WHAT AM I GOING TO TALK?

Finally, Ramadhan comes again. Firstly, I’d like to happy fasting for all alumni of SPEC everywhere, to students and teachers of SMA N Bukateja, to my friends, and to all Moslems in Indonesia and all around the world.

And secondly, in this up date, I’d like to talk something that “tickled” me: BAHASA JAWA is MORE DIFFICULT than ENGLISH. An article that was created after I got a “weird” experience and confession of some students. Besides that, I’d like to inform you about how many people that I send SMS to, and how many people should visit this blog, each time (after) I up date this blog.

Still like usual, I’d like to say thanks too, to my friends (not alumni of SPEC) who support me all the time to keep up dating this blog. I really always need your help to give me ideas or themes in writing for this blog. Then, thanks also would be given to alumni SPEC who want to (sometimes) visit and leave comment for me (not for this blog). Thanks to anonymous person and “black and dark visitors” (guests) such as Hidden Runner, mzdz, etc. for visiting this blog routinely and thanks for giving comments in this blog. Great thanks! I’m waiting for your next visit, ideas, and other supports.

ENGLISH IS NOT THE ONLY “DIFFICULT” LANGUAGE LESSON

A lot of students, sometimes, justify that English is a very difficult lesson to understand because it has a lot of rules: confusing and terrifying grammar!

English is recognized as a difficult lesson besides mathematic or other exact lessons. But actually, English (and other “difficult” lessons) are not quite difficult if we know the techniques to learn. For some students, mathematic and physic are difficult lessons. The others say BAHASA INDONESIA is difficult because they can’t compose a good composition such as short story or paper (makalah). And finally, the others say that BAHASA JAWA, a daily and our mother-tongue language, is the most difficult lesson in the world!

Yup! Now, I’m going to talk about BAHASA JAWA as a “difficult” lesson, not English. Why?

Actually, I have an experience like this: I visited my friend for about a month ago. That time, he wasn’t at home and I met his cousin. As usual, I always talk in “Krama Inggil” in the first meeting with a new man, although he/she is younger than me. I asked whether the person I looked for (my friend) at home or not then I told her my purpose to look for him. As a student, she should be able to speak in BAHASA JAWA HALUS because there’s PELAJARAN BAHASA JAWA at school. But, how did she respond “my language”? She was confused to answer, even to say where was my friend go and what time he would be home. Oh, maybe she never speaks in “Krama Inggil” to older people around her.

Another chance (last week, exactly), I came to another friend. Again, I didn’t meet him. I only met his brother who couldn’t speak in “Krama Inggil”. He answered my questions with his “mixed language” between “Krama Inggil” and “Jawa Ngoko”. Oh my God, isn’t there any child (here) who can speak in our mother-tongue language anymore? Aren’t there any parents who still teach their kids BAHASA JAWA HALUS? Or, BAHASA JAWA lesson at school is only a formality?

There are a lot of people around me teach and speak in BAHASA INDONESIA to their children today. Maybe that’s the reason, why a lot of young men can’t speak in their own mother-tongue language well. Then, when they face BAHASA JAWA lesson at school, they will say that it’s difficult. So we know, something become difficult because it’s never been taught at home.

Then, what is the relationship with English, the most talked theme here every week? Just like BAHASA JAWA or other lessons. If they are never been taught or minimally re-learnt at home, it’s impossible for us to master them.

UP TO MORE THAN 50 MESSAGES PER UP DATE

Since this blog was up dated again, the activities of advertising and promoting this blog were getting increase. Each time I up date this blog, I would directly inform the newest and the latest posts (articles) through SMS to more than 50 people: students, teachers, alumni, and my friends whom they were not the students or alumni of SMA N Bukateja. A lot of feedback and thanks always come to reply my messages. I like it. But I would be happier if someday you get my message about the latest up date of this blog, you give the feedback or comment here, in this blog (I mean in shoutbox or comment menu under each article). Your criticisms and your compliments would be more useful to increase the traffic and enliven this blog. Moreover, and actually, I do not need personal compliment. But, if you want to commend me sincerely, let other people know that you commend me by leaving your commendation in the blog. ☺☺☺.

Then, after you know that “managing” this blog is not free, again and again, I invite you to “donate” several things. How to donate? Click here.

DOWNLOAD EASY GRAMMAR HERE NOW

Hopefully, I’m not too late to say “Selamat Hari Pramuka 14 Agustus 2009” and “Selamat Hari Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan Indonesia 17 Agustus 2009”. Two celebrations in the same month. In these celebrations, as an Indonesian citizen and as a member of scout movement I have a lot of hopes for our beloved country, Indonesia. Hopes for being “a safe and prosperous” country. It’s our hopes, isn’t it? And what we can do for our country is drumming it up with the knowledge we have and take a part in saving national stability.

