Daily Cup #4_Someday I am going to......

Dreaming isn't a bad thing. 

But your dream isn't supposed to keep you imagining

It is supposed to get you moving

It is supposed to make you working

How's that for opening lines? I am not a fan of poem. To me they are too cheesy and they make me cringe. Song lyrics are essentially poem, but those I enjoy because the words are beautified with music. Both are arts in forms of exaggerated words. Exaggeration is considered normal in the context of art. Okay, that is all the philosophical ramblings I got for now.

Most part of this writing isn't exactly new. I wrote them few months ago on my laptop and it was just sitting there. I never posted it anywhere until now of course. It's about my health journey. I am very much grateful for my body. In almost 30 years, I've never ever experiencing any of these following issues:

• Passing out (loosing consciousness unintentionally, so different as sleeping)
• Nose bleed
• Surgeries (of any type including dental issues)
• Hospitalized (for any reason)
• Cavities (never once had them. I go to dentist only for cleaning purpose)
• Receiving IV fluid

I am going to mention those points again later. Bottom line, I am so amazed with my body's capability despite it being unfit and obese based on BMI principal.

Let’s take it way back when I was still a pre-teen.

I got my first period ever when I was entering 5^th grade of elementary school. The year was 2002 so I was only 10 years old! Oh my God! I just realized that fact as I’m writing this.

So anyway, even after having my period, my body didn’t change. I still looked like a kid, a thin and short kid. I graduated elementary in 2 years then proceed to middle school. When I entered middle school I guess I started to gain weight and grow but it wasn’t much. I remember freshman year of middle school when all new students had medical checkup at school, I was 47 kg and 152 cm. My knowledge about health was very little to almost nothing. Now that I think about it, 47 kg 152 cm on a 13 year old girl is not bad. It wasn’t bad for me at least. I’ve never been a picky eater. I didn’t eat small portion. My eating habit was fine. I also didn’t restrict myself on anything. Basically, I ate whatever I wanted.

Then not a year after that, so I was in 2^nd year of middle school, I gained drastically by 11 kg. In less than a year I went from 47 kg to 58 kg and 152 cm to 155 cm (That’s also my current height now at 29. I am a shorty). My school uniform got tighter so my Mom had to make some adjustment. The uniform only survived for a short time. Because I kept growing, on my last year of middle school my Mom finally had to buy me new whole set of uniform. I was going to graduate soon but my uniforms didn’t fit me anymore. It was so unfortunate but it had to be done.

Throughout high school until college years, I knew I was on the “bigger” side of group. I saw myself as plus-size, a big person. I didn’t see myself as curvy or healthy or good-looking. I didn’t care at all about my appearances or maybe I tried not to care about them so much because I honestly didn’t like it. The good news is I was already quite a driven person inside. I mean I understood things that are more important than physical appearances like my family, my social relationship with my friends (no boyfriend at all during those times sadly), and my education achievements. I wasn’t a sporty girl but I did my best in all my PE classes. I was also very active and I wasn’t lazy to move around. I felt fine, I felt good, and I felt comfortable.

ᕙ(  •̀ ᗜ •́  )ᕗ

Let’s jump in a little further now. Things are about to start getting more serious.

On November 2013 I graduated college. I was 68 kg and 155 cm. (Hold on, I have to mention that during one of those college days I decided to go to a slimming clinic of sort and I was 73 kg when they first measured me. Then I did their diet suggestion which was crazy but I could lost my weight by 5 kg overall and kept it off until I graduated. Okay, let’s continue). I regretfully didn’t do my best on picking the best kebaya (That’s what we call the clothing, it was a traditional Javanese garment) and I didn’t use the best salon or place to do my makeup. I didn’t look good, really, I regret it. But whatever, it happened. Just take a note at my weight; I was 68 kg when I graduated. To be exact, I graduated on November 2^nd 2013.

The next day on the 3^rd of November the same year, I went straight to other province where I was hired for my first ever job. I lived by myself without any family in a rented house I shared with some strangers; they were all girls but strangers. I spent my first week just go to work, eat, and be at my room watching movies on my laptop; with occasional phone calls to my Mom which always ended with me bawling my eyes, I was crazy homesick. On November 10^th, I was sent to Thailand for 2-week work training. I was back on November 23^rd.

Here’s the thing, see, within November 2^nd to 23^rd I gained A LOT, guess how much? I gained 7 kg just in 3 weeks! I was 75 kg.

Let’s jump forward again, shall we?

