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.
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