EFT Resume - Never Forget to Be Thankful or Grateful

Hi! I'm Vina. This is another video I made as a part of English for Teachers program with PGRI. This time is a short speech assigned by Mz. Poppy Meka at the 6th meeting on Thursday December 16th 2021. I hope you enjoy it.

So Mz. Poppy gave us free reign to create our own speech but she gave us 2 clue words, they are thankful and grateful. I think both are pretty similar and express the same meaning. The big difference that we need to notice is the context of where and when do we say them. 

When we want to express how thankful we are, usually we say

"Thanks" or "Thanks for . . . "

"Thank you" or "Thank you for . . . "

"I'd like to say thank you" or "I'd like to say thank you for . . . "

They're all general daily expression we do every time we receive something, gotten help from someone, and many more.

Now grateful is more commonly used to express a very big or deep thanks. When we  receive or achieve something extraordinary or something we have been working on very hard for such a long time and we feel that saying "thank you" is just too simple and not enough, we can say

"I'm so grateful"

"I'd like to express my gratitude"

Either way, thankful or grateful have the same meaning and there's no solid strict rules of using them. When and where we use them depend on how we feel at the moment. So pay attention to what your heart says. Sometimes we might even feel like saying thank you or gratitude is not adequate and we prefer to express it by doing something more tangible. 

It is very important to never forget to be thankful or grateful. Remember when we were little we were taught to say thank you ever since we could speak. Then we kept being reminded to say it all the time we receive something. That was to create a good habit. As we grew older, we understood more about the importance of it. Being thankful or grateful can also help to maintain good mental health plus avoiding negative thoughts and feelings such as stress, depression, scare, and anxiety. 

Like it or not we can never control everything we want. As long as we breath in this world we're bound to have ups and downs, highs and lows, that's called living. So just enjoy everything we do; be thankful to our family, our loved ones, and other people around us; and be grateful for what we have.

That's all from me. Thank you to Mz. Poppy for giving us this amazing assignment and I encourage my fellow participants to do the task. You got nothing to loose and it's great for practice. So let's do it! I hope you enjoy my speech. Thanks again and I'll see you next time. Bye.

Watch the video of me presenting this resume on this link

Presentation - Never Forget to Be Thankful or Grateful

EFT Resume - How to Improve My English Communication Skills

Hello! I'm Vina from Malang and I work at Dr. Saiful Anwar General Hospital in the Psychiatry Department as an administrative assistant since 2018. I'm a participant of English for Teachers program with PGRI Batch 1. I'm making this video to fulfill an assignment given by Mz. Meylina Angelia on the 4th meeting of English for Teachers at Thursday, December 9th 2021.

The meeting topic delivered by Mz. Meylina was Fun and Communicative English. She gave all participants a video assignment where we, the participants have to speak about How to Improve Our English Communication Skills.

During the meeting Mz. Meylina was kindly giving us some pointers and tips about how to improve our English communication skills. There are 6 things that she mentioned:

1. Think before speak

2. Practice with others

3. Don't just learn words, but learn sentences too

4. Focus on fluency

5. Don't rush when speaking

6. Don't run out of follow up questions

Personally, I absolutely agree with all the tips from her. What I want to emphasize here regarding how to improve my English communication skills are point number 4 and 5, focus on fluency and don't rush when speaking.

For me, focus on fluency and not rushing when speaking are intertwined. If I don't rush when I speak, I can speak more fluently. On the other hand, when I rush or hesitate, the chance of me to speak fluently would be less likely.

There is an exercise that I usually do. It's reading any English text out loud and very slowly. I can read articles, stories, books, news, or anything; the key is it must be done out loud and as slow as I can. It's a method I learnt from my debating coach. If I do that frequently, by the time I have to speak in public or anywhere I would be able to control my speed. The tendency of me speaking fast and rush would be decreased.

By reading slowly I can also focus more on intonation, pronunciation, and punctuation. So when I communicate or speak or talk with others in English I would have more dynamic tone in the way I communicate. I won't be communicating with the same flat tone from start to finish, but there would be ups and downs, more dynamic. I can emphasize on more important things. I can choose whether to make my voice louder or softer. It will make everything more interesting and the person or people that I communicate with won't be bored with me.

So that's all I can share this time. Thanks to Mz. Meylina for sharing such invaluable knowledge to all of us. Thanks also to all team of English for Teachers and to PGRI. May we can always learn together and be better together. Love you all. Bye!

Watch video of me presenting this resume

Presentation - How to Improve My English Communication Skills

Sharing is Everything

Up until today I still can't get over a feeling of "scared to share". By that I mean initiating the share or starting it. It has always been something that I struggle with. I just realized now that I still have a lot of work to do.

Sharing is similar as transferring. We can share everything we want. When a teacher shares a lesson in class it means the teacher transfers knowledges to students. When a writer shares a story or and an article it means the writer transfer his/her writing for others to know. Sharing must not be doing out of a force, but it must be done willingly and gladly. That being said, what we want to share is completely our choice. We decide whatever,  wherever, whenever, and to whomever we want to share.

Sometimes it's easy to share something to others, while other times it isn't. For some people sharing is habitual. They used to do it since whenever time period or whatever age they had started. They don't think through first. They just do it. It's normal and natural for them. However, for some other people sharing isn't in their habit for so many relative reasons. Some might just not care to share at all. Some might care to share to but only for specific subjects. Some might care to share regardless the subject but they don't have full courage to do so. I relate with the latest.

Sharing is giving and receiving. It takes courage to do that whether we realize it or not. Mainly, the courage to deal with the aftermath.  Every person has different characteristic, way of thinking, and opinion. What one person thinks it's worthy or good, might not same as what others think. Reaction is the direct impact of sharing and it goes both ways, for the giver and receiver. This reaction is dreading for those who don't have full courage to share. They simply care too much about it which then turns to fear; did they do well, was it enough, what will people think. 

One day I received a quote sent by one of Supervisor in English for Teachers program with PGRI. Sending a quote or as we call it "Thought of the Day" is our daily routine that we do every morning. The quote that I mentioned about was a random quote sent on a random day. Although that particular quote was accidentally in line with this post I've been working on.

"It’s okay to care about what people think.

But there's a difference 

Between valuing someone’s opinion 

And needing their approval"

I couldn't agree more with those words. i believe that exact quote is the solution for those who are still working on their fear of sharing. Never let our fear stopping us to do something we want or share something we want. People's reaction upon what we do and what we share is just inevitable. It's okay to care about what people think. 

We have full reign of what we share all the way through, including how to deal with people reaction. That's the moment when we must realize that there's a big difference between valuing someone's opinion and needing their approval. Ask ourselves "What do we care about what people think? And why?" Sharing has purpose. The purpose determines our further action. Do we want to get people's opinion? Do we value their opinion? Or is it their approval that we need?