On September 2014 I resigned and got hired at different company. I worked at said company until February 2017. This company always held medical checkup annually for all their workers; how nice of them, right? and this always done in December. On 2014 I didn’t get that privilege because I was still new, but I got my checkup on 2015 and 2016. Oh boy, I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but it did. On 2015 I was 77 kg and on 2016 I was 85 kg. Oh, I’m going to add more spice here. On January 2021 I was 104. And FINALLY nowadays, May 2022 I was 109 kg. That was the very last time I put myself on a scale. Fiuh..

Okay, so that’s all about my history from body weight-scale’s point of view.

ᕙ(  •̀ ᗜ •́  )ᕗ

Next, I’d like to take out my jumbled-scattered mind and put them into several points. I don’t know what to call them. Things I want to do? Or things I must do? I’ll get to that later, maybe. Here they are:

1. Moving forward.

I’m compartmentalizing (That’s a long word, huh?). I’m compartmentalizing my past thoughts and ideals. I think most of them are not accurate scientifically. They won’t give me any good if I keep bringing them out. So, bye now, past! I’ll visit you some other time, most likely.

2. Nutrition balance

I’m actually confused whether to call it “focuses on nutrition” or “nutrition-wise” or if I even want to put the word “nutrition” here because it’s a little bit triggering for me but yet I must work through it. So, about nutrition, instead of thinking “I need food to survive”, I’m working on shifting it to “My body needs nutrition to keep going on”. That’s better, isn’t it? It’s a work in progress.

I did try to learn about nutrition and how much my body needs composition-wise, but it stopped. Counting calories, daily macro-nutrition intakes, meal plans; I did them all. To sum it up, it was exhausting. Maybe I did them wrong. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough. Maybe I didn’t put all my efforts. Maybe it’s just me. I don’t know.

Personally I’d prefer to focus on major things to minor things. One example is trans-fat, aka greasy food. Let’s face it. Where I live and my country’s custom, fried food is very much inevitable. I love my country and if I try hard enough to dig deep, I might be able to find some facts which would lead to my understanding of why and how come people are the way they are right now. Sorry if that’s confusing. My point is “some food are inevitable in Indonesia”; such as white rice, fried food, sugar, starch, and many more. I tried to eat more like a western people but again, that was unsustainable big time.

By the end of this ranting I’m going to show list of things that I believe are more sustainable to do in terms of preserving my health and eventually losing fat.

3. Exercise

This one is simple enough. Each person has different environment, resources, abilities, body shapes, and more. When it comes to exercise I’d just say, “Do whatever you CHOOSE.” There are so many things out there that can educate us regarding this matter. Working with professionals is always the better option.

The big point is DO WHAT YOU ENJOY, no matter how you interpret that sentence, and not do what you are pressured to do. Does that make sense?

4. Proper Sleep

This one is again, simple enough, at least theoretically. Same with exercise, it depends on the individual. I can’t give any suggestion to other, but to myself, I need to work on it and I will, hopefully.

ᕙ(  •̀ ᗜ •́  )ᕗ

Having said all of those things, these are some points that I came up. I call it “Things I can maintain to do for real”.

1. Less fried food

It’s easy to do when I cook the meal myself, but it’s hard when I don’t cook the meal myself. I won’t stress myself out about this. If I have the time I’ll cook, but if I don’t have the time or if I’m too tired, it’s okay to have whatever’s available. Just have them normally, in proper serving, and not eat them too much.

2. More veggies

It’s also easy to do when I cook them myself. I can control all the ingredients and make it my taste. Again, that doesn’t mean I won’t eat veggies that I don’t cook myself. I will still eat whatever veggies available, be it my mom’s cooking or we buy it from somewhere else, it’s okay.

3. Weekend walk

According to my exercise history, walking is my number 1 preference. I can endure long walks, though I don’t think I ever did that for 1 hour or more non-stop since I came to adulthood. I just enjoy walking itself. Maybe sometimes I’d do indoor following some YouTube videos or maybe outdoor, I’d do whatever depends on the situation. 

I said weekend because that’s the most realistic time when I can do it. I wanted to do every single day in the morning, but I have to be out of the house before 6 AM. I take my little sister to school then straight to my office. I thought of walking in the late afternoon after I finish working, but most of the time I go home very tired or I have to do errands or chores or tutoring. It’s just unrealistic for now. Maybe someday later I can, who knows.

