Ray told me Ekka was shortened from Exhibition. The first time I knew Ekka was just like an ordinary name in Indo, who know it might be Ekka kurniawan, my school mate. There is one thing I could see from visiting Ekka, make Lara happy and her Daddy ... (what the ...?). Another thing is the cost that deseperately cutting off my forthnightly budget. Going to Ekka did cost so much though RACQ gave us a little as 10$ off from the real ticket price. In side the show, we can not only strolling seeing some extraordinary thing that we can not find in our country but also some show bags, rides and uhg ... some faked-padang n Indonesian satay food. There many street polls in Courier Mail or even West Side News about how expensive wasting money in Ekka, yet people keep coming every year. But ... I don't .... It is only becoz this year's gonna be my last year in Brizzy, why don't we take this chance to see what we can't see when we're going back home, after all Lara was very happy got a hug from Dora. Anyway this is my last EKKA. 
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
EKKA
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Idol - Idolatry - idolaters
Ketika nonton iklan Australian Idol, saya jadi ingat kata 'Idol' yang suka diucapkan Br. Abdalla hari Sabtu n Rabu kemaren. Terus teringat pula ketika nonton audisi Australian Idol yang the silliest ever, ngeliat orang-orang sinting dan nekat menunjukan ke tololannya di depan si 'judges' sampai-sampai ada yang mlorotin celana kostum superman-nya menunjukan G-string yang dia pake ke the 'jugdges'. N gak kalah juga Spiderman konyol yang gemuk.
Nggak habis pikir ternyata Banyak juga bule-bule yang kurang waras dan kampungan banget. Untuk apa sebenarnya mereka berlomba untuk meraih jadi the 'Idol', tidak hanya Australian Idol juga idol-idol konyol lainnya termasuk di nagara sendiri yang super miskin berusaha ingin mensejajarkan diri dengan western (un-)civilisation.
Kata Idol dalam bahasa Indonesia berarti berhala, kalo di Al-Qur'an terjemahan yang English coba bandingkan, Idol = Berhala. Saya berasumsi (maksudnya berkahyal) mungkin kata idol sendiri dulunya mungkin memang berasal dari idola-idola orang yang belum mempunyai agama dan mereka mengidolakan tokoh masyarakat ditengah komunitasnya. Orang yang dijadikan idola itu kemudian meninggal dan masih di elu-elukan maka salah satu seorang diantaranya membuat monumen berupa sebuah patung si idol tadi dan ternyata patung pun bisa memuaskan kerinduan mereka untuk mengelukan dan akhirnya menyembah patung-patung idol itu. Kalo diperhatikan, apa bedanya dengan Idol yang sekarang, orang-orang yang menyaksikan Australian idol da idol-idol lainnya sampai teriak-teriak histeria mendambakan idol-idol mereka. Secara tidak langsung ini merupakan bentuk penyembahan idol dan mereka disebut idolaters atau penambah behala. Kesamaan lainnya adalah ketika si idol itu gak bisa hadir didekat si idolaters maka di belinya poster-poster idol mereka dan dipajangnya di kamar-kamar the idolaters. Cuma bedanya the idolaters ini tidak secara langsung mengakui penyembahannya dan tidak menjadikan idolatry-nya sebagai agama, karena mereka mengaku Atheis. Itu ter jadi di Australia. Kayaknya di Indonesia pun gak akan jauh berbeda ketika para penggemar idol (yang pasti gak mau dibilang idolaters) mengelu-elukan jagoannya, padahal nota bene mereka agama Islam - kebanyakan.
Jadi penyembah-penyembah berhala equvalensinya adalah penggemar-penggemar idol dong. Maka boleh dong kalo translation untuk Indonesian Idol berarti diterjemahkan "BERHALA INDONESIA".
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Indang
From day to day topic yang dibicarakan masih masalah tujuhbelasan di kecamatan-kecamatan St. Lucia, Taringa dan gak tahu yang di Indooroopilly. Suatu pagi yang dingin ketika dua orang kuli Gherman sedang ngantuk sambil ngobrol. Mereka membahas tujuhbelasan tea, ya ... tentang meja yang rada mahal, tentang berbagai pernak-perniknya lah tujuhbelasan di luar nagreg termasuk Ekka. Ini cuplikan obrolan kedua kuli tadi:
Kuli N: Nanti katanyah akan ada latian tari buat tujuhbelasan
Kuli A: Oh ... nu tadi ceuk si S ... tea latihannya jam setengah enam. dirumah si S -nya?
Kuli N: he ueh ...
Kuli A: Emang cenah barudak mau di latih nari apa?
Kuli N: Katanya si mbak V... mau ngelatih tari INDANG
Kuli A: Naon INDANG tech?
Kuli N: Tari INDANG teh temenna BANDENG meuruen ...
Tiba-tiba keduanyah diem .... beberapa detik suasana hening, mikir meuruennya maklum rada tell me
Kuli A: Naha BANDENG ....? Ujug-ujug oh .......dasar gelo, maksudna INDANG BANDENG nya?
Kuli N: Nanti katanyah akan ada latian tari buat tujuhbelasan
Kuli A: Oh ... nu tadi ceuk si S ... tea latihannya jam setengah enam. dirumah si S -nya?
Kuli N: he ueh ...
Kuli A: Emang cenah barudak mau di latih nari apa?
Kuli N: Katanya si mbak V... mau ngelatih tari INDANG
Kuli A: Naon INDANG tech?
Kuli N: Tari INDANG teh temenna BANDENG meuruen ...
Tiba-tiba keduanyah diem .... beberapa detik suasana hening, mikir meuruennya maklum rada tell me
Kuli A: Naha BANDENG ....? Ujug-ujug oh .......dasar gelo, maksudna INDANG BANDENG nya?
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Indonesia, Independence? - Day
This afternoon, the invitation to come to the Bahasa Indonesia class made me curious. I just wondered how it was like. Before I went there, I had to think about my sit-in for Literacy class that took two hours, at least the last one hour was for the BI program in Gordon Greewood Bld. I managed to get out of the class when Mr. harrington allowed the students to have a break. Lucky me I was not the only one who came out of the class. I came to the BI and did what I can do - just gave a little glimpse about Bandung.
Then, in the end of the class, Mr. Ardani Sarjito said 'Harusnya banyak orang Indo yang mau datang [ke kelas Bahasa Indonesia, buat para bule di UQ] dan mempromosikan sisi positive Indonesia, jangan selalu yang terdengar berita negativenya dari media Aussie, bencana, bom di san -sini, terorr ...." - more or less he said so. Why people hardly use the word 'promote' for Indonesia. To be honest what should we promote? The appalling quality of a country huh ... phatetic ...
Having the conversation with Mr. Ardani 'n some friends (Pinus, Adi 'n Jaya), and joining the invitation from the UQISA mailing list about being the Indonesian interviewee and telling a bit more about our home town, it come to my sense that what should I promote our 'beloved' country to others when the fact says that our country is not good enough to be a good nation. I can take a little picture of Indonesia from its TV program for example, we can see that heaps of craps like infotainments, supernatural programs, rubbish sinetrons and many more low culture associated program. Another picture I want to say is that once we are Indonesian with its appalling mentality, it always be there. We are coming in one package with the mentality that can never be detached from our daily life though we are living in different situation - in Aussie for example.
Recently I have been wondering about the so-called educated and religious Indonesians in Australia were a bit ignorant to the offer from the secular school. I can not say myself that I can be responsible for this case. But the thing is when my response [to them]described a little about my scepticism and felt a little bit of responsibility just because I am legally authorised, none of them argued or even had a little discussion. To me it's a kind of the bluffing.
This kind of mentality can be found everywhere in any case. I'm not over-generalising. So, the mentality is when a group of people feels insecure about their well-being, they call for a victim to sacrifice himself for the sake of their safety. They are waiting for the volunteer victim. When they know the volunteer is not hurt, the group of that people follow the path what the volunteer has done to their community. But if the volunteer were victimised, every body in the group find the safe place for their survival and ego. The affinity of metaphore for this case is just like a herd of Hyena. They want to eat the zebra but they don't want to hunt and just waiting for lion to kill the zebra and eat the leftover. Thus, can we call this an independent mentality?