All in all there's nothing to loose when we share something. There's always good outcome. We conquer our fear by keep sharing what we wish and whatever happens next will certainly bring betterment for us. Reactions, comments, opinions, and approvals; just accept them all. What we will do about them next is our decision only. Who knows? One of them might be the best one time life-changing moment for us. 

National Polytechnic English Debating Competition XI 2012

The 11th annual NPEDC in 2012 was held in Tual, Southeast Maluku. It was the first time ever in my life that I travelled to a place with different time zone. Tual is in east side of Indonesia, so the time is 2 hours faster than in west side. It is a beautiful small island. You can see and smell ocean almost every where you go. My team and our supervisor which was our lecturer went from Malang at dawn in the morning. The sun had not come up yet. We went by car to Juanda Airport in Surabaya. We took off from Surabaya to Makassar for a transit then from Makassar we flew to Ambon. Lastly, from Ambon we flew to Tual. The plane that we rode from Ambon to Tual was different than the other 2 flights. It was a smaller plane, a propeller plane. The passengers were only 72 with configuration seat 2-2. It was a little terrifying because we could hear the propeller sound very loudly😅.

At this event we arrived a day earlier before the technical meeting conference. During technical meeting there was debate exhibition and I was appointed as one of the exhibitionist. The committee appointed 6 participants from 6 different varsities. Sadly I don't remember who were my team mates back then. I just remember that we got to be the affirmative team and I was the 3rd speaker.

We did a round of debate under the motion This House Would Legalize Inter-Faith Marriage. I remember the motion because my team was lost and I didn't perform very well. I could have done it so much better, but there were no repeat and they never were. So I just took the lessons, used them to evaluate myself. 

The competition went on for days as usual. We thankfully never lost a round since the beginning. Until on quarter final, we lost. It was shocking. Everybody were shocked with the adjudicator's decision. It was also controversial. Some people mentioned there was a play involved, like a certain group maybe didn't want my varsity to win again. However, my team didn't indulge on the gossips. We just took the result as it is. There were always something to learn.

After quarter final the competition continued to semifinal. But we didn't stick around for that and went outside instead. State Polytechnic of Tual was amazing. On the main hall you can see ocean. Just by walking around the hall building, we could reach the ocean. After the competition on that day finished, we were taken by buses to see the most beautiful beach I had ever seen in my entire life. I believe it is called Pantai Pasir Panjang. The view was like something out of a portrait; the water were clear with nice gradations of blues and greens, the sand were white as flour and the texture were very soft like flour. They were not like harsh grainy sands we commonly saw in another beaches. They felt super soft beneath our feet.

The next day was the final day. The grand final round was scheduled in the evening, so we spent morning until afternoon to go to the beach again. We were also taken to few recommended places to get souvenirs. We got back to hotel before dark and get ready for the grand final. The winner of NPEDC XI 2012 was State Polytechnic of Medan.

2012 was the last year of NPEDC. In 2013 until now the event was changed into National Polytechnic English Olympic (NPEO) where other competition were added which are newscasting, story telling, and speech. NPEO 2013 was hosted by Politeknik Perkapalan Surabaya. I could still involve in training and helped the representative from my college at that time. I heard the winner of debate contest were no longer State Polytechnic of Medan. If I'm not mistaken, it appeared to be different winners every year since my school lost in 2012. I might be wrong because I didn't really follow up on that anymore. By the end of 2013 I was already graduated and moved to West Java for a job duty.

I would say that in terms of friendship and connection, NPEDC XI in Tual was better than NPEDC X in Palembang. I don't know how but we really gotten closer with one another. We gained friendship from all around the country. We shared our stories of how we travelled from our hometown to Tual. I still remember one of the participant from Aceh mentioned that it took them a whole day to travel on the road from their town to airport. Everyone had unique stories. We exchanged gifts with some of them like bracelets, necklaces, and brooches. After the event wrapped, we created a Facebook group and continued our communication. We dispersed though sadly as time went on, but I am and forever will be grateful for the bond that we created.

Basic English

I wrote this at first as a resume for 1st meeting of English for Teachers program with PGRI. Since the speaker who presented the material happened to be myself, unknowingly I just poured out what I thought on the subject. A few things I already said back when the meeting happened, but other things were newly thought of. In the end, I decided to make this a separated post and created a new label called Philosophical Point of View. I'm no philosophies, but I like to try see things from its perspective. It enriches my mind with great thoughts and it guides me through whenever I have obstacles. Who knows? Maybe it's your cup of coffee or tea as well. Perspectives are relatives, not an absolute. That's what make them interesting. Let's give it a try, shall we? 

The most important thing we need to set first before we learn English is our mindset. English language for anyone who lives in place where the native language is not English, it is considered as something foreign. Take Indonesia for example, until nowadays there are still many people in Indonesia who considered English is a foreign language. The word “foreign” means something different, unfamiliar, or even strange. Those meanings are what make people tend to see English as something very difficult, difficult to learn or even to master.

Let’s take an example about students in Indonesia. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the students. We all ever got an English lesson formally in class at school. Yes, the national curriculum changes occasionally but we certainly ever had at least one class of English subject, it could be started when we were in kindergarten, elementary, junior high, secondary high, or university. Even if we never ever had English lesson formally at school, we certainly at least knew English through another medias such as extra courses outside school, songs, movies, TV shows, news, and many more. Please tell me if anyone of you never ever listened to one English songs at all. I'm confident that all of us know English. I said "know" it means ever heard of, ever read, ever learnt, literally ever knew; but it didn't go as far as you dedicated more times in your past dealing with it. Just like you had an acquaintance let's say in a public event, a foreign person, you knew her/his name and had small short talks, but when the event was over, this person just went out of your mind; no purpose and no business attached to you. 

So, how come as of nowadays we don’t have much skills in English? Because we haven’t been practicing it regularly, back again to that “foreign point of view”. It gets worse. When one person tries to speak in English, most of the time other people will see it as a “show-off”. That is unacceptable. It draws away people’s confidence and decrease their self-assurances. On the other hand, when people see others who are very fluent in English, they will think how different their skills are. They start to compare themselves to others who they deemed “masters” in English. It brings the same impacts; they become less confident, don’t know their potential, and perhaps even stop learning. So that’s why, to be succeed in learning English, we must have the right mindset first about how we perceive English itself.

English basically is a language. The nature of language is a way of communication. Communication is inherently a need that belongs to every single being on earth. Communication is human need to interact and make connection with one another. Human is social being. We can’t live alone by ourselves ever. Although those statements might seemed a little far-fetched, they are actually not. They are to strengthen the primary point that to be succeed in learning basically any other language, it starts with the right mindset by understanding first what language really is about.