4. More fruits

I have a confession to make. I’m not crazy about fruits. Sometimes during when I grew up, I don’t remember fruits being something that was provided regularly at home. It’s almost like fruits weren’t considered a meal, you know. They were more like optional snacks that we didn’t prefer compared to other snacks like chips, fries, and sweets. They’ve never been main commodity that must exist in the kitchen all the time. From now on I intend to change that situation.

5. Deep and proper sleep

Be more conscious on how many hours I need to allocate for sleeping, as in night time sleeping, not short naps throughout the day. This one I am confident that I manage because I’ve done this before. Back in my early first working experiences, I told myself that I must be in bed and sleep by 10 PM the latest. Then I must be up and about at 4 AM. That’s 6 hours of sleeping. Most of the time, I tried my best to sleep at 9 PM so I got longer hours of sleep. Basically, the earlier I went to bed, the longer time I could sleep, and the better I rest. And it happened like that. So, it’s all about habitual action and be discipline about it.

ᕙ(  •̀ ᗜ •́  )ᕗ

I’m going to close this writing by telling you the philosophical diet that I agree. It said that diet is a lifestyle. Diet is not about losing weight or body transformation. To me it’s about what you do for real to take care of your body. It’s about understanding your body and yourself. Someday I am going to be fit. 

If I want to write  a letter for my body. It'll be something like this.

My Dearest Body,

Thank you for being whole. Thank you for always be with me. Thank you for always supporting me. I believe all these times, it’s also you who’s been taking care of me.

You are super strong. I’ve never experienced being hospitalized for any reason, passing out, nose bleed, toothache, and any type of surgeries; those are things I’m so proud of and all thanks to you.

Even when I don’t take care of you, you always stay strong.

When I didn’t eat anything for 3 days but just drinking coconut water following a crazy weight lose advice, you kept me stand and didn’t fall down.

When I just blindly followed all diet methods without taking you into account, you never complained. I saw and heard other people with bad side effects from improper dieting methods such as hair loss, dizziness, irregular periods, pains, even something more serious such as infertility, immune problem, hormone problems, and more. Yet you have never ever given me any of those issues. How did you do that? I don’t understand but I’m so grateful.

When I’m too lazy to work out or even move around, you did complained by giving me some pains in certain are like knees and back, but it was gone in matter of days. I’m sorry because I ignored your complain. Even when I paid attention, I’ve never been consistent about it. For that I’m very truly sorry.

I’ve been educating myself about you. It’s a non-ending process but I really want to do my best to make you be better and feel better. Not that there’s anything wrong about you but I’m sure you have problems that I don’t know yet. What’s clear to me is you are now in an uncomfortable condition, aren’t you?

It’s getting hard for you to keep supporting me for years. I’ve been making it harder and harder for you. I realize that. I apologize for all the extra works you have to endure due to my recklessness.

I hope you know that I want to do better. I want to understand you better. I want us to be better.

Let’s move forward together.

Thank you for reading this. Have a great day.☺ 

Daily Cup #3_Recent Stuff

Would you look at that? I was only on my 2nd daily cup and I already missed few days of it. I missed 3 days to be exact. So now, I'm thinking of just making this post a vast update on what have been happening in my life. I'm not using then as excuses for my missing my own promise. I mean, it's not like I expect anyone to read this anyway, but I just want to write it. I'm rambling. Let's just get a move on, shall we?

About 3 months ago my sister and I went to dentist. I didn't have any problem, my sister did. She had been in pain so she needed to see a dentist. She was required to do blood test and did an x-ray. From the x-ray it turned out that the area which caused her pain was because of improper teeth position. I am sure I'm making mistakes here when I speak about medical things. I really don't know what I'm doing. Please bear it with me. Alright.

Do you know that when you go into certain age, you grow 2 sets of new teeth at the bottom part. Each pair is on your left bottom and your right bottom. That means your adult teeth is complete with the number of 32 teeth. The thing is, I didn't grow those 2 pairs of new adult teeth ever. I count number of my teeth quite often and it is still at 28 not 32. I remember some of my friends experienced that back when we were still in high school. Some people grow them in their early 20's. It was a painful process, that much I know as well. Even to most people, it tends to create issues. My sister is one of the unfortunate people. Basically her new teeth didn't grow properly in the right position and they had to be taken out through surgery. She had to wait for few months until the hospital informed her about the schedule one day before the procedure taking place. 

