Lesson from Language Laboratory Visit

In semester 6, we take Language Laboratory Management subject. In this subject, we learn about everything that is related to the Language Laboratory, especially about the management of the Language Laboratory. We learn about how to manage a language laboratory. In the middle semester, we are given an assignment. We have to visit a language laboratory of a school, to observe the condition of the language laboratory.  

Finally, we chose SMAN Tempeh, Lumajang as the object for our language laboratory visit. On Friday, April 13^th 2012, we went to SMAN Tempeh for visit the language laboratory. One of the English teachers in SMA Tempeh, Mrs. Endah greeted us and soon took us to the language laboratory. My first impression was surprised. The language laboratory looks like old. The condition of the tools is not quite good anymore. There are 30 booths, but only half of it which is can work well. The half ones are broken. That is the main problem of this language laboratory. Although the condition of language laboratory doesn’t support the learning activities well, but the teachers and students of SMAN Tempeh utilize it well. The English teachers use this language laboratory to teach listening and they combine with speaking and writing.

From this visit, I have got some lesson I can be learned. The condition of language laboratory and the enthusiasm of the teachers and the students of this school have taught me that limitation doesn’t make the enthusiasm of something being lost. It is even make us to be motivated. We have to study hard. If the things that we need do not support our activity, we are not allowed to give up, we can find the other alternative to face it. It is better if we do not depend on the facilities at all. Like the condition of the language laboratory in SMAN Tempeh, the broken equipments, the limitation of the facilities, do not being barriers for the teacher and the students to do the teaching - learning activities, they still can use the language laboratory well, although it doesn’t support well.

Another that, I can learn about cooperation in this visit. Cooperation is an important thing in this case. The cooperation is badly needed, in order to maintain the language laboratory. In SMAN Tempeh, I see the cooperation among the teachers, and also the cooperation between teachers and students to maintain the language laboratory is well. They use the laboratory wisely, because they know that the condition of their language laboratory doesn’t well anymore.

CCU - Game Report

The game we done several days ago teach us about something that is related to the culture. Before we started the game, the class divided into 4 groups, then the lecture give the rule for each group. And the main rule of this game is, we have to silent, we are not allowed to speak, we are not allowed to talk each other. We have to play with the cards, the member of the group that get the most card have to move to other group.

This game is like culture. It looks like same, but in fact it is different, it has rule. Each group in this game is like country, which is has its own culture. Each culture has its own pattern; the way of life of each culture is different. The country might be has one culture, and it is called monoculture nation. In a monoculture society, the essential traits are common heritage, belief structure, language and usually a mono-racial identity. The other country might be has more than one culture, it is called multicultural nation. In the multicultural nation, there are multiple cultures. It consists of various languages, nations, values, but they live together in a country. Sometimes, in multicultural nation, there is a phenomenon called ethnocentrism. It is the view that one particular ethnic group is somehow superior to all others.

The people in the group of this game are like the society. They experience a process whereby an established culture teaches an individual by repetition its accepted norms and values, so that the individual can become an accepted member of society and find their suitable role. This process is called enculturation. When someone leave their country and go abroad for certain period, they have to learn about the culture of the country that they will visit. They go abroad for sojourn, it can be sojourn for business, study, or just travelled.  In the beginning, they will experience holiday or honeymoon period, they very positive about the culture and feel fine with it. When they more face to face experience of the culture, they can feel strange and frustrating, they cannot adapt to the culture so they experience a culture shock. It is the personal disorientation, it is the confusing and nervous feelings a person may have after leaving a familiar culture to live in a new and different culture. When they can adapt the culture in the country they living now, little by little they can accept the value and the rule of the culture there, they experience the process of cultural and psychological change that result following meeting between cultures. It is called acculturation. It is different from enculturation, acculturation refers to the process by which one who already has that native culture adopts elements of another, foreign culture.

Hurt

Sakit.
Bersyukur, aku masih bisa merasakan sakit. Itu berarti aku belum mati rasa. Itu tandanya perasaanku masih bisa bekerja dengan semestinya. Tuhan masih menjaga 'hati' ku sehingga Dia memberiku rasa sakit ini. Dia tidak membiarkan hatiku terus menerus merasakan bahagia, yang pada akhirnya hanya akan membuat hati ini lemah.
Aku pernah merasakan sakit seperti ini sebelumya. Sakit. Tepatnya di kakiku, ketika aku berjalan menapakkan kaki mungilku di tanah, ketika langkah demi langkah kecil kaki mungilku menjadi sesuatu yg amat sangat menakjubkan dimata orang tuaku, ketika aku jatuh terjerembab berulang kali, ya, ketika aku kecil. Sakit. Rasanya seperti itu, tapi di tempat yg berbeda, bukan lagi di kaki, tapi di 'hati'

Ada hubungan apa antara sakit di kaki dan di hati?
Entahlah, aku sendiri juga tidak tau.
Tapi... Aku bisa belajar dari kedua rasa sakit itu. Ketika aku belajar berjalan, aku harus terjatuh, terguling, tersungkur, terjerembab dahulu sebelum aku bisa melangkahkan kakiku dengan mantap di permukaan bumi ini. Sakit memang, tapi dari rasa sakit itu aku bisa belajar, aku harus lebih berhati-hati ketika melangkah sebelum aku bisa melangkah dengan benar, dan ketika aku melangkah kembali setelah terjatuh aku harus lebih kuat dari sebelumnya, meski sakit tapi aku harus melanjutkan suatu proses yg sudah kumulai dan aku harus menyelesaikanya. Sakit memang, tapi peduli apa soal sakit, yg penting aku bisa berjalan dengan kokoh.

Sakit. Tuhan memberi rasa sakit untuk menunjukkan betapa indahnya menjadi tegar, menjadi kuat, menjadi tangguh.
Percayalah, dibalik rasa sakit itu, ada kekuatan yg luar biasa, yg membuat hati menjadi lebih kuat, lebih tahan banting dibanding sebelumnya, lebih kebal dibanding sebelumya.


"kenapa ada derita bila bahagia tercipta? karna derita menunjukkan betapa indahnya menjadi bahagia" (by: the man who loves sheila, 2012)