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.

A Day in the Life #dailyactivities #randomday

Telling a story about what we do in daily basis seems like an easy task but making the story seamlessly effortless, interesting, clear, and easy to follow, that's the challenge. I saw how people tend to be complicated when they got asked to tell about their daily routine. Let's be honest most of the time telling about daily activities is boring both for the speaker or story teller and the audience or the listener. 

This is my attempt to practice telling about my daily activities in hopes that when an opportunity comes my way in the future and I have to tell someone or other people verbally, be it in a class setting or simple conversation, I'd be ready. 

My activities are different from day to day. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Let me walk you through my typical daily routine. 

I'm the first child in my family and I have 5 siblings. I live with my parents and 3 of my siblings, 2 of them are still in school. There's my sister who's in senior high school and there's my brother who's still in elementary school. When my sister goes to school, she rides with me. So we leave the house together, I take her to her school first then I go to work. My sister's school is quite far from our house. We need to leave before 6 o'clock so she won't be late. Ever since pandemic, she doesn't go to school every day. So the reason I explained that situation is because whether or not I take my sister to school, it affects on what time I need to wake up. I try to wake up early every day no matter what. If I need to take my sister to her school I'd wake up at 4 am, but if I don't take her to school I wake up at 5 am.

Breakfast also happens differently from day to day. My family typically doesn't eat breakfast together at the same time. My mom is in charge to decide what we eat every time. She works as a teacher in a private elementary school. When she goes to work, she needs to arrive before 6:30 am. When that happens, breakfast will be whatever is in the kitchen at the moment. Sometimes she plans ahead of time what to cook. She buys groceries a day prior then starts cooking at 5 am. For me, I don't usually eat breakfast at home. I'd rather pack up the food and eat in my office. I have breakfast around 8 am, not before that because my tummy doesn't feel so good if I eat early. 

I work in the office from 7:30 am until 3:30 pm. I have lunch around 12 am. When working hour is over, I pack up my stuff and go home. Sometimes I go straight to home after work, the other times I have to do some errands on my way back home such as shopping for house necessities, withdrawing cash from ATM, paying some bills, buying stationary for my sister, or stopping by gas station to fill up my tank. It's different every day really. 

When I arrive at home the first thing I must do is sanitizing because I work at the hospital. After I park my motorcycle, I take off my shoes and put them outside of the house properly, then I go inside, put down my bag, grab my towel and fresh clothes, go straight into the bathroom to get cleaned up. So I take a bath right after I arrive at home. 

During late afternoon until dusk I take a rest. Sometimes I nap or just lie down and relax. But on Monday and Wednesday I do online tutoring for a student where I teach Math. 

I have dinner around 7 pm. Evening is my me-time. I like to read, write, watching movies or series. Sometimes I play with my niece and nephew, they're toddlers. Time goes by when I do something I like. I can manage to stop whatever I'm doing before it's late and get ready to sleep. But sometimes I just enjoy it very much that results me going to sleep late. I try my best to get to sleep before 11 pm. Luckily, no matter what time I sleep in the evening, I can always wake up early in the morning easily. 

The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching (Part 1-7)_Complete

Part 1

Let me take you back where it started. 

On October 30th my Mom sent me an announcement about English Anthology Book project. The theme was "The Unforgettable Time with English". I read the information then I thought "I can do this." I mean why not? The theme was fairly light, easy, and fun for me. I wrote a little about it on my Wattpad. There was required fee but it was affordable, not very expensive. However, I didn't read all the words thoroughly. I misread the deadline. I thought it was October 30th but in fact the deadline was November 30th. Mind you, at that time I was already so busy with my work duties. But then, I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

So I just tried to get it done. I was rushing a little bit due to try to make it sent before midnight. In the end, I sent my script at 11.50 pm. I wasn't sure to whom did I send it. There was just an email account without a name, but it mentioned that the project was guided by Dra. Sri Sugiastuti, M.Pd. 

