Minggu, 11 Februari 2018

kebebasan yang membahagiakan

Ini tentang bahagiamu.
Apa yang membuatmu bahagia?
Apakah itu tentang uang, kecantikan, ketenaran, kalau aku, aku memilih kebebasan sebagai tujuan bahagiaku.
Bebas dalam menentukan inginku, bebas dalam menjalankan kehendakku, bebas berekspresi dan mendapatkan hakku. Aku bebas dan aku bahagia dengan ini.
Kebebasan menjalankan apa yang aku yakini itu sangat menyenangkan. Seakan dunia ku penuh sudah milikku. Aku adalah diriku sendiri, Aku adalah siapa dan bagaimana diriku inginkan. Aku tidak dipaksa menjadi siapa yang aku tidak ingin menjadi siapa itu.
Aku tidak dituntut untuk melakukan apa yang aku tidak suka untuk aku melakukan itu, dan aku pun puas untuk bertanggung jawab kepada apa yang aku putuskan.
Aku bersyukur ya Allah, aku lahir di keluarga yang menjadikan aku bebas memilih akan menjadi siapa aku ini.
Banyak di sana, di luar sana, di sekelilingku yang mereka ternyata tak bahagia. Bukan karena kurang harta, atau tak puas akan tampang rupanya, tapi karena mereka tak diberi kebebasan untuk menjadi siapa yang mereka harapkan. Sungguh menyakitkan hidup ini jika sebagai manusia baru, kita di pasung oleh harapan-harapan orang untuk menjadi seorang yang kita tak ingin perankan, atau untuk menjalankan kehidupan yang sepenuhnya tak sudi kita jalankan.
Tapi aku, aku cukup bahagia. Aku bahagia.



Senin, 05 Desember 2016

The Positive and Negative Effects of Popular Music on Kids and Teens


Journal resume

English for Academic Purpose II Assignment


 The Positive and Negative Effects of Popular Music on Kids and Teens by Robbie O'Sullivan

There are two effects of popular music on kids and teen, they are negative and positive effects. The negative effects of popular music include the invitation to promiscuity such as free sex in teen society, drinking and violence. Those all are recognized by parents, pediatricians, and teachers who are concerned with negative messages of song lyrics which is going to lead teens and kids to negative behavior. And we cannot deny that there are some songs whose lyrics guide kids and teens to the bad moral explicitly or implicitly. Nevertheless, listening music can also be a good thing for them because it is able to guide teens to have good activities. For the examples, teens whose hobby is listening to music, they are interested to play the music instruments and mostly this hobby avoids them from negative and harmful activities. In addition, this hobby can positively influence kids and teens’ emotion. Music can help to stabilize their emotion well because music was designed to that way.
There are some different reasons of girls and boys to listen the music. For teen boys listen to music as entertainment or to seek feelings of excitement and for teen girls this activity is to express themselves and reduce the stress.[1]







[1] Robbie O’Sullivan,The Positive and Negative Effects of Popular Music on Kids and Teens,2012 https://goo.gl/ksKk9a accessed on 11/29/1016  

Singing Grammar: Teaching Grammar Through Songs (Book review)


Journal review

English for Academic Purpose II Assignment

Singing Grammar: Teaching Grammar Through Songs by Mark Hanoock   
(for English for Academic Purpose (EAP) II Assignment)

Singing Grammar[1] is a method that can be used by teachers to teach grammar in the class. It contains two cassettes as supplementary material for use in learning language process. Generally this method is used for three types of learner; elementary student, pre-intermediate student, and for intermediate student. The content of songs should be matched with its student level. This method uses book to accompany the process of learning. At the last pages of this songbook, there are lyrics and chords available to guide student and teacher to play and sing a song in music instruments such as guitar or keyboard.
Learning grammar by using song is effective to be used in language learning process because it motivates. That is the reason why learning grammar by using song should be tried and applied in classroom. Variety in learning method is needed for younger students and song will be able to drive their interested learning grammar.
Furthermore it has other possibilities such as listening, language, and topics. We all agree that listening song can definitely improve our listening skill. And in language possibility, song can be used to enrich student’s vocabulary and pronunciation. In another side, song can be used as an exercise. Student can be asked to do gap-fills, pronunciation drills, etc by using its lyrics.  Learning language by using song also can be a good way because it is easily memorable. In topic aspect, song can provide to be discussed and extension activities. Teacher can use song lyrics to be a basic for story-telling. Its lyrics provide the topic that can be discussion activities in the language class. Singing grammar method cannot use random songs without any consideration. It uses several questions to select suitable songs to be applied in the classroom.    









[1] Mark Hanoock, Teaching Grammar: Teaching Grammar Through Song, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom:2013.