Then, in the end of the class, Mr. Ardani Sarjito said 'Harusnya banyak orang Indo yang mau datang [ke kelas Bahasa Indonesia, buat para bule di UQ] dan mempromosikan sisi positive Indonesia, jangan selalu yang terdengar berita negativenya dari media Aussie, bencana, bom di san -sini, terorr ...." - more or less he said so. Why people hardly use the word 'promote' for Indonesia. To be honest what should we promote? The appalling quality of a country huh ... phatetic ...
Having the conversation with Mr. Ardani 'n some friends (Pinus, Adi 'n Jaya), and joining the invitation from the UQISA mailing list about being the Indonesian interviewee and telling a bit more about our home town, it come to my sense that what should I promote our 'beloved' country to others when the fact says that our country is not good enough to be a good nation. I can take a little picture of Indonesia from its TV program for example, we can see that heaps of craps like infotainments, supernatural programs, rubbish sinetrons and many more low culture associated program. Another picture I want to say is that once we are Indonesian with its appalling mentality, it always be there. We are coming in one package with the mentality that can never be detached from our daily life though we are living in different situation - in Aussie for example.
Recently I have been wondering about the so-called educated and religious Indonesians in Australia were a bit ignorant to the offer from the secular school. I can not say myself that I can be responsible for this case. But the thing is when my response [to them]described a little about my scepticism and felt a little bit of responsibility just because I am legally authorised, none of them argued or even had a little discussion. To me it's a kind of the bluffing.
This kind of mentality can be found everywhere in any case. I'm not over-generalising. So, the mentality is when a group of people feels insecure about their well-being, they call for a victim to sacrifice himself for the sake of their safety. They are waiting for the volunteer victim. When they know the volunteer is not hurt, the group of that people follow the path what the volunteer has done to their community. But if the volunteer were victimised, every body in the group find the safe place for their survival and ego. The affinity of metaphore for this case is just like a herd of Hyena. They want to eat the zebra but they don't want to hunt and just waiting for lion to kill the zebra and eat the leftover. Thus, can we call this an independent mentality?
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Carpe Diem
Time flies so fast. It just like a flash from week to week though I always want it everyday is the weekend. My time in Brisbane will be over soon, in the coming six months I'm no longer live in Brisbane with itsy bitsy dynamic life. Realising the 'games will be over', I start to think what's my future like? what can I get from staying for so long in different culture and situation from my home country? Is it worthwhile living in Australia for four years? or it's just for nothing.
When the speed of time haunts me, many ideas come across with and without some action. Now I begin thinking the weekly program to seize the daily bases for my own. Trying to classify what 'dough' and 'donut' (Homer Simpson copy right), variety of activities were made up for the CARPE DIEM. Trying to be look as a well-organised lady, the schedule for the week would look cool enough for actually a full-time slacker.
SEIZE THE DAY COMES DAILY WITH SOME COMPLEMENTARY FUN AND RISK
When the speed of time haunts me, many ideas come across with and without some action. Now I begin thinking the weekly program to seize the daily bases for my own. Trying to classify what 'dough' and 'donut' (Homer Simpson copy right), variety of activities were made up for the CARPE DIEM. Trying to be look as a well-organised lady, the schedule for the week would look cool enough for actually a full-time slacker.
SEIZE THE DAY COMES DAILY WITH SOME COMPLEMENTARY FUN AND RISK
- Monday. This is gonna be the sickness of Mondayitis, everybody will suffer from the desease including me, me, me .... Try to figure it out, Monday is gonna be the "Searching Day". It is the time to prepare for my sit-in classes the next day otherwise the sit-in session wouldn't trace anything in my skinny brain. Monday is the day for searching course materials for the three courses but I don't think I could read them all - get real. I don't care if I can't get into them at all. After all who cares? The COMU 1000 could be quite all right that prvide some online copy in the library, and the EDUC 7031 has just shown up from the Blackboard to down load. But the LING 2020 is gonna be a bit messy cuz some of them are on-line material but not the others. Another short cut for this is buying the reading material from the UQ Bookshop without discount - they were sold out anyway, and ordering them was undesirable.
- Tuesday. It's time for the sit-in. Tuesday is the "Sit-in day" Sleeping is a must, 6.15 after working hard, I lay down for a while and go ... go ... go ... Carpe Diem. Some searhing material stuff might be involved cuz the previous day might not enough. 12. 00 for COMU, 2.00 for LING and 6.00 for EDUC. The hardest part of Tuesday is that Lara has to go with daddy while daddy has to seize the day and night for his un-ended thesis. The course is good though sometimes the snoozing is unavoidable. The prof is cool and a very nice fella. I want to give him something he likes? What .... any idea?
- Wednesday is the "Playing day". It called playing cuz I try to manage volunteering in Play House day care. Having just one or two volunteering time were quite inspiring how to deal with kids. Somehow, I enjoy playing in there with some kids and the Korean group leader, Sunny and Japanese assistence, Shelley. Kindy probably the group I chose cuz the group with younger kids than kindy was a bit hard and only a little chance to learn. But actually I want to try the preschooler with the Aussie group leader. I suppose the chance to learn many things is a lot more. Anyway, the important is that I have to keep my vonlunteering in a weekly bases and focus.
- Thurday is the "shopping day". As far as three and a half year living in Brisbane, thursday is the time when shops and shopping centre start the period of reducing some of their merchandise in turn - but not for groceries. Sometimes, I just pop in one of the section of a variety store to check how far their stuffs are being reduced. It's silly, it's kind of obsrvation to find the lowest price ever, even if my luck's coming over I got as low as 50 cents for a piece socks or Bart Simpson key ring or any other which is impossible and amazing. In other times recently, a velvet-dark-brown-boho bag was only $4 (used to be $20), and it was cute, though Yusi bought as the same as she found it first. It's gonna be funny if we put them in together in the same occasion ha ... haa ... ha. Shopping, I can say it's one of the the most interesting experience here in Brisbane cuz when I compare the price here to my home country, it is impossible. In Bandung the price reduction is not fair, it happens after they lift the price up and they put the discount on - but not here. Yes, Thursday is my favorite day with another one important reason it is a pay day.
- Friday. It's nearly weekend, people say TGIF for this day. To me it 's gonna be the "Reflection Day". On Friday sometimes I plan many things to do cuz I know to night is holliday for my work and I don't even want to sleep again after working from 11.40. p.m. My program for Friday is actually blogging to write the weekdays and any occasion I had for a week. Another thing is cleaning up the house in detail, organise the wardrobe and thats the house wife thingys work. Sometimes preparing some food for the Mushala and I try to come to the Mushala not only for my reflection and enriching my spiritual being but also see some friends. Lately this week, the issue on Friday is gonna be the RE voluntary teaching for next week in Ironside Primary School in St Lucia. It is kinda an argument having in my mind just like between the rock and the hard place. If I go for it, I have to think twice, what I am doing as a religion teacher? I can't believe it I do it cuz being an RE teacher I have to mantain my attitude and behaviour as good as a saint. While I'm not a saint - I'm in the middle of fixing my attitude to be a real saint. My religous knowledge about Islam is nothing compare to those who are ready to teach for RE. But if nobody is willing to take the role, what can I do? I am the one who hold the Blue Card as a permit to teach there. So what's ... bla bla bla. I'm not the right person but any way I'll take the role before the right person come over and take the role properly. Please God, help me, this is gonna be a big resposibility teaching Kids about Your way. However, the most important thing is the sincerity and being earnest are the essence of doing this.
- Saturday and Sunday. They are sometimes confusing day but anyway they are "Free Time Day". Most of them I fall as sleep for the half day though once in a while my other job is on the roster for saturday or Sunday or may be both from 5 - 8 a.m. No program at all in these day. However, If I am on the loose, I feel bad about what I've done for being too indulged my self and wasting my time.
The bottom line for all the weekly program is that every day I have to seize the day. Filling in as many things as I can do to enrich my body and soul, to preserve some at least a little knowledge in future and collecting some certificate of letters of reference as the last one is my last year target during my stay in Australia.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Week Prep for COMU 1000
This note is taken from week 1 COMU 1000
Culture and Communication.
- What do these words mean?
- What do they describe?
- Think of a sentence with 'culture' n communication'?
- Who can you imagine saying it? Who can you imagine it beingsaid to?
- Within which social institution or situation would you expect the sentence to be spoken
Culture and Communication.
- What do these words mean?
- What do they describe?