On July 27th she got a text from the hospital said that she had to be at the hospital on July 28th at 9 am local time. She has 2 children, so someone else needed to take care of them. That someone being yours truly. I was the person who most likely could ask for a day-off from work easily. There wasn't much to do at office in the first place. There was no special project or anything that made can't leave a day. My supervisor was kind enough to allow me to take a day-off. So I took care of 2 toddlers for 24 hours! What an experience! Thankfully, everything went well. The kids didn't throw any tantrum. They ate and slept well, only missing an afternoon nap but it was fine. I could even deal with "toilet business", if you know what I mean. I also cleaned the house as best as I could, did the dishes, tidied things up here and there. It was all very tiring, but I am so glad that I could help.

Thanks for reading this. Have a great day. ☺

Daily Cup #2_Fundamental Points of View

If you read some of my earliest post or what I called them "doing well for myself" series, then you'd knew most of my personal struggles. Before I go deeper I need to say few things. They're mostly for my own state of clarity. I just need to calm myself down. So here it goes. First and foremost, I have no means to complain about my situation. I don't blame anyone and I don't blame myself for the situation that I'm in right now. When I'm bringing up my past, it is for the sake of learning. Second of all, I don't mean to compare, in a bad way, or insult anyone; when I'm bringing up other people's situation. I'll say this repeatedly, they are all for my learning process. It's all I can manage for now; rambling at no one in particular, pouring my brains out on a page no one would probably read or find like ever. Well, I prefer to do something than nothing. It's hard to keep being optimistic all the time. There are many moments when we can't rely on another things to distract us from facing our problems head-on. Alright then, that was a long enough opening lines I believe. Let's get right into it, shall we?

I grew up in a religious environment in my family. My parents and all the adults practiced the Islamic religion including all the life values. It's imbued inside of me and my siblings. As time goes on and my understanding increases, I am grateful that I am easy to feel grateful. Makes sense enough? Here are few examples. I believe the basic life purpose as human is not to live or to survive until death comes. I believe life is for doing good deed; starting from doing good for ourselves, for family, for others closest to you, and the good expands. So it's "doing" good as in tangible actions, not "be" good as in just theoretical. To be able to do good, we must educate ourselves. We study holy Qur'an, learn from experts, seeking for guidance. We also must keep our faith strong and have solid strong foundation.

In reference to do tangible action, as in action that can be seen with our eyes; we must acknowledge things in front of us. Basic human needs. That's the whole thing. We live, we have needs. As our lives change so do our needs. Not to mention the impacts of media and technology development. Years ago we barely what internet is, and now we can't live without it. I know I speak a lot when I start to mention things from philosophical point of views. 

In my live right now, I see that I have so many privileges. I call them privileges as in privileges for me compared to those who aren't as fortunate as me. I live in a house. I sleep on a bed. I have food in the kitchen. I have endless supply of water. I have a vehicle to go places. I have a motorcycle. I have access to entertainment like music and movies. I can afford to shop once in a while or enjoy culinary. The people who I meet on daily basis are all nice people whether it's family, neighbors, colleagues, supervisors. I never have to go to bed hungry on an empty stomach. I have blanket to warm me on cold days, electrical fan to cool me on hot days. I can sleep all day during holiday if I want to. All is great!

However, human had been blessed with brain and common sense. We have willingness. We have a drive. I am not against feeling unsatisfied because that's okay, as long as we understand why we feel unsatisfied and then we do something about it. So, not just being shallow, unsatisfied, and blaming everything else around us; that is not okay. 

I said on the previous post on Daily Cup series that my brother had recently bought a house. So for now, that becomes one of my drive, my priority. I want to help financially because the house needs to be renovated before it's deemed "proper" to live in. As of now, there are visible water pipes from the front of the house and they go inside across the living room until kitchen area. A pipe outside a wall across the inside of the house. A visible pipe. Do I make myself clear? That's got to be big safety hazard. One example of issues that need to be fixed. There's this ugly wallpaper in some parts of the house plus weird color paint. There are a lot to be dealt. Those who ever bought or built a house I am sure will understand that it cost a lot. Not just stopping on house renovations, we are going to need to add more necessities; maybe buying some new furniture, do some lighting treatment, curtains, re-design the interior to suit us. The list goes on and on. 

My brother is an engineer with some other set of skills. He's good at graphic design. He can design anything from logos, flyers, posters, printed garments, and more. Last time I met him, 2 days ago from the time I was writing this, he said that recently he was trying out to dive into real estate construction. At the company where he works, oftentimes he deals with projects like building new industry plants or utility reparation. So he's the one who deals with off-site partners. He meets and works with people from outside of his company. Because of that, he had an idea to get more network and cooperation from those resources. My brother is very brave. He's not afraid to do whatever it takes. At the same time, he's also not one of those people who's arrogant. He's very generous and always there to help, especially to family. 

