English Conversation Class

In my previous blogging (Education is not teaching), I share shortly on philosophy of education. Now, comes to the practical part. Perhaps, I should recall that I was an English teaching staff of Atma Jaya University Yogyakarta for one year from 2001 to 2002. You might ask me, why only one year. Praise the Lord! I was blessed (am still) that I was awarded a scholarship program to The Netherlands for attending master courses of “Leisure, Tourism and Environment” at Wageningen University from 2002 to 2004. Well....it is another story. I am not going to share about it now.

I know that English is a nightmare for some (or....most of) people. In fact, it is the first foreign language learnt in Indonesia. I also find out that it applies for some people in GKJ Brayat Kinasih, especially the youth. I had an idea, back in 2006 that forming a youth gathering using English as the media would be worthwhile. It is not purely youth Bible study. It is just a space to facilitate the youth on listening, speaking, reading and writing in English. I thought it would be great to start in a simple way by singing English gospels and reading English Bible. After two or three meetings, the youth can start praying in English, at least “Our Father” prayer. After some meetings, the group starts to speak and to have discussion in English. The discussion does not have to be Biblical topics. The topics may vary from HIV/AIDS to Global Warming. “Talk in English” is the basic goal. I do not care about the content and the quality of the discussion, at least they talk. Due to the fact that language is habit, you will lose your language skill if you do not practice it.

So, that was the beginning. But...it was always the case that I was and I am still quite busy with my professional work in an INGO and some professional traveling. So...this idea is postponed for indefinite time (hmmm...sorry...), in fact the presbyters agreed to have this youth gathering. Even some of the presbyters were very interested to join and two of them still continue speaking in English with me. In addition to that, I can see that there is dependency to have one person as the motivator or facilitator to organize this gathering. If this person (in this case is me...) does not present, then the gathering is stop. So...it never exists (until now).

Late in 2007, the pastor requested me to have English class for him. I did it for free. After two meetings, I asked one of the youth to join the class. Therefore, the pastor would have greater motivation and a peer for discussion. The second person was in the last level of senior high school, SMA 1 Yogyakarta. Three or four meetings went by. I invited another person to join us, a girl. I thought the merrier the better. We were four people. I also ‘teach’ (ugh...I prefer say ‘share’, actually) on how to pronounce English words. It was quite difficult. We have thick Javanese accents. So, it was not easy to distinguish the pronunciations of ‘birth’, ‘bird’, ‘thought’, ‘taught’, ‘shame’, ‘same’, ‘rich’, ‘bridge’, ‘she’, ‘sea’, ‘batch’, ‘badge’, etc. After some times, the pastor should resign. He was (and is still) a very busy pastor. Then, the girl invited another person to join; it was a boy who was quite busy finishing his thesis. The discussions went on from books, relationship, English grammar, etc. I asked them to be punctual to attend the class. But, then...I think you can guess the next stories....The girl and the university boy started to attend the class late. The class started at 6.30 pm or 7 pm. I knew it was only ’15 to 30 minutes’ late. But, it was late. I could not tolerate it. It made me insecure.

The university boy also was occupied with his exams, his thesis and his holidays. He finally resigned politely. Next, the girl started to make excuses, say, she was too tired after work, etc. Most of the time, the class was only for one person, the senior high school boy who was quite nervous facing his final exams and entrance exams for university.

Then, one night, the girl confirmed that she could come to class. The girl did not show up, at the end. I was quite nervous since I had lots of things to do in the office and the boy kept asking me whether this girl would attend the class. After one hour, she sent me a message that she could not come to class because she was too tired. I was a bit pissed off, actually. I met the girl of the English conversation class, after the service, on Sunday. She said that she was sorry for not able to attend the class. I was a bit screaming at her (in English). I just wanted to share my reasons. She sent me the message one hour after the class started. Well,...I will put this way. If the senior high school boy sent me a message sometimes in advance and confirmed that he could not come to class, then I had to wait for her for an hour in the church doing nothing since she already confirmed that she could come to class. If it was the case, I would be nervous and very angry since I could do other things rather than waiting for nothing. Fortunately, it was not the case. I still had this senior high school boy.

Back to the ‘quarrel’ I had with her. She tried to explain to me that she was afraid that I would be angry coz she could not come to class. Yes, I was angry because she sent the message an hour after the class started. She also said that she was afraid that I might think that she did not want to come to class. She said that her bed was more interesting than attending the class. Well...babe, this is your business. I just wanted to accompany you to speak English. You want to be good in it or not by attending the class or not are not my business since it is your decision. It is your life that I cannot interfere, not my situation. Hmm....sounds harsh, huh? Well ...life is hard. It is full of competition. I just want to share what I can share coz I learn from my experience having language skills is one of the ways to survive in reaching better job, better life. We, the Christians, should act as cunning as a snake and as tame as a lamb to live in this world, right? Well...do not ask me in which part of the Bible it is, but it is written in the Bible. It is also written in the Bible that we are meant to be the head, not the tail. So, I think (yes, it is my opinion) that learning more (international) languages will give me another bargaining point and added value in the competition.

I was not angry at all that she could not come and I was not angry at all that she did not want to come to the class anymore. Once again, it was her business. I was angry that she was too late to cancel the confirmation which made me nervous and I felt stupid. Well...perhaps, I was too direct (as the Dutch normally do). I want to have disciplines coz we can compete others in this rough world when we have disciplines within ourselves. I just want them to come on time, 6.30 pm sharp. That’s all. The senior high school boy has graduated from SMA 1 and enrolls in ITB, Bandung. I do not conduct any English conversation class by then. Reasons? No students. Moreover, I am occupied (so much) with my own situation lately. (Writer: Agatia Wenan Tyawati)