- Think of a sentence with 'culture' n communication'?
- Who can you imagine saying it? Who can you imagine it beingsaid to?
- Within which social institution or situation would you expect the sentence to be spoken
Friday, July 28, 2006
WEEK 1-Market Day
Week 1 kuliah lagi, tapi sit-in. Week 1 ini ternyata banyak juga yang harus dingapa-ngapain. Dari mulai senen anter Aji n Husna ke airport buat balik for good sampe market day hari rabu gak termasuk hunting baju Lara di Indro. Hari senen ketinggalan sit-in kuliah Morphology abis si Lara gak mau sekolah.
Hari selasa, gak nyangka bakalan sibuk (so sibuk-red) ternyata mata kuliah idaman COMU 1000 - Introduction to Communication and Cultural Studies mulai jam 12 di lecture theatre tempat cleaningnya si Angus. Liat jadwal ternyata salah, ampir aja masuk kelas laen di bld 7. Kayaknya topik-topik yang diurus si Fiona Nicoll seru bgt, mulai dari Semiotic, Rhetoric sampai Celebrity culture n 'The important of being ordinary'. Nah kayaknya yang paling seru yang terakhir ini. Mudah-mudahan kuliah sit-in nya bisa sampai tamat berhubung yang ini masih ilegal belum bilang ma si dosen. Dilanjut kuliah berikutnya asik juga LING 2020 - Linguistic and Literacy with Michael Harrington, orangnya keliatan asik, nerangin cukup jelas but let see what next. Alhamdulillah yang ini udah jadi mahasiswa penyelundup legal, Harrington udah allowed me to join the class. Ternyata kuliah yang mau di sit-in-in hari Selasa semua, course yang Dick juga jam 6 sore, duuh masih bingung euy apa diterusin gak ya .... Padahal si Dick ini baik bgt walopun udah bukan mahasiswa sayah masih dia masukin ke BlackBoard padahal kalo taking course beneran bayarnya AUD$ 2000. Dilemanya adalah Lara harus ama Ayah dan kuliah akan pulang sampe jam 9 jadi cleaning ke Gerry terlambat karena nguantuk tak kepalang. Kumaha nya? Lieur euy ...
Besoknya gening masih Rabu cenah aya Market Day barudak Uqisa.
Neh, foto dimarket day - kalo di shot ma orang lain pasti posisinya gak jelas. Tapi lumayan lah ada fotonya dikit.
Dengan penuh harap dapet gratisan banyak, eeeh ... si mas riweuh cari Payment summary buat Tax Return jadi ke Market Day telat artinya si gratisan kelewat. Tapi dasar rejeki, diliat-liat ngapain orang meriung-riung pegang-pegang Jeans, tanya puna tanya sugan tech murah ternyata GRETOOONG! Udah hepi mau dapet euuh katanya harus puna pension card, gimana mau punya pension card tua juga belom. Aaah, rada nekad yeuh saeutik, ada ceweq SPG-nya nanya what can I help you katanyah, sekalian aja 'is it okay if we just have the OSHC card?' pas dia dikasi tahu itu adalah overseas health insurance, kita langsung disuruh isi nama n alamat, terus milih dech si jeanwest - lumayan khan dari pada beli, kalo gak cocok ya kasi lagi aja ato buang. Udah keliling-keliling bual sana sini, si stall jeans ini masih diriung-riung juga, jadi ada pikiran mau tuker jeans gratisan tadi siapa tahu ada yang lebih oke. setelah dipilih-pilih acak corak si Rina coba-coba tu jeans semua yang dia mau, ada satu yang agak sempit di Rina yang kayaknya cocok buat sayah, dengan size 13. dipikir-pikir dua-duanya mau soalnya yang size 13 ini takut gak cukup jadi dilipat dech ma Rina walhasil dapet 2 jeans gratisannya. Thanks ya Rina buat nyludupin satu jeans lagi - (ini legal berhubung banyak orang yang dapet dua juga dan mewakili anggota keluarga lain seperti ayah n Lara yang juga punya OSHC-red).
Neeh si Rina ini orangnya Bodooor
Hari selasa, gak nyangka bakalan sibuk (so sibuk-red) ternyata mata kuliah idaman COMU 1000 - Introduction to Communication and Cultural Studies mulai jam 12 di lecture theatre tempat cleaningnya si Angus. Liat jadwal ternyata salah, ampir aja masuk kelas laen di bld 7. Kayaknya topik-topik yang diurus si Fiona Nicoll seru bgt, mulai dari Semiotic, Rhetoric sampai Celebrity culture n 'The important of being ordinary'. Nah kayaknya yang paling seru yang terakhir ini. Mudah-mudahan kuliah sit-in nya bisa sampai tamat berhubung yang ini masih ilegal belum bilang ma si dosen. Dilanjut kuliah berikutnya asik juga LING 2020 - Linguistic and Literacy with Michael Harrington, orangnya keliatan asik, nerangin cukup jelas but let see what next. Alhamdulillah yang ini udah jadi mahasiswa penyelundup legal, Harrington udah allowed me to join the class. Ternyata kuliah yang mau di sit-in-in hari Selasa semua, course yang Dick juga jam 6 sore, duuh masih bingung euy apa diterusin gak ya .... Padahal si Dick ini baik bgt walopun udah bukan mahasiswa sayah masih dia masukin ke BlackBoard padahal kalo taking course beneran bayarnya AUD$ 2000. Dilemanya adalah Lara harus ama Ayah dan kuliah akan pulang sampe jam 9 jadi cleaning ke Gerry terlambat karena nguantuk tak kepalang. Kumaha nya? Lieur euy ...
Besoknya gening masih Rabu cenah aya Market Day barudak Uqisa.
Neh, foto dimarket day - kalo di shot ma orang lain pasti posisinya gak jelas. Tapi lumayan lah ada fotonya dikit.
Dengan penuh harap dapet gratisan banyak, eeeh ... si mas riweuh cari Payment summary buat Tax Return jadi ke Market Day telat artinya si gratisan kelewat. Tapi dasar rejeki, diliat-liat ngapain orang meriung-riung pegang-pegang Jeans, tanya puna tanya sugan tech murah ternyata GRETOOONG! Udah hepi mau dapet euuh katanya harus puna pension card, gimana mau punya pension card tua juga belom. Aaah, rada nekad yeuh saeutik, ada ceweq SPG-nya nanya what can I help you katanyah, sekalian aja 'is it okay if we just have the OSHC card?' pas dia dikasi tahu itu adalah overseas health insurance, kita langsung disuruh isi nama n alamat, terus milih dech si jeanwest - lumayan khan dari pada beli, kalo gak cocok ya kasi lagi aja ato buang. Udah keliling-keliling bual sana sini, si stall jeans ini masih diriung-riung juga, jadi ada pikiran mau tuker jeans gratisan tadi siapa tahu ada yang lebih oke. setelah dipilih-pilih acak corak si Rina coba-coba tu jeans semua yang dia mau, ada satu yang agak sempit di Rina yang kayaknya cocok buat sayah, dengan size 13. dipikir-pikir dua-duanya mau soalnya yang size 13 ini takut gak cukup jadi dilipat dech ma Rina walhasil dapet 2 jeans gratisannya. Thanks ya Rina buat nyludupin satu jeans lagi - (ini legal berhubung banyak orang yang dapet dua juga dan mewakili anggota keluarga lain seperti ayah n Lara yang juga punya OSHC-red).
Neeh si Rina ini orangnya Bodooor
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Graduation Day
This morning when I drove Lara to Campus Kindy, I let her give the flower from the graduation to her teacher. Sue, was just like asking the reason why she brought the flower. Then the unecessary explanation just burst from the mouth that was from my graduation yesterday. But all of sudden that most of the people asked, for what degree, then it came to me all the silly thing. What the hell is my degree? I'm just enjoying the time in Australia, instead of being a desperate house wive who sought for any busy life or just collecting some Aussy dollars. I need some extra experience after having been nearly four years in this country. I reflect to myself what I can bring back to my home country after four years spending my time in Australia. This is one of the choice to bring back some knowledge and experiences that is expected to be very helpful in the future. At least my productive time is not for nothing.