That's all I have for now. There were some scattered thoughts here and there about my views. There are still many of whose which I'm definitely will be sharing later on. I hope it's useful to whoever you are who had stumbled upon this page. 

Thanks for reading this. Have a great day. ☺

Daily Cup #1_New series_Intro

I'm thinking of challenging myself to make daily posts. I'm going to start slow by setting up for 7-days of everyday writing. That is the 1st phase.

As I mentioned repeatedly everywhere, as in my journals or maybe somewhere in my older posts which I don't remember, I love to write because it clears up my thoughts. However, my action hasn't reflected my saying, you know. To put it simply, I must and need to do more instead of just mentioning it or talking about it. This time hopefully my action will carry through my intention.

It's always easier to write about real things we've experienced. At least that's what suggested in most of "beginner writer's tips" we found everywhere. So, that's how I'm going to start. I'd like to share what happens recently in my family. It might be random, have no correlation whatsoever in-between paragraph or any parts of my writing; but oh well, I'll just roll with whatever pops out on top of my head.

Guess what? I'm turning 30 in less than a month! Crazy, right? My birthday is on August 23rd. Real story, I've had been dreading about turning 30 since the middle of last year on 2021. Ever since I started to work again on May 2018 until now, so now I'm still working on the longest job I've ever taken; my life has been only about working and helping out my family. I went back to the same ideal as when I worked outside of my hometown when I was a fresh graduate. The difference is on the "helping my family" part. See, because I live with my family, I can be more hands-on and not just helping in terms of financial. It is normal for me, I mean like sometimes family members live together in a house but there might be one or two of them who are like not really "living" together with family, if that made sense. For me, it's not a problem. I give credits to my parents who had engraved a custom thought in my brain and hopefully my siblings too about "do good for others especially for family without asking for anything in returns". I get that it can't be applied the same way as others and each person's situation is different. But, the main idea holds. When you live with your family, it's always better to find ways that you can help others out. It starts with taking care of your belongings and your space first, which I know that's what we were taught as kids mostly, it's basically about making good habit; then it'll expand to more general areas. 

As long as each and every single one member in a family has good understanding and communication with one another, any problems or issues would be less likely to become something major. 

Here's an example. I've had heard many stories of inharmonious lives on family, how the members don't respect and communicate well with one another, how there's always a grudge among family, how they don't get along, always bad-mouthing behind one another's backs, hurt one another in many forms not just physically. Some has worse story than the others. They were so hard for me to listen to but hearing them made me feel more grateful with the family I have. Although clearly I don't mean this to show-off or compare my family with anyone's family. When a friend of mine shares something personal or family-related, I keep my focus on what said friend's stories without referencing or saying something in returns related to my family. Plus I only give out my takes if I am asked to or if I really think they're worth to be said, in that case I always ask permission first to said friend. That's what I do. Still, no offense to those who do things differently than I do, to each their own.

Here's what it is like in my family regarding those kinds of situation. There many people in my family. By family I mean my direct family whom I interact with in day to day basis. There are my mom and my step-dad, my 5 younger siblings, finally my toddler nephew and niece. I think I might want to write more about each member separately like one post per member of family. For now, it's just going to be general stuff. As far as I know and based on my point of views, I can say that there's no bad "energy" within family. Sure we clash once in a while, we have differences; but it has never been up to become something hurtful. We banter with each other, we're blunt about one another's habits like things we like and we don't like. We express our views, our opinions. No one suppress or forces the others. I believe we have a good communication and proper tolerance. Those were our keys to maintain the harmony. We embrace the diversity and try to balance everything out. Every single thing we do is for the sake of being good and helping the others. However, please do underline here that it doesn't just happen out of nowhere. It took great effort as a team, always will be. 

I said I'm going to bring recent event happened in my family but I haven't mentioned anything about that yet. Alright, here we go.

Recently, my 25-year old brother bought a house. He was eligible for bank's house loan with his job as an engineer at one local industry. There was a house for sale at the same district as our current rented house. The location is very well-worth it, so my brother did everything he could to get the house. We're planning to do renovations before we move in. The new house is primarily bought for our mom and her kids. I am in questionable position because currently I live with my 28-year old sister and her 2 children because her husband works overseas in Malaysia. So I am not sure if I am considered one of the new comers in the new house. But, I'm helping out still any way I can financially and everything else. 

it's as clear as crystal that my monthly salary doesn't cover all the bills and it won't be if i don't get another source of income. I am struggling so bad. I admit I'm still lost and clueless at this point. So, back again, writing all of these for now is my way of clearing my mind, using my times better by creating something. I will share more about this struggle particular on my next daily cup. 