Learning English though is yet another different concept. See, learning is essentially a process. We must remember that nothing good comes instantly. What we considered “gifts” will not matter without learning. By learning, we put our body, mind, and soul in a positive place. We’ll do everything it takes for the sake of learning process. We have set out our determination. Of course there will highs and lows during the process, but we’ll power through it. Whenever we see anyone from non-native English who speaks fluent English or writes well in English, don’t ever think that they are just “gifted”. They already did all their works and efforts to reach that level of fluency. Some of them maybe even still in the process of learning. Any activities that are essentially “a process” must be gotten through, not be avoided. The efforts we put in the process are reflecting the result that we want to get. The bigger goal we set, the bigger efforts we have to invest.

Diversities most of the time can led to comparison. That's just inevitable. It's normal way for us justify our current situation. We see rich people then we think they must be able to pay for expensive English courses which got them access to all the facilities and in the end makes them able to study better. Meanwhile we see ourselves not as wealthy as the rich ones. We only able to rely on school for English lesson. The hours is limited and it's not enough. Moreover, we just can't catch up with what our teacher teaches in class. Then we also think that the rich people can also afford to fly to abroad so they get access on different environment where English is native language and it makes their skills more fluent. That was just a small yet extended example that occurs regularly and it should be stopped.

Comparison is fine as long as it is for the sake of our self-improvement. The way we see our self-improvement is not by comparing ourselves with anyone no matter who they are. One of the better way is comparing our present-self with our past-self. Now what are the parameters? I've said this before in my previous post about the idea of comparison. That is when you compare something there must be some clear parameters. For example, you can compare your willingness to learn English between nowadays versus 2 years ago. You can see how 2 years ago, you didn't want to learn or even had the slightest interest in learning English at all. But, as you grew and be more open minded, maybe you also got to interact with some people who can communicate well in English, your interest in English increased, finally now you decided you want to learn. One more example, you can see the different on your learning process. Perhaps in the past you just got English lesson formally in class and you didn't get any info that there were actually free extra courses out there. Well now you do; you join these free courses, use all the resources you are provided with, and learn it in so many different ways; 

Bottom line, keep in your mind that comparing anything is good BUT as long as it brings betterment to yourselves. If it isn't, you just dwell and stuck on the differences or it is getting way too deep in your head, that's when you need to stop comparing and just focus on your own process.

Lastly, find a supportive and constructive environment for you. Lessons can be found everywhere, but sometimes to actually involve yourselves in the best situation, best people, basically just an environment that "clicked" with you, can be such a rare moments. Consider yourselves lucky and be grateful if you already have one. For those who haven't found it yet, don't back down; keep on learning with what you have, be grateful still, and keep searching. Believe that any good deeds will bring out good results. What goes around comes around.

Thanks for visiting. Do check out my other posts, won't you? And please don't be a silent reader. Any of your comments will be highly appreciated. 

Learn better, do better, be better

💖Vina

National Polytechnic English Debating Competition X 2011

During my high school period, both my team mates Fauzi and Umar joined NSDC National Level in Indonesia University, Jakarta. The other member was our junior named Fafa. All the club members helped raising donation because the school couldn't provide all that we needed. Fortunately we managed to raise some sponsorships. I saw those three went off and at that time in my mind I thought of how I also really wanted to go on national level competition.

With determination, guidance, and hard works; I was finally able to participate in national level debating competition. It started on 2011. The first event that I participated was National Polytechnic English Debating Competition or NPEDC. Quick note regarding NPEDC, it was an English debating competition held annually by Bakorma or Badan Koordinasi Mahasiswa. The participants were varsity students of polytechnic all around Indonesia. Back in 2011 was the 10th NPEDC. It was held in State Polytechnic of Sriwijaya, Palembang, South Sumatra. 

Turned out, my college, State Polytechnic of Malang was the reigning champion of NPEDC for 8 times in a row! So the image was there and it was a little bit pressure for my team. About my team, I got teamed up with Fauzi and Adi. Our coach at that time was Mas Widey. He paired us in a team and trained us. We had weeks of intensive training. It was a lot of effort for all parties involved. My team was all in same grade. We were considered "newbies" for national event. 

There were 5 of us who went to Palembang, my team plus one of our senior and one of our teacher or lecturer. We had one more lecturer who went but he didn't go together with the rest of us. I was the only girl in the group. 

I shared the same experience of travelling by airplane with Fauzi and Adi. We were so giddy and excited to be in a plane for the first time in our lives ever. We took off from Surabaya to Jakarta for a transit then we flew from Jakarta to Palembang. We arrived in Palembang late at night so we missed the technical meeting conference. 

The competition took a whole week and it ended with a very happy ending. We won first place! So awesome! 😄 We were adding our wins into 9 times in a row. I also ranked 5th on best speaker category. There were take turns trophy for NPEDC, I don't know since when. The trophy was tall, more than half of my height. We had to disperse the parts so that we could bring it with us. In hotel room, the night before the first day of competition we assembled the parts. But then, we got to bring back the trophy 'cause we won. LOL. We also got money price. It was 3 million rupiahs and we divided into 3 for me, Fauzi, and Adi, 

Source: Private files

In Palembang we didn't just competing but we also went relaxing and sightseeing. The governor of South Sumatra at that time invited all participants and companies to a dinner at the governor's house. We were served with huge buffet of wonderful meals and treated with great live music. We also went on a ship that sailed above Musi River and went under Ampera Bridge. We did that at night! So the view was really amazing. 

Source: Private files

To sum up the whole experience, it was EUPHORIC. As far as how English debating works, I will tell details on another posts.

The Beginning of My Debating Career

The spirit of wanting to do better got me into English debate. When I enrolled high school I knew that I want to join any extracurricular that could help me improve my English skills particularly speaking. I thought there would be some kind of English students club, but turned out there wasn't. There was only an English debating club. We called the club CODE stands for Cross-Over Debate Explosion. At first I had no idea what it was about. Later I found out that my high school was one of few high school in Malang that was actually famous in English debate. I mean we just dominated most of the competition that we entered. Lots of seniors from the club who graduated were accepted in big universities all around Indonesia. All in all we had pretty good image out there. 😎

The first club meeting was a surprise. Our coach was Mas Ari. He refused to be called "sir" or "pak". He also said that he was our coach, not our teacher. The he explained a little bit about what English debate was. He asked everyone to prepare a speech. We were free to pick any topic. After we finished writing down our speech, Mas Ari took us out of school and across the road to Alun Alun Tugu Malang. We made one row on the pedestal by the edge of the square facing the road while keeping the safe distance with the road of course. Mas Ari stood up in front of the school gate. So there was a couple meters of gap which was the road it self between us and him. In front of us were so many vehicles passing by. After Mas Ari was satisfied with our position he yelled, "Now speak!" We were shocked. What was happening? Then everyone started to speak at the same time. It was chaotic but comical. It got more dramatic when Mas Ari yelled again, "Louder!". We literally made a show for people out there to see. So that was how our first ever club meeting went. 😂

Alun Alun Tugu Malang from Balai Kota perspective. 