It was funny, silly, wierd but above all the happiness and the chance has never knocked to the second door. At first I was not pretty sure to attend the ceremony, I always think " a semester only need a celebration?" Get real! But it was real everybody supported me to have it. Some other said that this was a good oportunity to celebrate and other some said by pay that big amount - it was too bad to mis the graduation, "why don't you just make it all out?" Considering many things I finally decided to have the graduation.
The graduation ran smoothly starting from the academic dress hire, runninng out of petrol, pick up Ayah n Lara and dressed them up. I didn't even dress up. But, Iwas quite happy that here in Aussy, some of the graduans were just putting jeans and jumper. It was totally diferent to Indonesian customs that everybody puts on the kebaya.
Beyond that, I can see some sincere attention from friends and the loves ones. They are very thoughtful that I never thought before. It was a kind of delightful milestone for me to have this. Thanks Ayah for the flower and everything, Thanks to Melanie -I never had a thought you're so thoughtful and kindly concerned, Thanks Bu Tia for the presents, Thanks to Isnaeni for the pictures and thanks everybody who give me support and congratz me until this afternoon. And the biggest of all Thanks to 'Mah n Bapak who can make all this happened. Alhamdulillah.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Day 4 (Omarama to Queenstown). Trip to South Island - New Zealand
Keputusan malem ini kita akan ke camper site Top Ten Holiday Park Omarama. Seperti hari pertama kalo kita dapet campersite di top ten pasti fasilitas terjamin. Campervan memasuki area campersite, kita cari tempat yang paling deket toilet n kitchen biar bisa masak buat sarapan n lunch n makan sore. Pas cari tempat campervan kita selip di salju, si bos rada be te nich. Tapi esok harinya ternyata banyak bule-bule yang dorongin mobil selip kita - sampe-sampe si boss menyesali kenapa gak shoot ketika selip n didorong ama tu bule-bule. Yang lucu dari si kepala suku ini adalah apapun dia potret, dalam situasi panik pun bisa jadi, semua harus di potret sampe pramigari pun geleng kepala liat pak Sonny. Dasar.Di udara dingin macam gini perut bawaannya lapeeer terus, dasar perut gak bisa kompromi - pas balik langsung naek 5 kilo dech. Neeeh ... foto kita lagi masak. Ini lagi masak tuna ma telor resepnya Bu Tini Karno. Bu Tia bisa masak lho, dia cuma pura-pura aja gak bisa masak - memang goreng kerupuk sich ahlinya, tapi bikin sop juga jadi pavorit bapak-bapak dan anak-anak.
Sehabis masak, coba lihat ke campervan, Lara udah bangun belom yaaa, ternyata udah bangun, si ayah yang nungguin harus mandi, Pak Sonny baca koran n nonton wolrd cup kayaknya (belakangan tahu setelah cebokin Lara. Bu Tia urus anak-anak n mandi. Di campervan gak ada siapa-siapa, si Lara pengen be-ol. Euuh ... sebel banget pada kemana niy orang-orang. Kasian Lara tapi sebel juga, ya udah suruh tahan ya ee nya tunggu ada yang balik ke mobil. Ternyata emang dia gak tahan dan ... bom meledak di tempat (ee di undies). Sebeeeeeeeeeeel 
Kugendong lah Lara ke tolilet n mandi. Sorry ya Lara, bunda cubit, abis ee di undies sich, ya udah bye undies and friend .... Karena merasa bersalah La Ra gak nangis malah ibu nya yang sangat merasa bersalah dan be te. Tapi untung di shower ada baby bath provided jadi lara mandi di baby bath tub, Lara enjoy n happy lagi. Everything has done, fotoooooooo. Keluar dari camper site, fotoooooooo, ini foto ma Merino di Omarama sambil tungguin beli bensin. Perjalanan day 4 menuju Queenstown mampir di Cromwell, makan roti, liat internet n beli souvenir yang udah dijanjiin buat neng Ike n foto di deket buah gede.
Tadinya, liat internet mau tahu result kuliah kemaren tapi untung my-sinet lagi error jadi gak diliat dech, jangan-jangan kalo diliat bisa merusak suasana neh. Ternyata walopun diliat padahal asik-asik aja, alhamdulillah bisa graduation kaleee.
Sorenya kita ke queenstown, ujan lagi. Akhirnya cuma makan di KFC n shopping souvenir. Terus lanjut perjalanan ke Alexandra dan bermalam disana. Alexndra campsite lumayan rada horor soalnya bukan Top Ten, shower nya banyak cob web dan pokoknya gak kayak yang sebelumnya dah. Tapi yang penting kita bisa bermalam disitu.
Day 3 (Ashburton to Tekapo). Trip to South Island - New Zealand
Waiting for the mommy doing all the washing ups, the kids wanted to go out n play but as we registered on for 6 people, one of the kid had to hide or take turn playing in the play ground swings and slides. It was really silly.
After all the seribu tahun washing up, we rushed to have a trip to Lake Tekapo to fix the electricity in the campervan. Along the way the trip we found the snow and the snowy mountain. This was the snow at the first sight. As soon as we found the snow we stopped driving and let the kids play in the snow.
After all the seribu tahun washing up, we rushed to have a trip to Lake Tekapo to fix the electricity in the campervan. Along the way the trip we found the snow and the snowy mountain. This was the snow at the first sight. As soon as we found the snow we stopped driving and let the kids play in the snow.
Then we went on our trip to Tekapo with several stops. We dropped in some cute places enjoying the view, seeing the merinos, ice skating (pretending, with some slippery ice), seeing deer and lama all the way long. Going on the trip from the first sight snow the driver changed, Ayah took turn and handled all the way to lake Tekapo.
Arrived at lake Tekapo at aroun 3. 00, Lara was asleep n we foun an amazing scene some covered with snow, som
e with slippery ice and a beautiful Lake acros the road.
The moment was too goo to be missed, we woke her up and guess what she wanted? TOILET - again? Finally she was enjoying her self in the snow and ice.
The next stop is in the electrician fixing the campervan electricity. While the boys in the electrician, the girls played again in the snow. Lara is making a snow angel. More pics click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/frivolities/
In day 3, our campersite was in Omarama. What the hell is this name? is it si penyanyi dangdut thea kitu?
Day 2. Trip to South Island - New Zealand
Day 1 masih Christchurch. Unexpected troubles easy come easy go. Pokoknya jangan berfikir bisa santai dulu, tiba tiba ... kayak roler coaster ....Bangun pagi (eh ... maksudnya bangun siang - kesiangan). Jam 7.oo hari masih sangat gelap, kayak jam 4 subuh. Semua siap-siap dan males-malesan bangun (oximoron). Ternyata mengatur anak-anak dan orang tua sama susahnya. Mau bangun lama, mau mandi lama, mau siap-siap luamaaaaaaaaaaaa. Jadinya kita berangkat jam 10 lebih dikit. Rencana hari ini Ke Hamner Spring - Sumber mata air hangat dikelilingi salju WOW ... kayaknya asyiiiik gitu. Tiba tiba ujan gak brenti, gerimis terus menerus akhirnya kita jadi shopping dech di Shopping mall terdekat. Shopping sembako, buah n susu buat tiga hari. Bapak-bapak cari mobile card siapa tahu ada optus, walopun akhirnya ternyata cuma ada Vodaphone. Semua orang cari toilet abis dingin n gerimis terus jadi pengennya toilet terus. In this trip, toilet the the most favorite tourist object, especially for La Ra. Sambil tungguin yang lalin cari toilet, Lara n Disa were with me strolling the mall, eh ... ada Warehouse yang suka diiklanin di Bne, pengen cobain masuk. Ternyata didalem barangna super murah dan lumayan lah. Si La ra pengen Doodle Bear harganya bikin males beli. Ibu-nya nemuin boots yang memang dicariin di Brisbane gak ada, taunya ketemu di Christchurch. Dengan segala pertimbangan dan perizinan sang suami dan ayah akhirnya Doodle Bear menjadi her new best friend, sang ibu dapet boots murah and sang ayah juga ikut-ikutan beli boots - yang penting bukan puss in boots dah .... Selain sang Ayah dan Bunda, keluarga teman kita ini juga terprovokasi jadi beli boots sekeluarga, jadi dua couple boots-nya kembaran. However, untung beli ternyata pas di snow, boots sangat diperlukan, jadi nyesel gak beli buat Lara satu lagi.