I got a reply shortly after I submitted my script. It stated that I had to contact Mz.Phia regarding the follow up for this program. I reached out to Mz.Phia a few days after that day. By that time I already joined the Whatsapp Group of English Book Writing, but I saw there were only 4 people there including myself.

Long story short, I contacted Mz.Phia and she said I was the first to submit the script. I was still confused though. I thought I wouldn't make the cut because I sent it late. Turned out, I just misread the deadline! How silly I was. 😅

Couple weeks after that, Mz.Phia texted me. She offered me to be a team on English teaching program for teachers. I said yes. She said it was free and I won't be paid. I said that's okay, I'm still in no matter what. I joined the English for Teachers group chat. We discussed for another couple weeks on the curriculum, timeline, speaker, and everything. 

One day we had a committee meeting via zoom. That was where things started heating up. I wasn't expected that every member of them would be appointed as KEYNOTE SPEAKER! As moderator yes, that's doable. Some of the team might be a key note speaker, yes, I believe there are people in the team who are qualified and have more experiences than I do. But never did I expect that I will be one of the keynote speaker.

I kind of jumped in during the team meeting when we decided on the speakers. "First meeting will be Basic English Self-Introduction, who wants to be the speaker? Miss Vina?" I thought this as fast as I could. If every member on the team would ended up being a speaker, I might as well took up the first meeting. The topic was fairly basic as well. Nothing I didn't know about the topic. 

What I didn't know was HOW TO TEACH? Let me add some more so you know how stressed out I was. 

HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH TO TEACHERS? 

HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH TO ENGLISH TEACHERS? 

HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH TO TEACHERS ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY WHO I AM 100% SURE ARE SMARTER, MORE EXPERIENCED, MORE SUCCESSFUL, AND MORE ACCOMPLISHED THAN ME? 

SOME OF THEM I AM SURE WERE SENIOR TEACHERS, A WELL-KNOWN AND RESPECTED TEACHERS WITH MASTER DEGREE, CERTIFIED, AND MORE. 

WHO AM I DARE ENOUGH TO DO THIS?😓

💖Vina

Part 2

The duration between team meeting and the first class meeting was less than a week. If I'm not mistaken the team meeting was on Tuesday November 23rd. Then the first class meeting was planned to be held on October 30th. During those period, honestly, every single day between that, I was a wreck. Well, to say I was wreck is probably an understatement. I WAS NERVOUS, TERRIFIED, CONFUSED. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't focus on my daily job. I didn't help much with house duties 'cause normally I help out in kitchen as in cooking daily meal for my family. 

I couldn't stop questioning myself. "Will I be good enough? Can I do this? What will they think of me? What am I even going to speak about? Do I write a narration? Do I just speak directly?" The questions just went on and on.

Here's a lyric from a song titled "Wondering" from High School Musical The Musical The Series.

Olivia Rodrigo, Julia Lester - Wondering (HSMTMTS | Ashlyn & Nini Piano Version | Disney+)

Seems like a part of me will always have to lose
Every single time I have to choose
Swore that it felt right, but was I wrong?
Is this where I'm supposed to be at all?
I don't have the answers, not today
It's like nothing makes the questions go away
What I'd give to see if the grass was greener

On the other side of all I've had and lost
Would it be enough, or would I still be wondering?

If I could go back and change the past
Be a little braver than I had
And bet against the odds
Would I still be lost?
Even if I woke up in my dreams
Would there still be something I'm missing
If I had everything, would it mean anything
To me?

Feels like I might have broke the best thing that I had
I said too much to ever take it back
Scared I'll never find something as good
And would I even know it if I could?

From the other side of all I've had and lost
Would it be enough, or would I still be wondering?
(Or would I still be wondering, oh)

If I could go back and change the past
Be a little brave than I had
And bet against the odds
Would I still be lost?
Even if I woke up in my dreams
Would there still be something I'm missing
If I had everything, would it mean anything

Maybe I should turn around and take the other road
Or maybe I'm just looking for what I already know

I'm just wondering

If I could go back and change the past
Be a little brave than I had
And bet against the odds
Would I still be lost?
Even if I woke up in my dreams
Would there still be something I'm missing
If I had everything, would it mean anything
To me?