My high school was SMAN 4 Malang. It is exactly across Balai Kota.

You can barely see the school from this picture. 😅

After the first meeting, there was decreasing number of students who came in second and third meeting. But it wasn't that significant. I think after a month, the club supervisor which were our seniors held an internal competition. Our school was about to enter a regional level competition and we needed representatives. Seeing how many students who joined the club and the fact that we only needed 3 students to represent, it was decided that a fun and fair internal competition was the best way to go.

Somehow I ended became a team with 2 other boys named Umar and Fauzi. I don't exactly remember how it went. Both Umar and Fauzi were classmates. They were also went to same middle school together. I joined the club by myself and when we formed teams I didn't have anyone to be partnered with. So I teamed up with Umar and Fauzi. 

We won our first ever debate competition. Thankfully both stuck around throughout high school and didn't leave the club. When we were senior in high school, we entered our last competition together as a team and we also won. Even after we graduated we were still a team. We had strong bonds. Fauzi coincidentally went to same college as me and we became teammate again throughout our college debating career. Until these days they are still my very dear friends and we keep in touch with one another.

To be honest, I didn't think I had it in me to be a debater. The training was intense but very fun. It was just straight out debate. We also got some tips along the way regarding our delivery. We didn't think at all about our English skill at first. I can say it was magical experiences. 

I will elaborate more specifically about debate in other posts. I will also share some training methods that I got from my coaches.

I'm going to jump way further here, but the bottom line is debate changed my life forever.

Learning English - Where It All Started

I'm making a new label for this page called "English and Debate". It will be everything about my debating experience. At first I was going to make it about a story retelling like I did with "Doing Well For Myself" series, but then I thought I'd just make a different label instead. I don't think I will tell things orderly manner. It might be random, depends on my mood. 

In this part I will take you from the very beginning. 

I remember when I was an early teen, my Mom said that there were 3 subjects that I must be skilled and excelled at. They were mathematics, computer, and English. She said that no matter what I would be or do in the future, I would need those 3 skills. What she said was embedded firmly in my brain. 

On 1997 when I was 6 years old, a movie called Anastasia was released. It was the first time in my life watching movie in cinema. My aunt took me and my first little sister. After that, it became our tradition that whenever a new cartoon movie released in cinema, we three would watch it together. My aunt lived in Surabaya but my parents already moved to Malang. So whenever school holidays came, my aunt would went to Malang to pick me and my sister up, then we spent holidays in Surabaya. Sometimes if my aunt couldn't pick us up, my parents would take us to Surabaya. 

I still remember everything. How happy I was to spend holiday with my aunt. I was always looking forward to it. My aunt was a talented designer and seamstress. I found out a little later that my aunt actually was keeping notes about when school holidays would be. She took up on so many jobs and orders prior to the holidays so that she could collect some funds which she would use to spend times with me and my sister. No matter how much she got, she spared it for movie tickets, snacks, meals, toys, and our clothes. She often made us great dresses that she designed and sewed herself.

At 25 years old my aunt had a stroke that made her loss the abilities to speak. She could make a sound but she couldn't voice any word. She loss her linguistic abilities. She had to re-learn all the alphabet again. She also couldn't move one side of her body. I forgot whether it was the right of left side, but she just couldn't move one of her arm and leg. She needed a crutch to get to places, but she needed someone else's helps to take care of her. My aunt was my Mom's little sister. My Mom had many siblings and they all helped taking care of my poor aunt. My aunt and my family tried their best but sadly my aunt passed away the same year that she got a stroke. I believe I was 8 years old when all of that happened.

I had the best childhood memories thanks to my aunt. I can still mention the titles of movies we watched together in cinema in order. We watched literally every single cartoon or animated movies released on that period. After Anastasia, we watched Mulan, A Bug's Life, Antz, Tarzan. I go really way back here. The point is that was how my interest in English language started, from watching those movies.

After my aunt passed, I was rarely go to cinema but my parents always rented lots of VCDs for me and my siblings to watch. We were probably rented out every single cartoon and animated in movie in one rental place. I just loved it. I also loved listening to the song and soundtrack.

I think because of all that exposure with English kids movies and songs, when I got a little older and my Mom said that English was one of the most important skill I needed to have, I could accept and believe that easily.

I didn't get English language at all in kindergarten. I think it was 4th grade of elementary that I started to learn English formally in class at school. I managed to get through it smoothly. My passing grade in final exam for English was pretty high.

When I was in junior high or middle school, I took learning English a little bit further. I self-taught myself. The English lesson I received formally in class was still going on well. I didn't have any problem fortunately. But outside class I did everything I could to increase my skill. I tried to translate an Indonesia songs into English and vice versa. I listened to radio and stayed tuned for the song charts programs. I also tried to write articles, poems, and stories in English. My biggest assets at that time were 2 dictionary books. They were thick and heavy, but they were highly important to me.

To most people it was probably a big hassle to lift those books, open the pages, and then read the tiny little words. But, I loved doing that. It was old fashioned but at that time they were all I had and I never complained.

I was introduced to internet when I was 8th grade of middle school. But, I didn't know that we could find literally anything in the internet. At first I just knew about google and yahoo which I used to find resources for an assignment, not an English one. 

My love in English songs was still going on. There was a one radio station that I loved very much. It was my favorite station. I kept track on its music program. Whenever they played a song that I liked, I turned up the volume then I closed my eyes. I would try to listen and write what I heard whilst enjoying the music itself. It takes a lot of tries. I couldn't get the all the words from the first time listening. So I kept notes and the next time I heard the same song I would take out my notes and tried to repeat catching the words again.

I also asked my parents to buy me a cassette of Disney soundtrack collection. It made me remember my childhood life. I was so happy that I could listen the songs everyday and at the same time read the lyrics. I didn't know how much all of that brought great impacts to my skills.

In middle school I remember clearly that we were given a task in English lesson to do a group drama. We did that twice, once in 8th grade and once in 9th grade. I wrote the script for my group on both times. 

Bottom line is I did everything I could for the sake of improving my English skills. I self-taught. The only lessons or resources I received was from my teacher in class, that was all. I didn't know anything about technology or internet or other source of learning. However, I loved every single thing I did. My English score in final exam was nearly perfect. I only got one answer wrong.

The downside of my learning process in middle school was that I didn't have place to practice my speaking. I was good in class but I wasn't confident enough to speak up when there was a chance. I was too shy. Not to mention, the school itself didn't actively promote the importance of English and didn't accommodate students who wanted to learn more. There was no English extracurricular at that time. During class the teacher also paid more attention to certain students who stood out more than the others. 

All of that gave me so much motivation that I had to do better; learn better, find better environment, and practice better. I was determined that I didn't want to stay that way. I wanted to change. Luckily, things started looking up when I started high school.