Jalan, makan, ngobrol, heureuy dsb, tau tau udah mau jam 2. Akhirnya ke spring gak jadi soalnya campervan mau diganti jadi yang auto meski kilometernya udah agak banyak -emang lebih bagus yang pertama tapi campervan yang kedua bisa di drive Pak Sonny, Ayah n Afi. Kejanggalan mulai datang lagi, kalo campervan mau di tuker berarti Keluarga Sudarsono gak boleh ketahuan bareng with Kel. Sonny, Jadi kita tunggu di mall sambil bawa-bawa 2 koper travel sekitar 4 jam lah. Mana si Lara ngadat dikirainnya kita bakalan ditinggalin pak Sonny. Sewaktu nunggu Be te abis, ngapain ya, waiting is super boring. Akhirnya dari pada meratapi diri aku ajak aja si Lara beli kopi n muffin. Udah bosen lagi, jalan lagi masuk ke Farmer - store kaya Myer atau target lah. Dasar rejeki ada sepatu 5 dolar, genuine leather lagi, kenapa gak disabet aja, akhirnya jadi beli sepatu 2 dalam beberapa jam - SINTING. Abis kesel banget sich nunggu, buat Lara untung ada si Doodle bisa dibikin kerjaan. Jam 6 Pak Sonny muncul dengan campervan Baru. Malem itu kita jalan dari Chch ke Ashburton buat cari campersite. Rasanya aman dan lega. hhhhh .....
Begitu sampai di Ashburton camper site udara sangat dingin, kita seperti biasa cari powersite buat nyalain microwave yang ada di campervan. Eit ... jangan santai dulu kekisruhan lain datang lagi, Astgfirullah ... electricity di campervan rusak, ada kesalahan ketika memasang di power site. Berarti kita akan kedinginan n gak bisa masak-masak. Camper sitenya bukan four star tapi sekelas kiwi lah kalo dibandung melati 3 kalee. Keputusan yang diambil adalah daripada mati kedinginan maka kita rent kabin aja, 1 kabin 7 orang dengan two bdrms. Aman. Kenyang n besoknya bisa nyuci baju. Ada yang aneh ketika cuci baju, dikirain koin-nya gak jalan ternya air yang ada di washing machine cuma netes-netes doang artinya mencuci akan selesai seribu tahun lagi. Terpaksa dech angkkutin air di ember masukin washing machine - masa sich di NZ ada kayak gituan ... maluuu dech.
Day 1. Trip to South Island - New Zealand
Day 1 in Chirstchurch. 2.00 Chirstchurch time, we arrived in the airport with a hopefull trip as Sonny arranged in his itenerary. The itenerary was highly elaborated and detailed. The picture was taken when we were waiting for a shuttle to campervan rental which was relatively close to the airport. We stepped out side the airport lounge just to feel how cold in Chirstchurch and blow the breath out in their to see how foggy it was. One of us said "Liat kaya di luar negri yaa! ..."
Masih day 1. This is the place where we rented the campervan. Some little problem started bugging us that the admin told Sonny that the campervan yang buat 6 oranng gak bisa di pake 7 orang. Oalaaaah ... gimana dong. Bingung n super bingung, ngeras salah juga sich, gara-gara menjawab jujur. Pas ditanyai berapa adult n berapa children? ya jawabannya segitu adanya, 4 dewasa n 3 anak.
Ternyata si bule admin kaget, katanya illegal kalo campervannya di isi 7 orang padahal si Lara kan cuma seperempat dewasa. Gilee bener, pokoknya kalut banget dech. Tapi lagi bingung-bingun pun sempet di foto, neh foto nya. Akhirnya kita ditungguin untuk mencari alternative solusi. Ada dua solusi dengan pertimbangan ikutan aturan atau jalan pintas dengan dalih kita bisa sama-sama n dan berhemat or else.
Liat nich, kacian kan anak-anak pada bergoleran nungguin ortunya berdiskusi mencari siasat yang paling top.
Akhirnya kami sekeluarga dibalikin lagi keairport pake shuttle, pura-puranya mau cari hotel n rental mobil kecil untuk bertiga aja, padahal kita nunggu Sonny's family di airport walopun harus pake tingkat kesabaran yang setinggi-tingginya. Akhirnya mereka dateng juga, kasian juga perut mereka dan kami belum ada yang terisi karena dari tadi sibuk urus campervan. Ketua rombongan hampir colaps karena belum makan, akhirnya kita beristirahat di cafe airport sampai menunggu si beliau pulih.
Having all ready, we jumped up all to the campervan to find the campersite in Chirstchurch. The campervan was the top quality but with manual gear that make us a bit worried to drive. I heard in day 2 he would change it to the auto one for our synergy in taking turns to drive away long the south island. We found the camper site was really cool. It said it was four star campersite, the spa, heated swimming pool n many luxuries provided. We did not feel like camping, it was really enjoyable before another trouble came again in the next day.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Graduation jadi teu?
Di email diumumin kalo result kuliah akan keluar 5 July, tapi sayang euy D date-nya bentrok ama jalan-jalan ke NZ. Siwalan, mana takut lagi liat result, pokoknya mengerikan, abis geningan sekolah di luar nagreg teh meni susah pisan jaba sambil klining deuih. Sebenarnya penasaran pengen liat si result, tapi deg-degan wae, walopun ada kesempatan pas di Cromwell - NZ (trip antara Ashburton to Lake Tekapo) buat liat email UQ, tetep aja gak di liat, excuse-nya si My-si net lagi gangguan. Jadi ya syukur lah teu jadi diliat, soalna jangan-jangan dengan ngeliat result bisa merusak suasana cenah ceuk si Pak Sonny.
Ujung-ujungnya si result Grad Cert di liat tadi pagi, Alhamdulillah, lumayanlah saongkoseun meureun buat mancing AusAid (husnudhan we, sugan jadi Do'a, ku Alloh diijabah). Alasan ngeliat result pun gara-gara bisi academic dress hire gak bisa di refund, kalo ada yg gak lulus kan gimana, masa mau diwisuda ada yg gak lulus. InsyaAlloh, jadi meuruen euy graduation-nya di UQ centre. Kata orang saya curang, soalnya sekolah belakangan, eeeh wisuda barengan. Kumaha tah ^%^ ... mudah-mudahan lancar lah.
Tak lupa, semua hasil dan jerih payah sesungguhnya powered by (didukung sepenuhnya oleh) doa 'Mah jeung Bapa di Bandung. Karena dengan do'a mereka lah saya bisa lulus, abis ... gak kebayang saya bisa dapet segitu, syukur lah segitu juga. Alhamdulillahirobil'alamiin.
Ujung-ujungnya si result Grad Cert di liat tadi pagi, Alhamdulillah, lumayanlah saongkoseun meureun buat mancing AusAid (husnudhan we, sugan jadi Do'a, ku Alloh diijabah). Alasan ngeliat result pun gara-gara bisi academic dress hire gak bisa di refund, kalo ada yg gak lulus kan gimana, masa mau diwisuda ada yg gak lulus. InsyaAlloh, jadi meuruen euy graduation-nya di UQ centre. Kata orang saya curang, soalnya sekolah belakangan, eeeh wisuda barengan. Kumaha tah ^%^ ... mudah-mudahan lancar lah.
Tak lupa, semua hasil dan jerih payah sesungguhnya powered by (didukung sepenuhnya oleh) doa 'Mah jeung Bapa di Bandung. Karena dengan do'a mereka lah saya bisa lulus, abis ... gak kebayang saya bisa dapet segitu, syukur lah segitu juga. Alhamdulillahirobil'alamiin.
Lara Makes a Book
It is not writing a book, it is the making. Lara drow and write her book with the help from Tash in her kindy room. This is not actually her first time making her book but this is accidentally recorded and posted. Kenang-kenganan buat Lara kalo udah di Indo n lupa speaking English.
Lara's Book
More on Grouper.com
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Farewell Party n Seminar Uqisa
Hari ini di Campus kindy ada farewell party Annisa, teacher sang Lara yang mulai ambil masa maternity leave-nya. Liat nich, Annisa lagi hamil enam bulan. Si bule ini baek banget ama siapapun, terutama si Lara, she is her favorite teacher in capus kindy. Namanya kaya orang Indo muslim, katanya nama itu dia ambil ketika ibunya, Barbara-yang jadi teacher juga di Campus Kindy-berada di Philipino and keliling Asia tenggara. Bye Annisa, have a save labour and expecting a very healthy baby.We left early soalnya Uqisa ngadain Seminar seperti biasa.
