English Learning in the University

I am interested in English since my English teacher at the third grade of elementary school in Jakarta introduced the language to me. Most of my friends in elementary school said that English was difficult to learn, but at the time, I thought English was a unique language that I had never found in my life before, so that I was interested in the language and I was curious about it. To treat my curiosity of English, I asked my parent to register me in an English course. I learned English until I was a Senior High School student, but I thought that I still could not use it well. I made many grammatical mistakes when I used the language, and my pronunciation was still bad. That is why I went to English Department of SWCU to learn English deeply. In this department, I expect that I could improve my English, so that after I graduated from the department, I could become a person who was able to use English well, and of course, I could become a worthy person to work as a journalist in an English newspaper or magazine (it was my dream in Senior High School).

 

The first year I joined the department, I was shocked. It did because not only I still felt awkward to the university life, but also the use of English during all the time of teaching and learning activity. Honestly, even though I liked English and I learned the language for so many times in school, I was scared to use the language when I spoke because I was scared to make grammatical mistake and wrong pronunciation. The other reason is that my English teacher in elementary, junior high and senior high school rarely used the language when they were having conversations to their students. They often used their first language (Bahasa Indonesia or Javanese) in classroom rather than English; even the situation happened in an ‘English Conversation’ lesson in which all participants should use English mostly during the teaching and learning activity. So, because I was not familiar to use English in communication, at the first time, I was awkward with the English Department situation. Then, I tried hard to adapt with the situation, and I find that the teaching and learning situation help me to improve my English. 

Besides the teaching and learning situation of English department improves my English, it also changes the way I learned English. Before I came to the department, the way I learned English was complicated. One example is when my English teachers asked me to write a holiday experience, the first thing I would do was making the Indonesian version of the story, then I would translate the story to English. It wasted a lot of time because it means that I had to make the story twice. Now, after joining the department, I think the way I learn English is not appropriate enough to be used in the English Department situation. Therefore, I change the way I learn English. I do not make the Indonesian version of the sentences that I want to write or say. I will definitely use English, but it does not mean that I do not need dictionary. I need dictionary because it is so helpful for me, but I will only open dictionary if I really cannot get the words I mean. Talking about dictionary, in this department I was introduced to many kinds of dictionary that I had never found in my life (even I do not know that they exist in the world), such as Oxford dictionary, Longman dictionary and many kinds of electronic dictionary. All of those dictionaries help me to survive in this department. Therefore, I suggest to the first-year students of English Department to have those dictionary because it will help them to survive in this department.

Then, as times goes on, I make some improvements in English, but there are two things I still want to improve. They are English vocabulary and speaking skill. Actually, these two things are improved since I joined the department, but I think I still have to improve them because sometimes I get difficulties to convey the message I want to say when I could not find the appropriate word, and the problem affects the fluency of my speaking.

To close the story, I want to share a quotation from someone said that “belajar tidak pernah punya batas waktu”. In my own interpretation, the quotation means that we could learn everytime we want. That is why after I graduated from the department, I still want to learn English by joining another faculty who studied English more, but beforehand, I will work to earn money, and if I have enough money, I will continue my study.