Again and again, I couldn’t’ up date this blog timely. It was caused by my business in my work for several days recently. So, I just can say: I’m so sorry.

Today, I add some new downloadable files that may be useful for you such as EASY GRAMMAR and Language Focus material. And today, I also change the structure of menus in the right panel of this blog. I add some web site addresses as sources of references to learn English. They had been published last week in article entitled REFERENCES FOR YOU TO LEARN ENGLISH MORE. But, to make them easier to be found, I put them in the right panel of this blog.

Then, thanks to my friends, Friska Novitasari for downloading my FUN ENGLISH, hopefully it would be useful for you in teaching-learning process at school. Once you download my files, means that you have donated up to US $ 1 for blog development. And for Ovita Yanuar Lestari Putri and Teguh Catur Yunianto, thanks for joining this blog. Your presence in this blog as the follower would “invite” other alumni to join soon.

And then, for this blog development, please keep visiting this blog regularly to leave comments or give any ideas. Your support to this blog means that you are care about education issue, especially that related with English in SMA N Bukateja.

LONG LIFE LEARNING

One day, in a small talk with my friends, one of them asked me about how can and why I still want to write to up date this blog, although I’m not the student of SMA N Bukateja or the president of SPEC anymore. And they also asked me whether I get “salary” or “full access” to the school because of my willingness to be active for SPEC. I said no reason for being active for SPEC, but I want to learn forever with SPEC. Because of SPEC, I got a chance to learn English, practice it, and keep it in my mind. And, if it can’t be called as “being arrogant”, I’d like to say that I became “great” because of SPEC. I can speak in English because of SPEC. Then, I can teach English (although I never take formal education for English / study in university) also because of SPEC. SPEC is a room for everyone to learn, develop, and practice the English. No matter in what level the learners are.

Then, in other opportunities, my friends asked me again. If I want to keep practicing English through blog, why should I use SPEC’s blog? The answer is really simple: I and other alumni built this blog for SPEC. In the beginning, this blog is a “present” for SPEC, because in that time, the members of SPEC were so active. And to make them more active, alumni gave this blog to be managed by the SPEC members. But unfortunately, after alumni gave this blog to them, no more up dated news here. So, I and other alumni decided to expropriate / take over this blog again. Then, as a good chance, I promote myself to manage this blog. But of course, I’m not working by myself. I’m still helped by other alumni too. It’s better than make a new blog for myself to practice my English. By making new blog, I would work alone. But, by up dating this blog, I will get help from other alumni and of course, I get an opportunity to practice my English and I can dedicate myself for an organization that made me “great”. I called this as a re-compensation.

Here, I will learn forever. Imagine, I was born and grew up in a non-English speaker country. And I didn’t study English at the university, but I got much chances to learn English in SPEC. In its blog. Then, I called this as long life learning. I realized it. If I compare my previous articles with the recent articles, I could see that there’s a good improvement although my articles are not perfect yet. But it is better than never use my English, right? I didn’t know whether I would still be able to use my English after I graduated from SMA N Bukateja if I never use my English anymore. So, not trying to be arrogant by writing this article, but I just want to motivate and motivate you to not to be shy or hesitant to practice your English anytime and anywhere. Really, English will work for you. Thanks for SPEC, thanks for Mr. Fembri, Miss. Istiana, Mrs. Ari, Mrs. Siti Khoeriyah, and thanks for Mr. Tulus somewhere in Purbalingga. Thanks for my friends and other SPEC alumni for helping me so far.

WAITING FOR OTHERS

After so long time I write for this blog, I’m still waiting for other people to join or (minimally) to visit this blog and invite them to practice English together. But actually, it seems not easy and really not easy. In the beginning, I hoped that this blog would be a media to share and built a stronger communication among the alumni and students of SMA N 1 Bukateja.

The awareness to join, share, and develop the ability in English is still so poor, I guess. A lot of students and alumni look like more interested in managing their “useless” network. They built network in Friendster and Facebook, but they don’t share anything but only joining a trend. It’s not a bad thing to have Friendster or Facebook account. But, why they aren’t interested in something more valuable? Writing in blog, for example. Share ideas, tutorials, information, etc.