Seminar Uqisa kali ini presented by Adjie Pamungkas n Riyanti Dj
alante.Sebenarnya seminar UQISA ini udah yang kesekian kali, tapi baru ini yang bisa blog-in and di upload fotonya. Aji presented his thesis for his master degree tentang mitigasi bencana n Yanti prented tips and trik ambil master di UQ. Comment: Aji presented his topic well but too long jadi Yanti keabisan waktu makanya presentati agak gak nyambung ato gimana ya ... cuma nerangin hal-hal biasa yang dihadapi students Indo yang lagi ambil master di UQ.
Niy ... liat fotonya, pas ngambil foto lamanya minta ampun begini salah begitu salah ... eeeh ... pas mau di jepret, gak tau mana yang harus di klik, tapi lucu lah, seuri barudak ....
The way Lara ngambek
The way Lara ngambek
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Kenang-kenangan, buat Lara ntar udah gede.
Add a video comment to this video
The first video yang di upload ke blog. Lara lagi ngambek, awas hati-hati. Tau gara-gara apa? Gara-garanya bunda ikut nyanyi nambahin dua kata yang lupa. Dikasi tahu eeeh ... malah ngambek. Anak mu tah Ayah ...
Lara n Molly
Lately this week, La ra Be Te terus tiap malem, kayaknya sich gara-gara si Ayah pulang tengah malem terus jadi gak bisa kasih bed time stories buat Yaya (La ra) - bunda has only limited bed time stories. Dari pada bed time story bunda boring karena made up ya bunda jadinya lebih memilih La ra untuk belajar baca iqro. Penyakit baca iqro mulai kambuh, males-malesan n pengen ngacak ke halaman depan padahal belum juga dibahas. Karena dia bored, La ra minta bacaain Tweenies, Oke. Tapi ceritanya lain, Bunda bikin tweenies story jadi cerita yang aneh buat La ra karena Tweenies dibilangin suka belajar ngaji, sholat dan bedo'a sama Alloh. Mereka anak-anak yang ta'at perintah Alloh. Terang aja si La ra protes abis-abisan. "Bunda tweenies are white kids, they are not moslem! They are Christian, the whites are christian!" I'm sorry Lara, ini emang salah Bunda di awal kasih batas between moslem and christian in your school.
Cerita bermula ketika Christmas celebration in ABC learning centre dan childcare sebelumnya, Munro. Setiap Christmas, semua anak were invited to the celebration. Sudah bisa dipastikan anak siapapun dan agama apapun pasti tertarik ikutan. Jadi akhirnya dari pada dia ikutan, ya dijelasin aja batas - batas yang serba salah - susah dimengerti anak usia 4,5 tahun. I said, we cannot celebrate other religion, their religion is Christian, we are moslem, we do sholat, read Qur'an and be good to everybody. Gak disangka, lama-lama La ra jadi punya asumsi "the whites are Christian and the colours are moslem". Asumsi dia diperkuat ketika dia diajak ke mesjid Darra mosque untuk belajar ngaji ama si "Master", hampir semua penghuni mesjid waktu itu adalah people with colour, cuma ada satu yang white, bahkan La ra tanya, "why the white come to the mosque?". Pengalaman di Darra cuma berlangsung 2 atau 3 mingguan karena La ra gak comfy with the way they teach, si "Master" oranya sangat strick ama anak-anak termasuk anak kecil. La ra jadi ketakutan, and it's the end of the Darra mosque story. Ternyata, asumsi terus berkembang dan entah apa yang akan terjadi kemudian. Being guilty sepertinya agak menghantui, tapi jalan keluarnya adalah mematahkan asumsi tsb. I said "La ra, you can't think that every white is Christian, but it could happend most of the time. If you don't believe me let me show you my American moslem friend who is white and beautiful." She couldn't help urging me to see her straightaway, but we did it later in the morning. Akhirnya, Jum'at pagi, kita ketemu Molly, the American "white moslem", untuk membuktikan ke La ra kalo her assumption is not true.
InsyaAlloh, this could be a milestone for La ra that she can think of this momentum to be something to think about.
Cerita bermula ketika Christmas celebration in ABC learning centre dan childcare sebelumnya, Munro. Setiap Christmas, semua anak were invited to the celebration. Sudah bisa dipastikan anak siapapun dan agama apapun pasti tertarik ikutan. Jadi akhirnya dari pada dia ikutan, ya dijelasin aja batas - batas yang serba salah - susah dimengerti anak usia 4,5 tahun. I said, we cannot celebrate other religion, their religion is Christian, we are moslem, we do sholat, read Qur'an and be good to everybody. Gak disangka, lama-lama La ra jadi punya asumsi "the whites are Christian and the colours are moslem". Asumsi dia diperkuat ketika dia diajak ke mesjid Darra mosque untuk belajar ngaji ama si "Master", hampir semua penghuni mesjid waktu itu adalah people with colour, cuma ada satu yang white, bahkan La ra tanya, "why the white come to the mosque?". Pengalaman di Darra cuma berlangsung 2 atau 3 mingguan karena La ra gak comfy with the way they teach, si "Master" oranya sangat strick ama anak-anak termasuk anak kecil. La ra jadi ketakutan, and it's the end of the Darra mosque story. Ternyata, asumsi terus berkembang dan entah apa yang akan terjadi kemudian. Being guilty sepertinya agak menghantui, tapi jalan keluarnya adalah mematahkan asumsi tsb. I said "La ra, you can't think that every white is Christian, but it could happend most of the time. If you don't believe me let me show you my American moslem friend who is white and beautiful." She couldn't help urging me to see her straightaway, but we did it later in the morning. Akhirnya, Jum'at pagi, kita ketemu Molly, the American "white moslem", untuk membuktikan ke La ra kalo her assumption is not true.
InsyaAlloh, this could be a milestone for La ra that she can think of this momentum to be something to think about.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Make over
This is the text in my previous blog before the make over
"Meaningful Learning for Meaningful Life
Journal writing is an immersion technique which goal is to encourage writing habit and to develop fluency as well as to improve motivation and attitude towards writing. Journal writing categorised into two: 'Personal' journal - learners write diary-like accounts of daily experience and 'intellectual' journal - students reflect on reading, lectures, class discussion, or their own ideas (Kern, 2000). This journal is part of my intellectual journal, the personal one can be viewed in the link."
I had this ideas to continue my friendster blog about ideas and thought and my obsession about making meaning in my every writing directly and practice my written English. Using this blogger can definitely facilitate all the bits and pieces of templates, instead of using the friendster one. I realise now making meaning doesn't always in a direct way but the salient meaning making come through the inderct one. So now I reconsider my former direct method into the new one. In the new one I will use my native language mixed with my little foreign language.
"Meaningful Learning for Meaningful Life
Journal writing is an immersion technique which goal is to encourage writing habit and to develop fluency as well as to improve motivation and attitude towards writing. Journal writing categorised into two: 'Personal' journal - learners write diary-like accounts of daily experience and 'intellectual' journal - students reflect on reading, lectures, class discussion, or their own ideas (Kern, 2000). This journal is part of my intellectual journal, the personal one can be viewed in the link."
I had this ideas to continue my friendster blog about ideas and thought and my obsession about making meaning in my every writing directly and practice my written English. Using this blogger can definitely facilitate all the bits and pieces of templates, instead of using the friendster one. I realise now making meaning doesn't always in a direct way but the salient meaning making come through the inderct one. So now I reconsider my former direct method into the new one. In the new one I will use my native language mixed with my little foreign language.
Friday, June 09, 2006
English is a Crazy Language
This articles might be just for fun.
It's quoted from QMT, May 2006/ Jumadil Awwal 1427. Vol2, No.3
English is a
Crazy Language
THERE IS NO EGG IN eggplant nor ham in
hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England or
French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies
while sweetbreads, which aren’’t sweet, are
meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore
its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work
slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea
pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And
why is it that writers write but fingers don’t
fing, grocers don’’t groce and hammers don’t
ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the
plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese.
So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2
indices?
Doesn’’t it seem crazy that you can make
amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get
rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’’t preachers
praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a
humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers
should be committed to an asylum for the
verbally insane. In what language do people
recite at a play and play at a recital?