The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching (Part 7)

It had been almost a week since I started writing this series of The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching. I'm planning on making this part THE LAST PART. So, deep breath, get the fingers ready, get it all out, and finally, MOVE ON. That's what I'm hoping to do.

Here we go.

This series started from the very beginning of how did I get involve in English for Teachers program with PGRI. I told the whole chronological details and I tried to see everything from every aspect I could think about. I stated my defenses as firm as I could but I also threw the ball back as hard as I could.

If I try to sum up this whole experience into a phrase, it would be that NOTHING IS PERFECT.

Before I go on further, there's one more thing I haven't yet mentioned and I need to get it off my chest.

When we had the second meeting of EFT on December 2nd, the idea of how teacher must understand the students, know what their thinking and everything, it was all being brought up. I might be over-sensitive, I mean to most of you that was actually considered a general idea, wasn't it? The common term for that is STUDENTS CENTERED I believe. It honestly could be for anyone. It wasn't brought up to offend any particular individual at all. You are all teachers so the message could be perceived and implemented by any of you. But, I couldn't help that I felt like I was being guilt, again, added to the fact and IT WAS ALSO BEING BROUGHT UP by the end of the meeting.

There were a decreasing number of participants on 2nd meeting compared to 1st meeting. That is a fact. On 1st meeting we managed to get around 78 participants, meanwhile on the 2nd meeting it was around 58 participants. The team, advisor, and some participants stuck around and held an evaluation on the same zoom room right after the class was finished. It felt like another hit for me. They just simply correlated the decreasing number of participants as a result of lack in promotion AND the way the appointed speaker taught the material.

Upon that case, here's what I've got to say.

The idea of comparison

I believe before we compare anything, we should set some parameters first. We can never say one thing is better than the other without clear grounded strong parameters. After that we could explore both sides, be it subjectively or objectively. The comparison will come up later after we find all the data that we need. 

I'm going to give an example, a feasible example. The EFT teams could have prepared and discuss everything they needed before having the zoom meetings. So, it didn't just about discussing who would take this week meeting and who will be speaker for next meeting. But, a deeper discussion was needed to make sure that everyone on team was on the same page.

Make the parameters of each meeting, work on the materials together, do brainstorming, give each other suggestion, find all the data necessary, ensure that the upcoming meeting would be better prepared from all aspects, then finally do the analysis, have the meeting, and then the evaluation. If we do that, there wouldn't be any confusion. Not to mention, that every single thing would be done objectively for the sake of the learning itself, not about personal or individual preferences.

It could help in clearing out the air and making each member of team bounded with one another. Each member could get to know the other better. The working environment could be more conducive.

I get it though. Working together with other people is not easy, working together with other people you meet every day is not easy, then imagine working with other people REMOTELY with people you had never met before or even known before. That would be even more difficult.

I can’t speak for everyone else nor can I tell everyone what they’re supposed to do. I can only do those to myself. For me, I WILL SAVOR EVERY MOMENT. I’ll just take everything I can; the goods, the bad, and all in between; they are all LIFE LESSONS. Life lessons are invaluable and they stay with me for as long as I live. They make me grow and develop more. Finally, growing and developing are ways so that I CAN BE BETTER.

Wow! That's all. I'm finished with this series, well, for now. 

Thanks for those who have stumbled in my page and stuck around. 

PS: Please don't be a silent reader. Any of your comments will be highly appreciated. Thank you. 

💖Vina

The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching (Part 6)

I believe it is not fair if I just keep rambling on about other people. That would be unacceptable, rude, and disrespectful. In the spirit increasing awareness of how greatly different people are and how crucial it is to be tolerance, in this chapter I am going to try to do in depth self-evaluation to myself. This time I will be the object of what I’m going to rant about.

Oh dear, as if I’m not a complicated over-thinking person already, now I’m attempting to analyze and criticize myself. All of which I actually have been doing literally half of my life. My apology in advance if it gets confusing for some of you. Just be ready. Anyway, let’s see how it goes, shall we?

Let me please go back a little bit to the time when it was just decided that I would take on being the speaker of EFT first meeting. I asked Mz. Phia about whether or not the speaker of each meeting has authority to make the materials then I also mentioned my intention of focusing not just on self-introduction but also on basic English itself. Basically her respond was yes and she said that I was free to explore.

In reality after getting that answer from Mz. Phia, I was focusing ONLY on what I WANT TO DELIVER. I opt not to ask or find or research much. Why? Because I was already feeling stressed and overwhelmed. I believed by finding more and receiving more, that would increase the level of stress I was already in. For days I worked on the materials. I couldn’t sleep well literally every day prior to the D-day. There were many points and ideas in my head but I struggled with make it neat or structured so it can be understood well and easily. I am so glad that I was able to get through finishing the material.

However, I believe there were some points that I could have done BETTER during that time in preparing the material.

1. I should never be afraid to ask more.

Just because I believed that a certain impacts would happen had I ask more, it doesn’t mean that it would happen. All those negative thinking were only inside my mind. The thing about thinking negatively, it prevented me for doing something that MIGHT TURNED OUT GOOD. 

2. I should never be focusing solely on my self-preparation

Just because I didn’t know who the participants were and what they were going to be like, it didn’t mean that I had to leave it be like that. I mean being unknown at this case actually went both ways. Just as I didn’t know the participants, they also didn’t know me. At that point it was I who had the capacity to change the situation. None of participant would ever did their research on me or found out who I am prior to the meeting. But, I could have done that to them. I mean I could’ve had asked around more, found more what were they like and what did they capable of. For example I could ask my Mom who joined writing classes by PGRI and got information about them, or I could ask my fellow team.

I should never be afraid of something I didn’t know yet. Who knew? Maybe I would get more insights and suggestions, then I could prepare more not just material wise but also performance wise. For example, perhaps I could’ve gotten information that the participants were actually varied in age, culture, and background then someone would suggest to that I’D BETTER SPEAK BILINGUALLY SINCE BEGINNING AND SLOWER, as in really slower. That was also what most of the participants complained about. So sorry everyone, I did accept all the criticism wholeheartedly and definitely will work on it.

It would change so many things so much had I done all of those things. But just like people say, “What’s done is done.” We can’t turn back time. What we can do is just move forward. By moving forward it doesn’t mean that we have to forget what happened, just take the good lessons and apply them on the future when we can.

