attending conferences, getting involved in organizations, etc. "Everyone, get out and about more. But don't just hang out. Talk to friends, share knowledge, and so on. Believe it or not, you can't turn back time," she explained. For those who do both, Almira also advised them to maintain a balance between organizational activities and college so that they do not only focus on one thing and neglect the other.