Jakarta Sister City - Beijing 2013

Hello world!

It’s a wonderful chance to share again :D

And if you realize, my blog has been converted to personal website. How happy merry I am!

With this excitement, I am writing to share the most precious moments I had in this year of 2013!

They are unforgettable experiences to becoming one of youth delegations for Jakarta Sister City program to Beijing & Tianjin, China.

Well, apparently I have been using too much exclamation mark (!).

It is, however, my honest expression of feeling great.

True, I was very merry, getting an opportunity to learn a lot from this program in my youth.

Before you wonder what I have learned, I believe it will be much better to firstly know what Jakarta Sister City Program is.

From its name, Jakarta Sister City is a collaboration of Jakarta with its sister cities in countries all over the world. One of the sister cities, that Jakarta has significant relations, is Beijing, China.

Through this very first program initiated by Dinas Olahraga dan Pemuda DKI Jakarta (Jakarta Bureau of Sport and Youth), the local government had a purpose to establish the existence of a harmonious relationship between Jakarta and Beijing youth. You may wonder, “Why youth, not the elder ones?” Remember, because the next generation which will continue the collaboration and cooperation across countries, is YOUth! It could be you and me.

Therefore, it is not surprising that government has prepared and implemented many programs for developing the potential of youth within the city, or national scale.

By having participated this program, the youth delegations also conducted researches concerning Nationalism, Entrepreneurship, Art & Cultures in Beijing & Tian Jin, China.

The finding results of the research are dedicated and will be presented to DKI Jakarta Governor. Besides, these young people involved will too, contribute to nation at the end.

You may challenge them anyway. Including me? Yes.

Well now,

Since you have known a piece of information about this program, you may desire to know more on how the delegations involved (in total: 17 persons) could participate this awesome program. You can just open http://www.disordadki.net . It is an official website where all the sources were from.

Trust me, there are so many programs you may never know before, provided for youth and enabling young people to optimize their potential. It is more than seminar, yet some events that will maximize your talents, such as Forum Muda Remaja Ceria, Kapal Pemuda Nusantara, Youth Exchange Program across countries (Canada, SSEYAP, China, Korea, Malaysia, etc), a lot of sport competitions opportunities, and now Jakarta Sister City (JSC) Program for sure.

Go back to the story, I personally felt blessed, since I got involved in Ministry of Youth and Sport before to join Kapal Pemuda Nusantara (cruise destination from Jakarta – Ambon – Sorong – Raja Ampat – Ternate – Morotai – Makassar for a month, in 2012), thus I knew this program from my senior and staffs in Dinas Olahraga & Pemuda.

I applied for JSC program without comfort, seriously. I competed for 2 days with young people with brilliant ideas, competencies and capabilities to get one place out of 8 females only provided. I think I am going to share this completely in the next posting after, so then you may prepare yourself to have your guns before the war (if you plan to join next year, for sure). Then, finally, when it came to the announcement, I was very merry to get the third place out of 8 that would really go to Beijing, China!

 

It’s not the end. It was just the beginning.

Me and other 16 people selected, should be in training for a month, every weekend (Saturday & Sunday), and be ready in the morning till evening.

It was such a tiring activity. We practiced traditional dancing, singing, etc as the preparation we would have in China. We often chose not to wear sandals or shoes once we practiced.

Then, no longer during the training, we got such a great news that we would be sponsored by PRECISE SHOES!

Yes, soon, we got such a very nice pair of shoes.

All the delegations got different type and color of shoes.

You may imagine how colorful it is. And inevitably it colored our days too.

I should thank you PRECISE SHOES!

Oke, finally, we had the official Pre Departure Training for 3 days.

3 days after, we were ready going to Beijing, China.

To be continued…

Kapal Pemuda Nusantara 2012

Sail Morotai

Jakarta - Ambon - Sorong - Raja Ampat - Morotai - Ternate - Makassar - Jakarta

 

The Judges

Interview Session 

 

DKI Jakarta Ambassador for Kapal Pemuda Nusantara 2012

Technology Makes Us Write!