I added this paragraph to say my deepest thank you for those who managed to do the task. Some participants I know wrote a resume regarding what I presented in the class on their blog. I was honestly blown away because amidst of all that happened during the meeting, some of you honorable great teachers STILL COULD UNDERSTAND what I was trying to explain and the messages I tried to convey. Thanks for all the compliments, acknowledgement, and support. You are all amazing. 😍

Ant Clemons - Better Days ft. Justin Timberlake

Here’s a lyric from one of my favorite song. The title is Better Days by Ant Clemons ft. Justin Timberlake.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel
Keep your eyes on the road ahead
But if you're feeling lost in the night
It's okay to cry
Just as long as you hold your head

'Cause we're on our way to better
Better's ahead, better's ahead
It gets worse 'fore it gets better
But better's ahead, better's ahead
Better days are comin' (better and better and better, ooh-ooh)
Better days are comin' (ooh-ooh, better days)
Better days, better days (better and better and better, oh-ooh)
Better days are comin' (better days, better days)

I know you've been kicked down
Slept on, let down, faith gone
Waited for too long for somethin' to lean on (lean on)
You feel weak, just be strong (ooh)
Deep breath, stay calm
If you just press on, press on, press on

You gon' see there's a light at the end of the tunnel (at the end of the tunnel)
Keep your eyes on the road ahead (on the road ahead)
And if you're feelin' lost in the night (lost in the night)
It's okay to cry (it's okay to cry)
Just as long as you hold your head

'Cause we're on our way to better (ah)
Better's ahead (better), better's ahead (ah)
It gets worse 'fore it gets better (ah-ah-ah)
But better's ahead, better's ahead
Better days are comin' (better and better and better, ooh-ooh, I know, I know)
Better days are comin' (ooh-ooh)
(Better days, better days, better and better and better, ooh-ooh)
And better days are comin' (ooh-ooh)
(Better days, better days)

I know you feel left out and stepped on
Keep goin', keep goin'
Shine bright, don't dim yours for no one
Keep goin' higher, and higher and higher and higher

Better days, better days are comin' (better days)
Better days, better days (on their way) are comin' ('cause I know)
Better days, better days (better days) are comin' (yeah)
Better days (comin'), better days (I know)
Better days are comin'

I always feel more relax and energize every time I hear that song.

PS: Please don't be a silent reader. Any of your comments will be highly appreciated. Thank you. 

💖Vina

 

 

 

The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching (Part 5)

I would like to dedicate this part of the series of The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching to ALL PARTICIPANTS who joined my class session on November 30th. This is my special tribute to all of you great teachers all around the nation.

First of all, I could never say enough thank you that all of you decided to join the class. I am sure that every single one of you had your own business. Maybe in that day you were super busy, maybe you were having a big problem, maybe you were just not in the best mood and spirit. And despite everything that was going on in your life, you still CHOSE to join the class. You were willing to spare your time, your energy, and your brain in order to learn something that YOU WANT, to listen to someone YOU NEVER KNEW BEFORE.

Remember the first day when our WAG was created? It was blown up. More than 200 participants filled the group in span of hours. One group chat was full in less than 48 hours so the team decided to create 2^nd group chat. There were constant posts everyday all day long. Everyone was so pumped up and happy that it existed! Question on where the class would start kept appearing.

Please do remember that before November 30^th, I never once got the opportunity to be your acquaintance anywhere at all, be it online classes, WAG classes or anything, WE NEVER MET ANYWHERE and WE DID NOT KNOW EACH OTHER. I’m not a teacher therefore I had never had any business with PGRI community. Some of you I am sure already had relationship with one another for weeks, months, or even years prior to EFT program; for example like in the same group of writing class or speaking class or any other program under PGRI.

As a nobody, an outsider, with only Diploma title and short amount of experiences, I honestly felt NERVOUS. Prior to the 1^st meeting I paid extra detail to EVERYTHING EVERYONE SAID on group chats. I gathered that many of the participants are English teachers; just great, smart, successful, and accomplished teachers. Even the non-English teachers were just as great, smart, successful, and accomplished. Most of you had so many achievements and way way more experiences than I ever had. There are writers, bloggers, motivators, poets, content creators; the list goes on, while I am just a regular office worker with an unimpressive life.

Every time anyone posted a link of their YouTube channel or blog, I opened it and I just thought “wow”. In my mind it was like, “Who are these amazing people? Who am I compared to them? How could I dare enough to teach them anything?” There were moments when I doubted myself. I thought there was not much that I could ever share to you. I would never want to come across as disrespecting you.

But then I tried to push myself and did not back down. I didn’t want to run away. I always believe that when fate gives me something to do, it means I CAN DO IT. Even though it was I who decided to do it, if I didn’t have even the smallest confidence in my ability, I would never say YES in the first place. So I just stayed focus. I used all the times I had to prepare the best I could.

Second of all, I will attempt to try to see things from your point of view. Here’s what I got. Each of you had your own unique characteristics and background. You all came from different places and cultures. You were also from different era with different upbringing. There was a wide range of ages.

As far as your intentions in joining EFT, I could categorize it into 3 main groups. But before I go further, let us all established that every single participant was not 100% completely new to English language. You know the language, you see it anywhere, you did ever get English lesson no matter when it happened, you listened at least to one English song and watched at least one movie in English language. So please never think that YOU DON’T KNOW because YOU DO KNOW.

Based on the intentions of why you decided to participate in EFT, I’m going to say there are 3 main groups of people.

1. Participants with beginner level of ability

2. Participants with intermediate level of ability

3. Participants with advance level of ability

Please take a note that by ability I mean about basic language ability which are reading, writing, and speaking. Speaking means all type of speaking such conversation, speech, story-telling, poetry-reading, public speaking, and so on.

I’m not going to put each of you into a certain category because you’re the only one to know and understand your self-capability.  PEOPLE MAY HAVE OPINION BUT THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS YOU BEST ARE YOURSELVES.

One similar thing that every participant had was A PURPOSE. You have one same purpose to join EFT which is TO LEARN and IMPROVE. Those are THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS.

It doesn’t matter where you are right now in terms of your English ability, if you feel like you’re a beginner or not, all doesn’t matter. You have the same purpose.

Having said all of that, I know that everybody’s expectations were bound to be varied. One would expect the speaker to be very good and fluent in English; maybe speak with the correct pronunciation all the time, use impressive vocabs and correct grammars, and many more. The other one would perhaps expect the speaker to just be friendly, patience, teach slowly, and engaging. Then the other other one might expected the teacher to be just straightforward teaching the topic. Imagine 250 participants with 250 different expectations, then who did you think get to decide what kind of teacher you were going to get? Was it you? No, it was not. At this point no one could ever choose what kind of teacher you were going to get. On the other hand, it was the same; no teacher could ever choose what kind of students he/she was going to teach.

That is why all honorable great teachers out there who are participating in EFT class, we all need TO BE READY since the beginning. Let’s start fresh! Just like the beginning of school year. Or perhaps you could imagine yourself as a new student in a new university and just about to meet your first lecturer.

No matter where you are right now and which level that you think you are, the main goal was the same right? That is TO IMPROVE a.k.a BE BETTER. Remember where did I mention a whole case about being better? On my 3^rd section on my presentation material which was ALL ABOUT MINDSET.