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be
the same, while a wise man and a wise guy
are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a
language in which your house can burn up as
it burns down, in which you fill in a form by
filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by
going on.
English was invented by people,not computers,
and it reflects the creativity of the human
race(which,of course, isn’’t a race at all). That
is why, when the stars are out,they are visible,
but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
More Examples:
1. The bandage was wound around the
wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse
more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in
the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he
thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the
bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the
bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. I had to subject the subject to a series of
tests.
12. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
13. How can I intimate this to my most
intimate friend?
14. There was a row among the oarsmen about
how to row.
15. They were too close to the door to
close it.
16. The buck does funny things when the does
are present.
17. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a
sewer line.
18. To help with planting, the farmer taught his
sow to sow.
19. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
20. After a number of injections my jaw
got number.
21. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed
a tear.
22. Use water to water the plants.
23. Get the cook to cook.
It's quoted from QMT, May 2006/ Jumadil Awwal 1427. Vol2, No.3
English is a
Crazy Language
THERE IS NO EGG IN eggplant nor ham in
hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England or
French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies
while sweetbreads, which aren’’t sweet, are
meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore
its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work
slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea
pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And
why is it that writers write but fingers don’t
fing, grocers don’’t groce and hammers don’t
ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the
plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese.
So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2
indices?
Doesn’’t it seem crazy that you can make
amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get
rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’’t preachers
praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a
humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers
should be committed to an asylum for the
verbally insane. In what language do people
recite at a play and play at a recital?
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be
the same, while a wise man and a wise guy
are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a
language in which your house can burn up as
it burns down, in which you fill in a form by
filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by
going on.
English was invented by people,not computers,
and it reflects the creativity of the human
race(which,of course, isn’’t a race at all). That
is why, when the stars are out,they are visible,
but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
More Examples:
1. The bandage was wound around the
wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse
more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in
the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he
thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the
bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the
bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. I had to subject the subject to a series of
tests.
12. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
13. How can I intimate this to my most
intimate friend?
14. There was a row among the oarsmen about
how to row.
15. They were too close to the door to
close it.
16. The buck does funny things when the does
are present.
17. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a
sewer line.
18. To help with planting, the farmer taught his
sow to sow.
19. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
20. After a number of injections my jaw
got number.
21. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed
a tear.
22. Use water to water the plants.
23. Get the cook to cook.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Multiliteracies
Key Concept of Multiliteracies
To begin with, a pedagogy of multiliteracies is proposed by The New London Group (2000) as Design with its goal to prepare learners to interpret, express, and negotiate meaning in multifarious contexts. In the terms of Cope and Kalantzis (2006), the starting point of multiliteracy is to understand how texts are located and produced socially and historically. In this way, the New London Group, according to Cope and Kalantzis (2006), provides an organizing metaphor of meaning-as-design. In the same way, Kern (2000) sees the proposal as the design of meaning. Design is conceptualised as a way of meaning making in multimodal texts using metalanguage by virtues of understanding the pattern or grammar of semiotic and linguistic features (Cope & Kalantzis, 2006; The New London Group, 2000). Specifically, the Design consists of the Available Design, Designing, and Redesigned.
Design is used “to describe the forms of meaning” (The New London Group, 2000, p. 20). Available Design, in particular, is referred to as any forms of semiotic resources a particular society has developed from time to time that stand ready for the making meaning practices. Furthermore, in the context of classroom pedagogy, the teacher and students need a language (and or metalanguage) to describe the forms of meaning which is represented in the Available Design, for example, website, films, and photography. The patterns of the Available Design include the linguistic Design (vocabulary, transitivity, modality, coherence, etc), visual Design (images, page layout, screen, formats), audio Design (music and sound affects), gestural Design (body language), spatial Design (environmental and architectural spaces), and multimodal Design (the relation of two or more modes of meaning in a dynamic relationship).
While Available Design is concerned with the literacy practices of text interpretation, and to some extent, of text production, Designing is a further, consequent, process of text production. In order to produce texts, learners are required to be active not only to read, listen, and view texts, but also to write, speak, and shape these texts. In this case, Designing process is a process of transforming knowledge, social relation and identity, by means of producing new construction and representation of reality. Moreover, the completion of Designing lies in transformation, that is, the attainment along the processes of recycling the old material in the Available Design into new design of meaning (Kern, 2000).
Redesigned, on the other hand, involves the outcome from the Available Design through the process of Designing. The transformed meaning produced in the Redesigned will be positioned back to the Available Design; this is the point in which the cycle of three aspects of Design is complete.
Of primary importance in the three aspects of Design is the position of the Designer whose role is critical to make the three aspects of Design run as expected. In the context of literacy practices, therefore, Designer refers to the teacher. He or she selects and provides resources, sets up the conducive environment, and gives instructions for learning.
Multiliteracies Frameworks
As a matter of practice, the New London Group (2000) suggests four multiliteracies frameworks, those are the Situated Practice, Overt Instruction, Critical Framing and Transformed practice. What follows is the detailed description of how the multiliteracies framework is implemented.
Situated Practice is a learners’ immersion into meaningful practice and their own authentic life experience. It involves the use of Available Design to make meaning. In relation to life experience, Cope and Kalantzis (in Pahl & Rowsell, 2005) suggest that Situated Practice will work based on the learners’ interest, real life experience with their prior knowledge, from home, school, communities for example their familiarity with TV, computer, internet, videogames and so forth. In the case of the Unit planning, I utilize their familiarity with internet including website and weblog. Weblog, in particular, is fairly popular among the freshmen because it is easy to create. Moreover, compared with a website which is more complicated, to create and maintain a weblog, the freshmen are required practically to follow three simple steps in the dashboard (see figure 1).
(figure 1. http://www.blogger.com/start)
The skill of creating a weblog is categorised as an expert novice (The New London Group, 2000). “[W]eblog entries,” Blood (2000) puts forth, “are made by typing directly into the browser and with the click of a button are instantly published on the internet”. Publishing directly in the internet is a kind of motivating activity to keep writing (to be discussed in the next section). A weblog can be seen as a kind of online journal that someone can continuously update with his or her own words, ideas, and thoughts through software that enables him/her to do it easily. Weblog is a multimodal Design involving Linguistic Design, Visual Design and can be Audio Design. Most of the content of the weblog is personal journal which involves Linguistic Design in which language is used to make meaning along with such elements as vocabulary and metaphor, transitivity, nominalisation of processes and local and global coherence. To be integrated in the Multimodal Design, Visual Design and Audio Design usually come along with the Linguistic design to support the meaning-making, for example, writing journal about event in the university (see. figure 2). At this point, the students can upload a picture related with the topic of the posting in the weblog. In addition, Visual Design is also displayed on the computer screen, such as frames, hyperlink, colours, layout, backgrouding and foregrounding. In their real life, students are exposed to reading and viewing other journals on the weblogs. My objective in the Unit is that students enable students to design a weblog.
(figure 2, http://ollscoil.blogspot.com)
Overt Instruction is defined as the use of metalanguages, content and function of the discourse of practice (The New London Group, 2000). It is a kind of teacher’s intervention in the meaning making process by means of scaffolding (Pahl & Rowsell, 2005). In this process, the students develop a language that describes how they make meaning by employing multimodal resources. They describe, for instance, in the Available Design, the patterns such as the Linguistic Design which involves content and sentence construction. In Visual design, the students, also, describe the pattern of the layout in which they can choose and modify the weblog template and setting, interpret why the picture has to be in a certain way, as well as interpret the colour they use, for example, green in figure 3 to symbolise Hulk, and the image of Hulk to symbolise strength and hero. Finally, they view the meaning of the journal writing in different ways.
example
(figure 3. http://incrediblehulk.blogspot.com/)
Critical Framing is seen as a reflection of what the purpose of design is, who the readers of the weblog journal are, and who the writers are. In this stage, students reconceive their learning around their own culture and the cultures of others (Pahl & Rowsell, 2005). From their viewing personal journals in weblogs, students discuss the different cultural contexts because the personal journals can be written in many languages as can be seen in figure 4. In the case of my students, they will read in Bahasa Indonesia and English. Eventually, they will come to understand why they are different when they relate their local context, values and belief with the global ones, such as in figure 4, the local context is represented in the language use; values and belief is shown on the template design, and the global one is implied in figure 3. The teacher’s role in this stage is to help them ‘deneutralise’ the text and make strange what they have learnt. Put differently, students are helped to ‘problematise’ and challenge the texts as ‘text analysts’ in the Four Resources Model terms. Thereby, they can “constructively critique it; account for its cultural location; creatively extend and apply it; and eventually innovate their own, within old communities and in new ones.”(The New London Group, 2000, p. 34).