Senin, 28 November 2016

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Intercultural Communication

A.    Definition
Intercultural communication is defined as situated communication between individuals or groups of different linguistic and cultural origins[1]. It is a form of communication that aims to share information across different cultures and social groups. It is used to describe the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally appear within an organization or social context made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with cross-cultural communication. In this senses it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act communicate and perceive the world around them. Many people in intercultural business communication argue that culture determines how individuals encode messages, what medium they choose for transmitting them, and the way messages are interpreted.[2]

B.     History
For the proper name of the field "Intercultural Communication" credit is often given to American anthropologist Edward T. Hall, who used it for the first time in his book The Silent Language in 1959. The book is sometimes called "the field's founding document" (Hart 1998)
The beginning of Intercultural Communication was for applied purposes rather than for theoretical considerations: Training was the main issue. The first target audience comprised American diplomats and development personnel whose intercultural skills had to be improved. From the Foreign Service Institute, Intercultural Communication teaching and training spread to the universities and other organizations. University courses were given and academic textbooks in Intercultural Communication started to appear in the USA in a larger scale in the 1970s. In Europe, the first university courses in Intercultural Communication took place in the 1980s. The University of Jyväskylä has been one of the pioneers in the field.[3]

C.     Problem
The problems in intercultural communication usually come from problems in message transmission. In communication between people of the same culture, the person who receives the message interprets it based on values, beliefs, and expectations for behavior similar to those of the person who sent the message. When this happens, the way the message is interpreted by the receiver is likely to be fairly similar to what the speaker intended. However, when the receiver of the message is a person from a different culture, the receiver uses information from his or her culture to interpret the message. The message that the receiver interprets may be very different from what the speaker intended.[4]Attribution is the process in which people look for an explanation of another person's behavior. When someone does not understand another, he/she usually blames the confusion on the other's "stupidity, deceit, or craziness"
Important points to consider:
·         Develop cultural sensitivity
·         Anticipate the meaning the receiver will get.
·         Careful encoding
·         Use words, pictures, and gestures.
·         Avoid slang, idioms, regional sayings.
·         Selective transmission
·         Build relationships, face-to-face if possible.
·         Careful decoding of feedback
·         Get feedback from multiple parties.
·         Improve listening and observation skills.
·         Follow-up actions

D.    The Importance of Intercultural Communication
The importance of Intercultural communication is because modern communication and transportation networks bring businesses, organizations and individuals in contact with a large diversity of people from all over the world. People in different countries learn different social cues and have different styles of communication. The ability to learn how different cultures communicate is an asset in the modern world.
Many modern businesses and organizations operate globally, which means that both executives and employees must learn to communicate with partners, colleagues and employees from other cultures. Organizations must also learn how to communicate with customers across cultures, as important messages can be lost in translation, causing confusion and even embarrassment.[5]
E.     Intercultural Communicative Competence
Intercultural communication can be linked with identity, which means the competent communicator is the person who can affirm other’s avowed identities. As well as goal attainment is also a focus within intercultural competence and it involves the communicator to convey a sense of communication appropriateness and effectiveness in diverse cultural contexts.[6]
Intercultural communicative competence, or ICC, refers to the ability to understand cultures, including your own, and use this understanding to communicate with people from other cultures successfully.[7] Example ICC could include understanding how gestures and the distance between speakers vary from culture to culture.

F.      The Four Distances Model (4DM)
The theory, rooted in semiotics, studies how relational distance can have an impact on intercultural communication: incommunicability and misunderstandings are strictly dependent from the feeling of "closeness" or "distance" that emerges in the interaction patterns between intercultural communicators. The 4 Distances Model defines the four main variables that can determine relational distance. Each variable has a subset of more specific hard-type (more tangible) and soft-type (mainly intangible) sub-variables:[8]
Ø  D1 – Distance of the Self. D1A: biological difference, chronemics-timing differences between communicators emissions/decoding/feedbacks; D1B: Intangible Distances, identity/role/archetype/personality differences;
Ø  D2 – Communication Codes Distances (Semiolinguistic Distance). Defined by D2A: communication content; – D2B: codes, subcodes, signs, symbols, different languages, different communication styles;
Ø  D3 – Ideological and value distance: differences in D3A: core values, core beliefs, ideologies, world-views; D3B: differences in peripheral attitudes and beliefs;
Ø  D4 – Referential distance (personal history); D4A: different experiences with external world objects, physical experiences; D4B: internal sensations world, differences in emotional past and present.

G.    Important factors
·         Proficiency in the host culture language: understanding the grammar and vocabulary.
·         Understanding language pragmatics: how to use politeness strategies in making requests and how to avoid giving out too much information.
·         Being sensitive and aware to nonverbal communication patterns in other cultures.
·         Being aware of gestures that may be offensive or mean something different in a host culture rather than your own home culture.
·         Understanding a culture's proximity in physical space and paralinguistic sounds to convey their intended meaning.
·         Traits: Flexibility, tolerating high levels of uncertainty, reflectiveness, Open-mindedness, sensitivity, adaptability, engaging in divergent and systems-level thinking.