It’s about Learning a Foreign Language

In learning a foreign language with an aim to be able to communicate in that language, we need to know certain amount of vocabulary of that foreign language. For example, if we want to be able to communicate in English that has around 54,000 word families, at least we have to know around 2,000-3,000 word families as the basic comprehension. However, those 2,000-3,000 word families should belong to productive vocabulary; means that we can produce that vocabulary in communication. So, in the process of vocabulary learning, we need to know at least 4,000-6,000 word families as receptive vocabulary in order to understand a text, whether it is a written or spoken text. It is due to the productive vocabulary is usually a half of the receptive vocabulary. However, knowing enough vocabulary is not enough to be able to communicate in a foreign language because we still have to apply the vocabulary in the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Moreover, we also have to learn its grammar to make sure that we can communicate well without causing any misunderstanding.

Source:

Summary of some chapters in the book entitled “Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy”

I LOVE DRAWING

I love drawing so much. Since I was a child, I was interested in drawing. I was inspired by my elder brother who are now become an art director. Since he was in elementary school, he was able to draw, and even paint some beautiful pictures. Moreover, when he graduated from junior high school, he was already able to draw my parents’ picture in a big size, and the result was so wow! It’s very identical with the original one. However, my admiration was just an admiration. Until I continue my study at college, I don’t have confidence to draw. I always think that it’s impossible for me to be able to draw well. Therefore, I can just become a secret admirer of art, especially people drawings.

One day, my friend bought a drawing book, but she never draws anything on it. With her permission, I tried to draw her picture using pencil. And do you know how the result was? My friend said it’s not bad, but it’s not identical yet. Yeah, I know that that’s my first trial, and I think it’s a good start. Some times after that day, I bought a sketch book for myself and tried to draw some pictures of my friends and also myself. But still, I couldn’t draw well, the results weren’t identical yet. Maybe among ten drawings, there’s only one that is quite identical.

One day, I realized that I need such a tutorial or something from the experts. Then, I asked some of my seniors (they are from art department) to teach me how to draw pictures of people well. They were so kind. They taught me with pleasure. They gave me a tutorial how to draw eyes, nose, how to do hatching, etc. Then, in several months, I tried to draw as many as possible until I bought one more sketch book because the old one was over. On my new sketch book, I drew some pictures of my college friends and Alhamdulillah the results were quite satisfying. Some people said that they know whose drawings those pictures are at the first sight they saw my drawings. My seniors are true. When they gave me a drawing tutorial, they said that we have to get the character of the people we are drawing to make the drawings identical with the original. So, now I know how to draw better.

I know that my drawings are still far from the word ‘perfect’, but then I believe that I can use my drawing skill, at least to make beloved people around me happy. As long as I have time and good mood to draw, I will draw a picture of them as a gift, as one of beautiful memories with me. And about drawing, I hope someday I can draw a beautiful picture of my family, the complete one, because I don’t have any until today. Well, I think that’s all my story about one of my hobbies, that is drawing. And, here are some of my drawings. You can see them if you want :)

Jadi Mapres, Why Not?

Mapres (mahasiswa berprestasi) merupakan ajang kompetisi tahunan untuk menjaring bibit-bibit unggul mahasiswa yang prestatif, baik di bidang akademik maupun non-akademik. Demi mendapatkan kandidat terbaik untuk bersaing di tingkat nasional, biasanya tiap universitas terlebih dulu mengadakan seleksi internal. Saya tidak tahu persis bagaimana bentuk seleksi mapres di masing-masing universitas. Namun, pada coretan singkat ini saya akan berbagi pengalaman mengikuti seleksi mapres di Unnes, khususnya di Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni, dan lebih khusus lagi di Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris.

Namun sebelumnya, alangkah lebih baiknya bila saya sampaikan sebuah fakta dulu, agar nantinya pembaca tidak kecewa. Coretan singkat ini saya tulis berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi dan juga pengalaman orang lain, karena faktanya adalah langkah saya dalam mengikuti seleksi mapres di Unnes hanya terhenti sampai tingkat fakultas saja, tepatnya hanya peringkat tiga fakultas. Namun bagaimana  pun juga, saya tetap ingin berbagi cerita dan pengalaman saya, karena menurut saya ada dua tipe orang berpengalaman. Pertama, orang berpengalaman namun enggan berbagi pengalamannya. Kedua, orang berpengalaman dan mau berbagi pengalamannya. Dan saya memilih untuk menjadi tipe orang berpengalaman yang kedua.

Di jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris, seleksi mapres dilakukan oleh para dosen yang berpedoman pada mekanisme seleksi mapres tingkat nasional. Oleh karena itu, tiap peserta seleksi mapres diwajibkan mengumpulkan berkas lengkap yang berisis biodata diri, sertifikat (kejuaraan lomba, peserta seminar, kepanitiaan, dll), karya tulis ilmiah (KTI), dan mempresentasikan KTI di hadapan para juri dan peserta lain. Setelah itu, para juri memilih dua peserta terbaik untuk mengikuti seleksi di tingkat fakultas. Namun sebelum pelaksanaan seleksi tingkat fakultas, dua perwakilan dari tiap-tiap jurusan se-Unnes diwajibkan mengikuti tes tertulis bahasa Inggris yang mana hasil dari tes tersebut nantinya akan mempengaruhi nilai akhir seleksi mapres di tingkat fakultas.

Mekanisme seleksi mapres di tingkat fakulats tidak jauh berbeda dengan seleksi mapres di tingkat jurusan. Bedanya hanya satu, KTI tiap peserta tidak hanya dipresentasikan dalam bahasa Indonesia, tetapi juga dalam bahasa Inggris. Setelah melewati semua tahap seleksi, selanjutnya hanya akan dipilih satu peserta terbaik untuk mewakili fakultas dalam seleksi mapres tingkat universitas.

Untuk mekanisme seleksi mapres tingkat universitas, tiap peserta tidak hanya diwajibkan melengkapi pemberkasan dan mempresentasikan KTI, namun juga ditantang untuk menyampaikan speech, tentunya dalam bahasa Inggris, mengenai salah satu tema sesuai undian dari sekian banyak tema yang telah ditentukan sebelumnya.

Setelah semua tahap dilewati, selanjutnya hanya akan dipilih satu peserta terbaik untuk mengikuti seleksi mapres tingkat nasional. Namun, tidak ada jaminan bahwa wakil dari tiap universitas dapat mengikuti seleksi mapres tingkat nasional hingga tahap presentasi karena hanya 15 peserta terbaik yang lolos tahap pemberkasan saja yang berhak mempresentasikan KTI di hadapan para juri seleksi mapres tingkat nasional.

Memang, mengikuti kompetisi sekelas seleksi mapres memerlukan tekad dan usaha yang luar biasa. Namun, alangkah lebih baiknya hal tersebut dijadikan sebagai tantangan, at least untuk mengukur seberapa besar kemampuan dan nyali kita untuk berkompetisi dengan orang-orang hebat. Kita tidak perlu mengkhawatirkan hasil yang akan kita dapat, karena yang terpenting adalah bagaimana kita menikmati prosesnya dan menorehkan sebuah pengalaman berharga dalam salah satu episode kehidupan kita. :)