Would it be enough
Or would I still be wondering?

To sum up what I was feeling, it was a WONDERING. I was wondering way too much about myself and about what was going to happen next.

I tried to keep my spirit up, give myself some pep-talks, and I shared what I felt to my family, my colleagues, Mz.Phia, and the rest of the team. It helped calm me down. I'm grateful that I had been surrounded by kind people and their positivity. 

I used the limited times and resources I had to prepare as best as I could. I understood I couldn't be perfect in doing it, and no one expected me to be perfect. I JUST HAD TO DO IT. 

However, I couldn't help it. I have always been an over-thinking person. When I looked up for a fun PPT template, I believe it took me more than 24 hours until I was satisfied. And guess what? I changed the template ONE DAY before the schedule. I don't know. My first PPT template was actually good. It was bright and attractive. But one day before I was supposed to teach, I changed it. I ended up using Canva presentation template. I found it easier to handle because there are so many fun elements there, the editing and adjusting process were also easier to do. All in all, it was manageable.

Oh yeah, almost forget. I felt like I needed more time to prepare myself not only materially but also mentally. On October 30th, I was supposed to come working at office while the other admin staff named Pak Yoyok was supposed to work from home. It has been our system since the pandemic. I asked Pak Yoyok to switch with me. So he came to office on November 30th but worked from home on November 29th when he was originally supposed to come to office. I came to office on November 29th but took a day-off on the 30th. Was that confusing?

Well anyway, on the D-day, October 30th, in the morning, I was feeling queasy. I was hungry but I couldn't stomach eating anything. I had a cup of fruit salads in late morning around 9.30 am but before that I didn't eat anything, and I woke up at 4 am.

I was still dealing with preparation. I wrote down my narration so I could speak fluently without having to say, "Ummmmm....." Here's what I had written down sequentially.

I felt more prepared and confident after I wrote those notes. I had few hours to spare so I decided to rest a little. I took a nap for one hour and a half before noon.

At noon I woke up and opened my Whatsapp. One of my colleague named Ibu Evi asked me to come to the office because there were so many food brought up by Pak Ditsar, one of our clinical psychologist in the department. He just had his second child born and wanted us to celebrate together. In Islamic term it is called Aqiqah. I was hesitant to come to office but Bu Evi convinced me that the sooner I went to office, the sooner I could go back home. So I went to office after I moved my laptop, charger, headphone, and other necessity into my sister's house. My sister lives in 2 houses next to my house. She has a spare room, so I asked to have the meeting in that room. There are just so many people in my own house and prefer a quieter place so I could be more focus. I left my house and went to office around 12.30 pm. 

When I arrived in the office, I realized I was starving. Remember, I only had a cup of fruit salad on that day. So, I ate wholeheartedly but just enough, not too much. After finished eating, I decided to help out in cleaning the table and tidying up here and there. Seeing the time, I asked permission to leave and went back home. In the middle of the road, the rain poured down heavily. My pants and the front of my hijab were soaked. I arrived at home at 2.30 pm. I was closing it really tight. The class was almost started.

I quickly parked my motorcycle in my house, took off my helmet, then still wearing my raincoat I went to my sister's house. Luckily, I put a spare pants there already. So I hastily took off my raincoat, went inside, prepared my laptop and everything. While my laptop was starting up, I changed my pants. I was still wearing my soaked hijab, because I didn't prepare a change for that. It wasn't soaked that bad so I let it air dry. 

At exactly 3.00 pm, everything was ready. I took a deep breath and entered the zoom room.

💖Vina

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.

💖Vina

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.

💖Vina

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?

💖Vina

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 have 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 have 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 (Performance from Fair Fight/Rock the Runoff)

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.

💖Vina

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.

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