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