Now, the formula to get your goal is the same. So after putting your mindset properly, the next step will be JUST DOING IT. That was it! JUST DO IT! By doing it, I mean using everything you have, practicing what you can, and utilizing all that you can use; just all around LEARNING.

Let’s take a few tangible examples.

1. Whatsapp group chats

It is never quite over there, isn’t it? But guess what? That is exactly how it should be. It’s a facility to accommodate your learning process. You get something every day all day long just by joining and checking the group. You can practice your reading from chats and posts, your listening as well; but don’t just stop there. Take it even further. Go practice your writing. After that, do some more, practice your speaking skill.  Let the other knows what you think, hear your voice, share what you have, be more engaging.

Please let me know, is there anything that you can’t do at all in group chat for the sake of your English improvement? I am sure the answer to that would be NOTHING. There is nothing that you can’t do in group chat for the sake of your English improvement. Pick what you want to do over there and then JUST DO IT.

2. Zoom meeting sessions

Zoom session is a place where participants can interact directly though virtually with other participants, speakers, and teams. You get valuable lesson from everyone, not just from speaker. When someone asks something, everyone would listened so you practice your listening at the same time someone who ask a question practice her/his speaking. When the speaker gives her/his presentation you get to practice your reading and listening. Even in the chat room, you also practice your reading and writing if you decide to send a chat. Not to mention on Q&A session, you can ask anything you want then discuss some more. The amount of lesson you get is infinite.

3. Expand your network

A lot of times you might find other person that you think can help with your personal affair. For example, if you’re an English teacher who has been having trouble in your class, you can ask other English teacher for suggestions. Another example, if you’re a teacher who maybe currently working some writings and in need of reader’s feedback or others point of views, you can share your work and have everybody else read it. There are no limits I think. But, we still must uphold good ethics and social values while doing those.

Based from those examples, is there anything more you need?

I might came across as someone who tends to give TOUGH LOVE; a hard headed no nonsense girl from out of nowhere. I admit that sometimes I do that. What driven me more is my rationality. However, in my defense, I also understand very well that I can't always be rational. There are moments where I need to put aside my thoughts and concern more what the heart says. I mean like be more empathetic, loving, things like that, I guess. 😍 Or maybe, there are also moments when I can be both rational and empathetic at the same time. Do you know what is the key answer to all of that? BALANCE. Balance is one thing I've been working on so far until now. I'm learning how to do that and most likely will still learning about it for as long as I live.

I’m going to add or update more later on when I think of anything else to say on this matter. In the meantime, how about letting us know what do you think?

PS: Please don't be a silent reader. Any of your comments will be highly appreciated. Thank you. 

💖Vina

Basic English and Self-Introduction

Just want to share the pdf materials that I'm proudly made. 😄

Here's the link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jDdCNrKBk1UK3xZcyRZY5iG0kIGD-Xtl/view?usp=sharing

Thank you, 

💖Vina

The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching (Part 4)

We're back again. Let's continue without further ado, shall we?

These are the next 3 sections I had left from presentation slides.

4. Basic English

During the transition from the previous section to this section I got cut off. I'm going tell what happened exactly later on.

Now I would like to explain what is the purpose of this section. Here I was hoping to give some tips for beginners on how to start using English easily. I categorized it into 4 major points which I think are the essences of communication. The 4 major points were reading, writing, conversing, and speaking.

Before I was going to elaborate on each point. Again, I prepared a case where I wanted to bring different perspective which is the learner's point of view.

The usual process of how come people who at least had gotten an English lesson in their life before but could not apply it in current situation. People think of English as a foreign language. Nature of foreign is different or uncommon. Unfortunately whenever something uncommon regarding communication appears, what people do is TRANSLATING the language. Anytime they receive anything in English they would think, "What is the meaning in Bahasa?" As times went on the level of difficulties on the subject itself increased. So many new themes to learn, words to memorize, grammars, and so forth. It got more difficult. Finally, they lost interest in the language.

Now, what if we do not do that? What if we do not differentiate any languages?. Just think that foreign language means new language to learn. We learn so that we can understand and apply it. So, what's the better thing to do here?

We start with basics. First one is from the easiest activity to do in English which is reading. Anyone can read any English text. The alphabets are the same as Bahasa. What people think it's difficult is understanding it. However when you try to understand an English text, it's better to understand it as a whole, NOT TRANSLATING EVERY SINGLE WORD.

What is the text about? 

What is its purpose? 

What is the main idea? 

What does it explain? 

What is the conclusion? 

Those are the questions that can be used when we read anything in English. Focus on the context and content.

Second is when you write anything in English. Almost similar like when you read, again, let's not tend to translate. When you write you're the one who gets to control on the writing. Have no fear. Don't concern too much if you make the right sentences or not, if you proper words and grammars. Don't think too much about how it's going to be. Just write it first. 

What do you want to write?

What's your story?

What are you feeling?

What are you thinking?

Just pour everything from your mind and heart. Make the words appeared.

The third point is tips for when you're in a conversation. Try to grasp what are you and the others talking about? See the context. 

Where is the conversation taken place? 

Is it a meeting at work or casual hang out in restaurant? 

Those are some of the questions that can be used as a guidance.

The last point, the forth one is when you speak.

This is what commonly found as the most terrifying to do by people who just started learning English. In this point I only had ONE SUGGESTION which is JUST GO FOR IT because IF YOU NEVER GO YOU'LL NEVER KNOW.

I was hoping to push everyone who hasn't dare enough to speak up. There are no reason to be afraid. You all got this. You know the words in your head I'm highly sure. Just sound it out loud. Don't keep them in your head. Nothing can be perfect on the first try and that's why we practice. 

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

Let me add few thoughts regarding grammars here. I do believe that learning grammars is important. It makes huge different meaning in the language. BUT, do not use grammars as an excuse or as a justification that English is hard. Take it easy. I'm sure as time goes on, technology and people are developing, there are a lot of ways to learn grammars easily. Back then when I was in middle school, I could only rely on my teacher to teach me grammars. It took me years to really understand and able to use them. When I take a look back of what I wrote in middle school, I feel a little embarrass. I can tell you that it is nothing like how I write nowadays. 

Let's back to during the meeting. As I mentioned before, I couldn't get everything I was attempted to share out fully due to being cut off in the middle.

As I was going to move on to this section with all those explanation I prepared, someone in the room who is not a moderator suddenly cut me off and said, "Miss Vina, can we please start practicing self-introduction now?"

To be honest I was shocked. My respond then was, "Sorry. Is it because of the duration or what?" After that I just said to everybody who joined that I ALREADY PREPARED materials on self-introduction and I was going to deliver it later. I still had times based on the duration. 

After that, I could not think as clearly as before again. I allowed myself to being cut off rudely. The rest that I prepared was just went out the wind.