Thanks for reading this. Have a great day. ☺

Types of Parliamentary Debate

Generally when people think of the word "debate", they will think that it is like normal conversation but with different opinions. They believe that it is more like banter of views and thoughts, throw out one argument after another argument. Lastly, they would imagine that the situation where debate takes place must be chaotic like yelling at each other. Those are not wrong though. Debate is essentially an act where there are two parties or more have different point of views. It happens in meetings, discussions, or simply in our daily regular conversation. However, "parliamentary debate" isn't quite like normal casual every day debate. There are specific rules that must be obliged by all the parties involved.

There are 3 types of parliamentary debate. Before I elaborate each type, I need to mention that parliamentary debate is not similar as petty debate or coachman debate or even like presidential debate we have in Indonesia. Parliamentary debate has more specific rules to follow and that depends on each type.

1. Australian and Asian Parliamentary

In Australian and Asian Parliamentary debate, there are two teams competing each other for every rounds. One team is usually called positive team or affirmative team or government team or proposition team. While the other one called negative team or opposition team. The other way to say "team" for example in "positive team" is "positive side of the house". So the team itself was like "side of the house". "The house" is common term to use. It generally means the side that the team is in, positive side of the house of negative side of the house. Each team consists of 3 speakers. There are first speaker, second speaker, and third speaker. 

This is the illustration of Australian and Asian Parliamentary

Source: slideplayer.com

Reply speaker is either 1st or 2nd speaker from each team. The 3rd speaker may not be the reply speaker.

Here's the link if you would like more explanation regarding this form of debate. I could explain them myself but I doubt it will be different. Australasian Parliamentary English Debate

The differences between Australian and Asian parliamentary are In Australian Parliamentary there are no POI at all, meanwhile in Asian the opponent can give POI or Point of Information during speech. For example when the speaker from affirmative team delivers the speech, any member in opposition house can stand up and say "Point, Ma'am!" or "Point, Sir!" It can also be "POI, Ma'am!" or "POI, Sir!" There are no exact way to ask for POI. We can be creative like "To help you case, Ma'am!" POI can be anything. It can be questions or statements or clarification, but it can only be delivered in maximum 20 seconds. So whoever stated their POI must do it quickly. POIs can only be given during minute 2 until minute 7. 

The duration for each substantive speaker (1st until 3rd speaker, except reply speaker) is minimum 5 minutes and maximum 8 minutes  20 seconds. For reply speaker the speaking duration is minimum 3 minutes and maximum 5 minutes 20 seconds. If any speaker do not stop speaking after pass the maximum time, then anything he/she says beyond maximum duration will be penalized. 

2. British Parliamentary 

This type of debate is more complicated yet more fun and interesting. The rule of the speaker regarding speech duration is same as Australian and Asian Parliamentary. There are also 2 sides of the house like in Australasian. But, each side will then divided again into 2 sides. Here's the illustration.

Here's the suggested material regarding BP debate British Parliamentary Debate (BP)

How Parliamentary Debate Can Make One Speak English Faster

General Overview of Parliamentary Debate.

According to Cambridge English Dictionary, debate is a serious discussion of a subject in which many people take part. It is a competition in which teams of people, often students, discuss a subject and the team that is judged to make the best arguments wins. Cambridge Dictionary - English - Debate Meanwhile parliamentary debate referred to an academic debate event. The most well-known world wide debate events are World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) and European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC). 

Some countries have their own national level events, in Indonesia especially there is National Universities English Debate Championship (NUEDC) held annually. The winners of NUEDC are to be sent off to WUDC to represent Indonesia with full accommodation provided by the national ministry of education. Participants of NUEDC are consist of representative from different regions all around the nation. Prior to the national event, there is regional event where university students of their respective region can enroll and they must pass to semifinal round so that they can join at the national event. Both regional and national level of NUEDC are accommodated by Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia. There is the same type of tournament meant specifically only for polytechnic students called National Polytechnic English Olympics (NPEO). Other famous national level competitions are Java Open Varsity English Debate (JOVED) and Indonesia Varsity English Debate (IVED). Java regions might have the most number of events compared to the rest area in Indonesia.