That’s the fact. Our students aren’t quite interested in education issue or something like that. Most of students don’t use their “network” as partner to do better things: give a voice for better education, share useful information, etc. You may prove it by searching for students’ blog, students’ forum, students’ Friendster or Facebook account that discussing about self development, education, technology, or other things that related with something more valuable than displaying a photo gallery.

But, I know that different people means different interest. I can’t force anyone to follow my thoughts. I just want to say: unfortunately, this site which is talking with the awareness to the education is so poor of visitor, even from its origin: SMA N 1 Bukateja. Where are the people who care about education?

Note:
Actually, this article is a criticism for myself who can’t manage and advertise this blog well. So this blog is lack of visitor, even from my origin: SMA N 1 Bukateja. Sorry, through this article, there is no intention to “touch” someone’s heart or someone’s awareness to enliven this blog.

REFERENCES FOR YOU TO LEARN ENGLISH MORE

I’m really sorry for the last edition that I couldn’t post any article. That time I was little bit busy and (of course) I was confused about the material. I didn’t know why I was so lack of idea to be posted here last week. Fortunately, for this week edition, I got idea to review some useful web sites that you must visit. Of course, all they are about English. Hopefully this info would be useful for you.

1. speaking24.com

speaking24.com is a site that provides a “space” for non-English speaker to improve their English skill, especially speaking skill, by having an online chat. If you join this site, then you can find your partner to practice your English. You can have a chat through Skype, MSN, ICQ, or Yahoo! Messenger with people all around the world.

Besides that, by joining speaking24.com, you can get weekly e-bulletin that gives you a way out to use a particular word or phrase. This e-bulletin will be sent to your e-mail address regularly. In other words, you will get a free lesson and online dictionary with its TODAY’S WORD.

2. ego4u.com

ego4u.com is one of the biggest sites for learning English. It provides a lot of teaching-learning resources such as reading and writing materials, grammar, vocabulary, tips and tricks, exercises, fun games for English improvement, teacher’s board, cultural studies, and a lot of downloadable resources. To learn English more, this site also provides a newsletter that will be sent to your e-mail address if you wish.

3. ets.org

Do you want to get the latest information about TOEIC? Or, do you want to look for the example of TOEIC test format? If you do, you should visit www.ets.org. There, you can get more information about TOEIC, score interpretation table, the example of TOEIC questions, exercise, etc. Then, if you want to take an online TOEIC test to get international certificate of TOEIC, you can register and take the test here.

Visiting this blog also can be one of your reference sources in learning English, because once a week I will always up date the content and add new useful information for you. New sites that will help you in learning English will be published in my information panel, on the right side of this blog. Besides that, I have a plan to make a special rubric for SITES OF THE WEEK like I made SPEC QUICK RESPONSE last year. If you have information about nice sites, you can inform me through my e-mail address (refinemyself@gmail.com) or SPEC’s e-mail address (specsmansabuk@gmail.com). You also may inform me about nice sites via SMS to my cell phone number (find out it somewhere in this blog).

THE VIDEO WAS SO SLOW!

Two weeks ago, I up dated this blog and up loaded a video about retelling story competition in SMA N Bukateja that was held in 2006. Some alumni, who got my message in order to watch it, send me SMS directly and told me that the video wasn’t played fluently. Some, left comment in my shout box. I could see that, because the internet connection in our region is quite slow. And you should know that I had converted the video into the smallest type (mp4 56 Kbps PAL for streaming). Hopefully, the video could be watched without any matter. But in fact, as we know, that the internet connection in our region is so slow, so please be patient to watch it ha-ha-ha….

BTW, thanks for the willingness of my friend, Atun from UMP (Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto), who want to join / follow this blog. Hopefully your willingness to join me in this blog could motivate my friends and my students to join this blog too. And thanks to my younger brother, Tia, who want to be my first follower.

And in this edition, I’d like to remind you again to join as followers or “subscriber” to enliven this blog. And, if it’s possible, please don’t forget to help this blog running fluently by donating articles or finance help.

Do you want to help us? Click here.

WHAT MORE?

Since this blog is getting fluent to be up dated, this blog will serve more than information about SPEC’s activities at school. But this blog will serve more articles that can help students in learning English. More than that, this blog will be more useful for both of SMA and SMP students because on next week publication, I will add some downloadable materials that can be used by them. Be sure to keep visiting this blog and get more information or stuffs that I haven’t told you. Or, if you have any idea about what things should be added here, you may advise me via e-mail address specsmansabuk@gmail.com and refinemyself@gmail.com or my cell phone number (find out it somewhere in this blog). Just want to inform you, on next week publication I will add some downloadable and printable materials in the right panel such as table of tenses, vocabulary matters, language function, etc.