Once we heard the word of ‘writing’ I believe lots of things would be on our mind, even if we are challenged to write something by using other language besides our first language. Some people might think that writing is hard to do, because there are some prerequisites to make a good writing. We need to have a good structure (grammatically and thought) in our writing so it would be interesting to be read. 

Though I admit if people are able to read, it means they are able to write as well. It is connected each other. As a teacher candidate I realize I need to make a good strategy to make my students are able to write their ideas easily. Technology is one of the ways. Technology has helped many teachers’ today to teach writing skill especially for writing in Second Language Acquisition (SLA).

There have been many kinds of approaches to teaching writing and the use of computers. One of them is Form-Focused Approach. The instruction includes two types, grammar-based instruction and discourse structure-based instruction. Other three approaches we can use are process-focused approach, content-based approach, and reader/audience-dominated approach. 

Each of approach has its own function. Form-focused approach will let the students do simple drill and practice activities or know many types of written text by using websites. This is very good to be developed because in writing we also need to focus on the form, so this approach provides many ideas and solution for the teacher and the students. Process-focused approach will let the students learn by having a process. Content-based approach will let the students to focus on the content they write about. It is very useful to enhance language skills and develop content knowledge. It also stimulates students’ critical thinking through solving problem. For the last, Reader/audience-dominated approach will make the students’ writing refer to meed the readers expectation. So overall, all these approaches are very helpful for every single teacher who wants to teach writing skills for the students.

Technology nowadays indirectly makes us write! Be grateful then :)

It becomes much more easier to improve our writing skills, even we can use it to teach writing.

Personal Identity among Others

Talking about personal identity for me is not easy at all. When some people are able to be proud with the culture and the identity they have, I am getting confused with what identity I have. Lots of things are fighting in my mind to know the truth of life I live in now. Once I think about that, it is really nice and interesting because it sounds like a mystery. In the other side, the more I think about my identity the more I realize I do not know who I am. Then I ask to myself, why I need to know about my identity? Is that for having appreciation from others (?) or vice versa?

Identity for many people in this world could be the first or the most important thing to be kept in their life. So it seems like a big dignity to have and keep their identity in life. Their dignity is their truthful identity. Then what is identity?

The meaning of identity itself (which I got from Mr. Gazali’s reading material) comes from Latin language which means ‘equal’ or ‘similar’. By identity, people try to classify how similar you are with the people around you, because each person has characters which can be the same with the other ones. That is why we have cultures, as a part of our identity. We have so many, in this world!

Talking about my personal identity, I personally truly feel that I am Indonesian though I am a Chinese ancestry also. I was born in this country and I know a lot about the life I live in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. I am a Chinese Indonesian and my parents teach me a lot how to face the life as a minority. I have to yield or understand the others first (esp. from other cultures such as Javanese, Bataknese, etc) than myself. My parents said they are stronger and they have power because they are the majority. However, my parents teach me to be strong implicitly, meaning I should have a power inside myself, I am not allowed to give up with everything I am facing in, I have to be a hard worker, I have to be better than people around, I have to be more different (though I have been different). My parents could be very harsh to me, but they said they got a harsh thing from their parents before, that is why they could survive this life in the midst of differences until now.

As a person who lives with many kinds of people, it is inevitable for me to do not get any stereotyping from others about myself. The culture we have, made people (from different cultures) think different as well whether about the politeness, the habit, the characters, etc by using the standard of their culture. So do me. I also have some point of views, opinions about others’ culture, and even some stereotypes for others. Then I realized it as a usual thing, we just need to accept it and appreciate it. However, not all stereotypes are negative or bad.

Again, in this social life I have to develop my awareness that I live with others. Personal identity among others always has two sides whether it is positive or negative. People might think we are different. One thing that we cannot avoid is we live together. We may and need to keep our identity, and do not forget to keep and appreciate others’ identity as well.