Do you have to participate any competition when you join an English debating club?

The answer is no, you don't have to. However, having just regular practices might not affect your English skills that much rather than participating in a competition. Coaches mostly will have different method of practice between regular trainings and pre-competition trainings or what we used to call it intensive trainings. Moreover, being in a competitive environment will expose you and motivate you more. You will meet many other debaters, adjudicators, coaches, and those can increase your knowledge plus improve your skills. It's a whole another level of practice by itself. When you just stay inside your club and not competing, you'd only get regular practice. Not that it doesn't help you because it does, but the impact won't be as significant as competing.

How debate makes for easier and faster English speaking skill?

Disclaimer: The following contents are written based on my personal experiences. They represent general activities of English debate from training until competition, but they also might not be exactly the same with what another debaters had went through or are going through. If there are some points that you find not true then they are just matters of different personal background, environment, and experiences. Nothing is absolute here, so no need to get stressed on deciding which one is right or wrong. Just take these points as they are, they are aimed to share and inform. Who knows? You might learn something new and be able to apply them accordingly to your situation. 

1. Experiencing consistent English environment

Debate is one of the forms of public speaking, meaning that you are definitely going to stand up, take the center stage, and speak English in front of other people. There are your team mates, your team opponent, your adjudicators, chair person, time keeper, and another audiences who are in the room. The entire training process are all led to what and how you speak when it's your turn. The goals are to be able to deliver your speech the best you can. 

Training is crucial. Even when you already have experiences before, once you're participating in another event, you need to keep practicing. If you have a coach or a senior at your club, the training method would be depend on said coach or senior. If you don't have a coach, it doesn't mean you can't have training. You can still practice together among your club members or your team mates. Training is all about your commitment. It's no pain no gain, literally. Do you like to sing? Or maybe you're an athlete? Or you have a certain hobby? How much times do you spend on those activities? It's the same as debate training or any other forms of English public speaking.

Next, what do we do exactly during training? Many things. Sometimes we do brainstorming on a topic, do speeches, have simulation, spar with other teams, do team bonding exercise, even watch movies/videos, and many more. The one similar thing is that all of those are done using English. I'd say 80% of one training session, whatever it is that we do, we do that in English, 80% using English. It's the same as when we are in the middle of a competition. 

That is why we keep having exposure on English, we dive ourselves into an English environment consistently.  

2. Get used to think in English

Think before speak. To be able to deliver a good and convincing speech, we must think on what we're going to speak, as in the content of our speech as well as some strategies that we come up with that can help us during our speech. Everything comes from inside our brain. We think all the time. Our brain is like doing constant exercise. Now because the final outcome is English speech, and our brain picks up that we need to speak in English, so unknowingly we are getting used to think in English. Do you like to think out loud? Or talk to yourselves? Or just really think of anything? Those would be done in English when you get used to speak in English. 

Of course it takes time. It's different with one person and another. At first we might still do translating from Bahasa to English and vice versa, but as long as you keep on going forward, you will get there eventually. 

3. Get rid of "fear" of speaking English anytime anywhere

Next step once you are able to think in English, believe it or not, you'll no longer experience those "fears" that you used to be associated English with. Anytime there's an opportunity to speak in English you'd be easily switch it on and speak, just like that. It's not only in debate setting or training or competition. Another examples are job interview, class presentation, courses, and more. This works for other languages too. As far as speaking in public goes, whatever the language is, whenever the time comes, you will have no problem to speak. 

Learning English Language through English Debate

This is a story that I submitted in an English anthology book titled "A Kick-start with English". It is unedited and I took out the biography part because it has my personal contact there. The book itself is about all writers' unforgettable moments with English language. I hope you enjoy my story.

Basically, I’m going to tell you about my “Unforgettable Time with English”. To be honest, it is not my first time telling or in this case writing about English. I had so many great experiences and wonderful memories when it comes to this particular language. I think I’d like to start with the very beginning.

I was interested in English since junior high because I thought it was very important that I could do well in it. It's a multinational language used by many countries if not all countries in the world. Since junior high I liked everything in English, like literally everything, from music, movie, books, and many more. My high interest on the subject made it easier for me to get through the lesson. I found it fairly easy for me to understand what the teacher in class taught us. It made the learning process run smoothly. I enjoyed it very much, including every projects and exams given to us, I did all of them happily. I was also fortunate to have great teachers back then. I graduated junior high with nearly perfect score on English subject during final exam. I only did one question wrong. Bottom line, I was majorly driven to be excellent in English.