(figure 4. http://dust-raider.blogspot.com/)
Transformed Practice allows students to apply and modify what they have learned. This is part of the Redesigning text such as creating new texts on the basis of the existing ones. This practice primarily deals with the application of the Design in different contexts as a result of Overt Instruction and Critical Framing. In the Unit planning, the students may write their personal journals in their own context. for example, to be more useful in developing their language learning (see figure 4), they will write their journal for sharing with readers about their extraordinary language learning experience instead of writing a non-topical journal, or they will transform ‘personal’ journal into ‘intellectual’ journal (Kern, 2000, p. 193). Figure 4 exemplifies the result of Transform Practice. This Redesigned is going to be the Available Design later in the next cycle.
(figure 4. http://roni-languagelearningjournal.blogspot.com)
To begin with, a pedagogy of multiliteracies is proposed by The New London Group (2000) as Design with its goal to prepare learners to interpret, express, and negotiate meaning in multifarious contexts. In the terms of Cope and Kalantzis (2006), the starting point of multiliteracy is to understand how texts are located and produced socially and historically. In this way, the New London Group, according to Cope and Kalantzis (2006), provides an organizing metaphor of meaning-as-design. In the same way, Kern (2000) sees the proposal as the design of meaning. Design is conceptualised as a way of meaning making in multimodal texts using metalanguage by virtues of understanding the pattern or grammar of semiotic and linguistic features (Cope & Kalantzis, 2006; The New London Group, 2000). Specifically, the Design consists of the Available Design, Designing, and Redesigned.
Design is used “to describe the forms of meaning” (The New London Group, 2000, p. 20). Available Design, in particular, is referred to as any forms of semiotic resources a particular society has developed from time to time that stand ready for the making meaning practices. Furthermore, in the context of classroom pedagogy, the teacher and students need a language (and or metalanguage) to describe the forms of meaning which is represented in the Available Design, for example, website, films, and photography. The patterns of the Available Design include the linguistic Design (vocabulary, transitivity, modality, coherence, etc), visual Design (images, page layout, screen, formats), audio Design (music and sound affects), gestural Design (body language), spatial Design (environmental and architectural spaces), and multimodal Design (the relation of two or more modes of meaning in a dynamic relationship).
While Available Design is concerned with the literacy practices of text interpretation, and to some extent, of text production, Designing is a further, consequent, process of text production. In order to produce texts, learners are required to be active not only to read, listen, and view texts, but also to write, speak, and shape these texts. In this case, Designing process is a process of transforming knowledge, social relation and identity, by means of producing new construction and representation of reality. Moreover, the completion of Designing lies in transformation, that is, the attainment along the processes of recycling the old material in the Available Design into new design of meaning (Kern, 2000).
Redesigned, on the other hand, involves the outcome from the Available Design through the process of Designing. The transformed meaning produced in the Redesigned will be positioned back to the Available Design; this is the point in which the cycle of three aspects of Design is complete.
Of primary importance in the three aspects of Design is the position of the Designer whose role is critical to make the three aspects of Design run as expected. In the context of literacy practices, therefore, Designer refers to the teacher. He or she selects and provides resources, sets up the conducive environment, and gives instructions for learning.
Multiliteracies Frameworks
As a matter of practice, the New London Group (2000) suggests four multiliteracies frameworks, those are the Situated Practice, Overt Instruction, Critical Framing and Transformed practice. What follows is the detailed description of how the multiliteracies framework is implemented.
Situated Practice is a learners’ immersion into meaningful practice and their own authentic life experience. It involves the use of Available Design to make meaning. In relation to life experience, Cope and Kalantzis (in Pahl & Rowsell, 2005) suggest that Situated Practice will work based on the learners’ interest, real life experience with their prior knowledge, from home, school, communities for example their familiarity with TV, computer, internet, videogames and so forth. In the case of the Unit planning, I utilize their familiarity with internet including website and weblog. Weblog, in particular, is fairly popular among the freshmen because it is easy to create. Moreover, compared with a website which is more complicated, to create and maintain a weblog, the freshmen are required practically to follow three simple steps in the dashboard (see figure 1).
(figure 1. http://www.blogger.com/start)
The skill of creating a weblog is categorised as an expert novice (The New London Group, 2000). “[W]eblog entries,” Blood (2000) puts forth, “are made by typing directly into the browser and with the click of a button are instantly published on the internet”. Publishing directly in the internet is a kind of motivating activity to keep writing (to be discussed in the next section). A weblog can be seen as a kind of online journal that someone can continuously update with his or her own words, ideas, and thoughts through software that enables him/her to do it easily. Weblog is a multimodal Design involving Linguistic Design, Visual Design and can be Audio Design. Most of the content of the weblog is personal journal which involves Linguistic Design in which language is used to make meaning along with such elements as vocabulary and metaphor, transitivity, nominalisation of processes and local and global coherence. To be integrated in the Multimodal Design, Visual Design and Audio Design usually come along with the Linguistic design to support the meaning-making, for example, writing journal about event in the university (see. figure 2). At this point, the students can upload a picture related with the topic of the posting in the weblog. In addition, Visual Design is also displayed on the computer screen, such as frames, hyperlink, colours, layout, backgrouding and foregrounding. In their real life, students are exposed to reading and viewing other journals on the weblogs. My objective in the Unit is that students enable students to design a weblog.
(figure 2, http://ollscoil.blogspot.com)
Overt Instruction is defined as the use of metalanguages, content and function of the discourse of practice (The New London Group, 2000). It is a kind of teacher’s intervention in the meaning making process by means of scaffolding (Pahl & Rowsell, 2005). In this process, the students develop a language that describes how they make meaning by employing multimodal resources. They describe, for instance, in the Available Design, the patterns such as the Linguistic Design which involves content and sentence construction. In Visual design, the students, also, describe the pattern of the layout in which they can choose and modify the weblog template and setting, interpret why the picture has to be in a certain way, as well as interpret the colour they use, for example, green in figure 3 to symbolise Hulk, and the image of Hulk to symbolise strength and hero. Finally, they view the meaning of the journal writing in different ways.
example
(figure 3. http://incrediblehulk.blogspot.com/)
Critical Framing is seen as a reflection of what the purpose of design is, who the readers of the weblog journal are, and who the writers are. In this stage, students reconceive their learning around their own culture and the cultures of others (Pahl & Rowsell, 2005). From their viewing personal journals in weblogs, students discuss the different cultural contexts because the personal journals can be written in many languages as can be seen in figure 4. In the case of my students, they will read in Bahasa Indonesia and English. Eventually, they will come to understand why they are different when they relate their local context, values and belief with the global ones, such as in figure 4, the local context is represented in the language use; values and belief is shown on the template design, and the global one is implied in figure 3. The teacher’s role in this stage is to help them ‘deneutralise’ the text and make strange what they have learnt. Put differently, students are helped to ‘problematise’ and challenge the texts as ‘text analysts’ in the Four Resources Model terms. Thereby, they can “constructively critique it; account for its cultural location; creatively extend and apply it; and eventually innovate their own, within old communities and in new ones.”(The New London Group, 2000, p. 34).
(figure 4. http://dust-raider.blogspot.com/)
Transformed Practice allows students to apply and modify what they have learned. This is part of the Redesigning text such as creating new texts on the basis of the existing ones. This practice primarily deals with the application of the Design in different contexts as a result of Overt Instruction and Critical Framing. In the Unit planning, the students may write their personal journals in their own context. for example, to be more useful in developing their language learning (see figure 4), they will write their journal for sharing with readers about their extraordinary language learning experience instead of writing a non-topical journal, or they will transform ‘personal’ journal into ‘intellectual’ journal (Kern, 2000, p. 193). Figure 4 exemplifies the result of Transform Practice. This Redesigned is going to be the Available Design later in the next cycle.
(figure 4. http://roni-languagelearningjournal.blogspot.com)
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