A BIG HI for St. Theresia!

# School Experience Part I

At the first time I knew that the school which would be the place for me to be observed is St. Theresia Senior High School, it has been amazing for me to have that chance. Why? Because St. Theresia had been a place I dreamt to study. It is a national plus school and it has a good culture in being discipline, independent, and studying hard. I love the culture and the situation at that school. So it has been my big chance to observe and even teach great students there because I already had a good mindset about them.

Having a big chance does not mean I may think everything would be easy. As a teacher assistant, I already had a chance to teach the students there for two times (twice).  The master teacher who guides me and two other partners (Elia and Gratika) asked us to make a lesson plan with a good structure and do it very well. It had been a difficult time for our group because the arrangement and the detail of lesson plan we had to make is according to her. So we learned a lot about how to make a very good lesson plan by having lots of details about the activities and the purpose inside it, because in the process we learned that, we had to change the lesson plan again and again, till we knew we were already right.

After finishing the first lesson plan, then we were allowed to teach the students (XI Science-1) . It had been a happy time for me and two other partners because the students paid attention to us when we taught them about ‘analytical exposition text’. The students are seriously smart and critical. During teaching the class we used full English, and giving them some activities. They looked very happy and satisfied; we can see that by looking at the reflection that we asked. The thing that I felt as the difficulty is only one, the students are not easy to be asked to be active in speaking and answering questions, or bring their voice in the class directly. Well, not only that, our master teacher also just allowed us to observe her class once.  So far this all what I am impressed about St. Theresia.

I AM A WEED

The picture which represents me a lot is one thing, a weed.

No matter how people stand on me,

I will stand up again and again, just like weed.

I am strong; I am cheerful; I am free.

I make your garden gets green (because of me).

I love to be that one!

Your Name: Where All Things is Started

Life is such a big mystery. Sometimes it’s too confusing to talk about where our life was started. One thing I know, name is a part of your big mystery. Your name is meaningful. It was where all things started. When you were born, then your parents would think a lot about your name. It is all about your parents’ hope, your characters, yourself inside your name! Be proud of it!

So, let me tell you more about mine.

My parents gave a word of ‘Merry’ as the name of me. Believe it or not, my name is only one word ‘Merry’ and it was given by my father, my daddy.

Before I write this all, I asked my mother about the history of my name (completely).

No longer then I truly know the history of me! #yeay

So this is where all things of my life started.

My mommy said that I was born at Mekar Sari Hospital on March 18, 1993.

My mother was so great to bear the first child of her (It’s me).

No longer then, my father decided to give me ‘Merry’ as my name.

You know why? Because I was born with many letters of ‘M’

Mekar Sari, March and.. My father thought it’s a western name. He felt that is very good for his first child and I still use it till now!

Not only that. Having Chinese family background made me have this name as well.

The name of Merry means ‘Mei Li’ in Chinese language.

The name of Mei Li means beautiful.

So every single person who uses this name, meaning the person is hoped to be beautiful, gorgeous, and perfect, and my father chose it for me!

Does that mean I am beautiful? That’s your opinion. Just tell me the honest fact. Thanks ;)

So far, I feel really good to use and to have this name. I realized that my name also has another meaning. In English, Merry means Happy. So I am a happy person, am I? Well, I feel it.

This name made me realize why I am always cheerful. That is my world. I love to be free and happy. I love my name. My name is (only) Merry and I don’t want to change my name at all.

It is given, the best given from my parents.

My name is my identity since I was born, till now.

Whether my name ‘Merry’ has been popular to be used, it’s not a big deal.

Even, if I need any addition, I prefer to use ‘Evangeline’ as my last name.

Though I don’t know exactly the meaning of it, I just feel the name of ‘Evangeline’ has a power for me. I found that means you are strong!

Some tell me, it is also related to Evangelist.

Though I am not that kind of people to be an evangelist, it does not matter.

Otherwise, I wish I am able to make my faith gets stronger, to believe in God.

That’s mine.