The shortcoming about learning English back in junior high is that I was only good on the paper. I don’t mean to brag or be ungrateful but I felt like getting high scores was the only highest achievement I could get. It might be because I didn’t have enough self-confidence to showcase myself that I was capable. I was still shy to speak out during classes. I was a quite kid. I just sat down, listened, did tasks and exams, received my scores, and done. So, I was active but like silently. The thing is there was no space like English club or something where any student could take part of and involved more. A few times the school would enter English contests like speech, news reading, or story telling; but they always picked out a student who stood out in class, student who was loud and straightforward, had more self-confidence and didn’t shy away from speaking in public. Basically, I didn’t get my chance but it was okay because eventually I got exactly what I expected and more.

In high school I purposely chose an extracurricular activity related to English with hope that I could learn more about it. There was an English debate club, keyword debate. So don’t imagine it to be like English extra course when you sit in a class, learn vocabularies, grammars, and such; it wasn’t like that. We learned the “debate”, straightaway right up from the start. That was the focus of the club. The language just happened to be English. People got mixed up about that. Most of the applicants only attended the first week of the meeting and then they left because it wasn't what they expected. I found the club to be enjoyable very much. In my year I was one of the three students who stuck it out from the beginning until the end of high school, not to mention I was the only girl since the other two were boys. So from more than 50 students at first then became 3 students at last.

I was an active debater from high school throughout college. I started from newbie to senior, from small regional level competitions to national level. Sadly, I never made it to international level.

A little side note about debate, I’m making it as brief as I can. It was one of the optional extra-curricular activity in my high school but in college it was more like a club. The activity was pretty much same in both high school and college. We did regular training twice in a week, each meeting was only about 2-3 hours. When there were upcoming competitions we would do intensive trainings, it could be every day meetings from a week before the day sometimes more than a week before the day. The hours for intensive training were also longer for each meeting compared to regular trainings. One more thing, we always had a coach to train us. It was highly important to have someone with more expertise.

Long story short, I went from participant to a champion and best speaker, from a newbie to a senior. Then I became a coach when I taught the newbies in my college and the students who joined debate club in my high school. During my senior year of college beside coaching, I got invited as adjudicator for high school to university level of competitions. I traveled to places in Indonesia on different time zones. I went to Palembang, Semarang, Tual, and Bali.

My debating career helped so much in how I communicate in English. You know, debate is basically like public speaking in English I think. I know some people who are good in English but when it comes to speaking or conversing, they tend to get tongue-tied. It is a common problem for lots of people, isn’t it? When they know in their head what they are supposed to say but the words just don’t come out of their mouth. Another example when in the middle of conversation, they understand very well what other people are saying but it is hard to respond back.

Many of job interviews use English. I got hired on my first job before my college graduation ceremony. The company was based on Cikarang, West Java. The director did the interview by himself. He picked me because beside my capability on chemical engineering major, I was also fluent in English. It was a priority since the person who got hired then would be sent out to Thailand for 2 weeks training, all costs were fully paid off. I was ecstatic! A fresh graduate young-adult woman who never went out of city by herself before, then travelled alone to other province by train for 24 hours, then after just 1 week settled in a new place she then got sent out to another country for 2 weeks. Anyway, I went to Thailand with my boss which was my first time ever travelling abroad, but he stayed only 2 days then went back first. So, I went back to Indonesia after 2 weeks in Thailand by myself. How could that not be an unforgettable experience? My times in Thailand even it was short, it still filled with so many great memories. They are all just unforgettable.

My second job was in an electronic manufacturing company. Again, my English ability was one of the reason I got hired and then promoted. In this position I assisted in all activities that needed to be done in English. It was like an office job in a sense. I did translation on files and emails. I became translator in direct meetings, conference calls, and short phone calls. I acted as liaison officer when there were visitors or auditors from abroad. On top of all of those things, I still had my own main duties which I had to fulfill by myself.

For me personally, English and debate are two things that I can’t separate ever. They have always been connected to each other. My intention in learning English led me to debate and with debate I got better in English which then led me to my jobs. I consider English is my second language now. I'm confident enough to say that I'm more than just capable in it. I can read, talk, and write in English. I even think in English, but with my over-thinking tendencies, I figured I had to do something about it. That’s why I’m here right now. I’m pouring what’s in my head into words for others to read. I’m still new at this and still learning which are okay. Everything needs time and process, so I can only keep going and wish for the best.