Finally I was like, "Alright everyone. You can now practice introduce yourself." But inside I still think that it was rude and unacceptable for someone to just cut me off in the middle. If this said person happened to read this, just so you know, that by the time you are reading this, I had moved on; not forgotten because it was memorable and somehow a little funny. But I understood the reason behind that action. I just hope that next time we all can do better than that.

After that, the only thing I thought was JUST GETTING THROUGH THIS. Just get this done because then I had more things to do next.

Finally, some participants were given a chance to introduce themselves and they were all very happy to do so.

In the middle of it all, I tried to slip in some materials I got left that I didn't get  to deliver, again, because I was cut off.

The next section on the slides I prepared was supposed to be as follow:

5. Self-Introduction

I was going to explain some easy ways to do it. I prepared some examples I made by myself. I even did couple researches on this.

6. Practice Drill

On the last section was where I was planned to have the practice drill. There was video of self-introduction mentioned but I was honestly just meant that to be a SUGGESTION. They can do that as THEIR OWN PRACTICE.

Due to my shock residue from being cut off, I ended up telling the participants that it was their assignments which then led to yet another ruckus because some participants thought it was too difficult for them. Also because we already announced the they had to make and submit resume for each meeting. 

What I gather was that RESUME is the original assignment and it was hard enough to do so that we did not need another assignments. 

At the end of the day, the committee decided that it was OPTIONAL. Participant can CHOOSE whether they decided to make and submit resume OR make a video task. 

Not that I didn't care anymore but at that moment I honestly just thought WHATEVER 😒. I was relieved it was over😌. I  commend the team in their quick thinking and reacting to this issue. I was grateful for that.

PS: Please don't be a silent reader. Any of your comments will be highly appreciated. Thank you. 

💖Vina

The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching (Part 3)

What a day! What a moment! What an experience! 😄

Here's what happened during zoom meeting and what I did for the rest of that particular day.

The moderator for first class meeting was Ms. Leni from Jakarta. She was very lovely, kind, and great in doing her job. I was happy that we got to work together. I wish we'll get another opportunity to do it again. 😍

The beginning of the class went as well as could be expected. When it was my time to speak I started to deliver the presentation that I prepared. There were 32 slides in total. I also put my notes in front of me so I wouldn't missed on what I was going to say. 

There were six sections on the presentation slides. 

1. Disclaimers

You can actually see on Part 2 in a picture of notes that I put there. I mentioned that disclaimers for me was necessary because I needed boundaries and assurances. I'm not a "formal" teacher with teaching degree like S.Pd or M.Pd. I never had or give any English lecturing. I only ever did a private tutoring with no more than 2 students and they were all kids. I never taught anything to any adults. I never even became a speaker for nation wide, ever. I never speak anywhere but in English debating environment. My debating experience was different compared to what I was going to do. I was going to LITERALLY TEACHING all teachers from all around Indonesia. I broke a record of many firsts I did on that day.

Having said that, it was bound to be different. There had to be different expectations, opinions, views, methods, and so forth. THAT IS WHY I made some disclaimers. 

2. Speaker's profile

In this section, again, I was going tell a little bit about my upbringing. A quick story of where I came from and how did I get there. An unknown person, a non-teacher, out of nowhere TEACHING to INDONESIAN TEACHERS. At the end of this section, a ruckus started to rise.

I admit that some of what happened was due to my recklessness in delivering my presentation. I spoke way too fast for them. I used full English since I started speaking. People started to get confused. They scratched their heads and put their hands up. The chat room was blown up. People saying, "Please slow down.", and things like that. It was pretty comical though. 😁

Ms. Leni then spoke up. She kindly told me what was happening and she also helped me so much in calming down the participants. I could never handled that situation well if it wasn't for Ms. Leni. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much Ms. Leni. 😘

After we got the situation under control, I continued my presentation only this time I tried to use bilingual, mixing it with Bahasa.

3. All About Mindset

For this section, let me rewind a little bit further. Why did I made this section?

As you can see, the topic was BASIC ENGLISH (SELF-INTRODUCTION). For me, seeing that title, I thought "That was easy. Anyone can do self-introduction. What more can I tell?" Yes indeed, there are some aspects regarding self-introduction but like, it wasn't that much. I confirmed to Mz. Phia prior regarding the rundown of the meeting. She said I had 50 minutes. 50 minutes to only speak about self-introduction was way too much time.

So I decided to explore on the BASIC ENGLISH. But, I didn't want it to be like regular things we got in school. As far as I know the formal curriculum at school is more like a "themed" chapters. For example, first chapter is about classroom. Teacher told students that pencil is pensil, eraser is penghapus, table is meja, and so forth. That was not what I wanted.

When I think of BASIC ENGLISH, I think about the nature of English. English is a language. Then the nature of language is a way of communication. Then communication was inherently everybody's need as human. Meaning that communication is important and when we think more about it, everything keeps evolving. The world, the people, the technology, everything keeps changing. In order to keep up with that we had to be able to communicate better. That's why we need to see English as a communication, something that we needed to understand and to master.

I believe it's ALL ABOUT MINDSET because like it or not, that's where everything starts, MINDSET. Just seeing who we are right now, what do we do, how do we see things, what are our characteristics as a person, all of things are subconsciously from the mindset that we had before. People decided to be teacher because they wanted to share knowledge, to educate future generations. It was huge self-less act that came from where? MINDSET.

If people think that their life is all about money and profit, they would not choose to be a teacher. They would take business class, be entrepreneur, or work in big companies. But teachers are none of those ideas.

By changing our mindset about how we perceive English language it would increase our determination to learn English. We understand the urgency of it, so we feel that we need to learn it. Then the nature of learning is a PROCESS. PROCESS TAKES TIMES. It's going to be different for each and every single individual. Some might be able to go faster, some might need to go at slower pace, but it will be okay as long as we got the right mindset in the first place.

It will prevent us for giving up when we're facing obstacles, it will fuel us to keep going on further.

In relation with proving how big the importance of the right mindset, I was also attempt to invite the participant to not use anything as excuses. One of the excuse that people usually mentioned to justify their lack of English ability is THEIR PAST LIVE. They said how they were born in remote area or villages with no access. Some said they never had any English lesson back when they were still in school. The list goes on. 

With the right mindset I was going to encourage everyone to shift their point of of view regarding their past live. We should not dwell on the past. Let's be grateful and be at peace with the live we had, all the memories we made and the knowledge we gained. Let's try not judged our past as good nor bad rather than just IT HAPPENED, meaning there was nothing we could do to change it. The only thing we can do is move forward. Let's grow into a better person, do better at what we can do, learn better so we can improve more, and share better to the others. 

THAT IS WHAT I WAS ATTEMPTED TO EXPLAIN. 

Fiuuh.. This has gotten more emotional than I thought. 😅

For the 4th to 6th section, let's continue on the next part.

_to be continued_

PS: Please don't be a silent reader. Any of your comments will be highly appreciated. Thank you. 

💖Vina