Please Don't Belittled Jesus This Christmas

Yes! That's my grown up Christmas List.
If you are Christians ... if you said that you are...
Please don't belittled Jesus this Christmas
If you are Christian, Jesus is more than Santa or Sinterclass
     who are only there once a year
Jesus stays with you, walk with you all year long
     every step of the way... every breath that you take

If you are Christian,
      Merry Christmas means more that Happy Holliday
Stop all those talks about Christmas as adopting pagan festival
In our walks of life, those worldly culture mesh with religious ones
     but despite the days, the season, the years...
Jesus was born, has been born and THAT birth...
     gives new Life to whoever believe in Him

"May your days be Merry and Bright"
     doesn't refer to those Holiday Christmas Lights!
It is that Light you carry with you inside
      that shines your path...
      on those dark days far away from all these glistening Christmas light

If you are Christian,
      Jesus is more than all those abundance of gifts
      you 'found' under the tree on Christmas morning
"I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see...."
Seriously! With faith in Jesus,
       you will find gifts every morning when you open your eyes

If you are Christians,
       Buying... wrapping... sending... exchanging... lost and lots of gifts
       do not necessarily mean 'giving' the way Jesus taught us.
Pay close attention that you are not simply succumb to consumerism come Christmas time
Be careful not to teach your children that Christmas is simply presents and lots and lots of Present.

A TV advert of a supermarket here in UK shows a mother frantic dash in days around Christmas
She shops and she shops some more... she cooks, she cleans, she worries...
She works almost like a race horse round the clock
But the Supermarket is always behind her
       to MAKE SURE it is a great Christmas...
I know the center of MY Christmas is NOT the Christmas turkeys and ll its trimming
It's the going to Church with family and the family praying time made special by Christmas day
I know my parents MAKE SURE that it is a great Christmas
       because we sat down together to read the bible and pray
       because we stay awake to pray together
       because they MAKE SURE we know prayer is more important
                   than those firecrackers, trumpets, singing
                   and cajoling outside during our praying time.
       because they MAKE SURE Jesus is in the center of it all.
I want to thank my parents for this.

In my growing up days, we have those frantic days...
We have those shopping and shopping some more
We cook and bake like never before
Yes, I am glad in Indonesia (at least during my time),
        Christmas doesn't mean we have to buy EVERYONE in the house a gift.
         We never did and it is not a problem.
Because in the heart of it all, it's that family prayer time
That hour when we sat together, reading the holy Bible
remembering the gifts and the promises that were given to us
And as we bow our heads in prayers as family... as Christians
As people who receive the greatest gift known to man, Jesus Christ.

But....
Things are changing in my little hometown of Ambon
Santa is more attractive on Christmas
        as Malls, shopping centers and hotels ran their Santa program
We still have all the Christmas gathering with carols, hymns and praise
        .... church services and family services
but you can feel it in your bones that some where in the midst of all this
the true meaning are getting lost in between those glistening merry
Well, bible has warned us of these times...
 
So... Go ahead... It's OK... make your house festive
God wants you to be merry
Put up the tree and all the lights
wrapped those gifts and put it under the tree
Cook, bake, clean and be hectic like only this time of the year could
Visit Santa grotto or play merrily with him
but do tell story of Jesus... experience Jesus in your life and make him real

And Please...
It's Jesus birthday... invite HIM to your home and not that big fat ho-ho-ho-ing man in red


If you are Christian, remember the true meaning of Christmas
My parents make sure I remember this
I AM passing it on to my children
Because those days have come
        when the world robbed you of your true Christmas
        and replace it with season festivity


If you are Christian,
        ....write those cards
but please,....
       Write "Merry Christmas" and not Happy Holiday or Season's Greetings
Because Jesus put the 'Christ' in Christmas

Merry Christmas!

8th Meeting: Family Conversation

Taken from http://www.sis.ac/diary-yanapuma-spanish-student

Yes! Today we learn about the family tree combined with the Possessive Pronoun. In my classroom, my students love this parts and the exercises because they can personally relate the vocabulary and reading to their own family. Also, there's that opportunity to show (off) pictures of you and your family.

In our Spanish Class, we complete the family tree in our worksheet, and complete listening task. Then we drew our own family tree and work in groups of three. By this time (8th class meeting), our 'conversation' flow much better because we know the questions, the 'connection'/filler sentences and phrases, we got more accustomed to the phatic conversation practices. So we can safely say that we are 'talking' Spanish.

Now, let's talk about about Phatic Interaction:

The Oxford Online Dictionary defines Phatic as “denoting or relating to language used for general purposes of social interaction, rather than to convey information or ask questions.” Therefore, Phatic Interaction means small talk. ‘Hello’, ‘how are you’, ‘nice weather, isn’t it?’, ‘fancy meeting you here, Fred’, ‘See you later and hi to your mother’ are all examples of phatic interaction. It can be verbal or non-verbal. Non-verbal phatic interaction can take form as waving to someone you know across the street or gesturing  ‘call me’ or I’ll call you’  to a girl on the bus after a date with your thumb and little finger to your ear. In Indonesian language, Phatic is  basa-basi, meaning nonsense talk or “beat around the bush” talk. Nevertheless, our daily communication relies heavily on this to bridge a smooth and interesting communication.  

Phatic Interaction/communication is important to be learned or taught to second language (L2) learner. It has an important social function. It helps L2 learners to be more natural in their conversation instead of sounding like they are memorizing cue cards straight from textbook. Phatic communication contains knowledge and sense social norms or customs that are different from one areas to another. L2 learners who are not familiar with this phatic communication may interpret it the wrong way. An L2 learner came to UK for the first time and went to small café to buy coffee. She was greeted with “Hiya! You alright? Can I get you anything?”. She smiled politely but puzzled and checked herself in the mirror thinking if she looked sick or ‘not alright’. 

The aim of learning second or foreign language to certain extend is to be able to communicate with the speaker of the target language. The teaching of second or foreign language is to prepare student to be able to participate in real life conversation outside the classroom.  As mundane and easy as it may seem, a talk or a conversation is complex in nature. It is more than just forming correct syntactic and semantic sentences. It also involves the conversational skill that observes social customs and values on top of the substantive content of our message.

There 2 kinds of interaction in a conversation, Interactional and Transactional (McCarthy, 1996: 136 - 137). Burns (2001: 126) in Todd (1998: 7) provides us with the definition

“Transactional interactions are those primarily involving the exchange of some form of good and service, or information, while interactional interactions primarily involve the creation, maintenance and extension of personal and social relations”.

Interactional interaction takes up the majority of our communication flow. Phatic interaction belong to this category.

Lee (2001: 23) in Todd (1998: 23) says that the ESL teacher’s job is “not to implant the ways of native speakers in the learners, but to inform learners of their pragmatic choices and consequences”. One way of doing this is for teacher to use the CA/DA approach in their teaching. In doing so, students are taught not just to memorize chunks of conversation but to be aware of its functions and meaning. Conversation (and talk exchanges in general) has structure that most of the time not apparent to the speakers. Nevertheless when asked to recall the ‘unsuccessful’ conversation, one may become aware of the conversational expectation it required (Akmaijan 2001:387, 388).

With the renewed understanding of the conversational functions, L2 learners will be more confidence to initiate/engage in a conversation and have the skill to carry it through. In conclusion, it is possible to use CA/DA in English Language classroom or any L2 classroom, Phatic interaction is still important to be highlighted especially the one that are not apparent in textbook as this is crucial for social function. The acquisition of these conversational skills is beneficial for one’s communicative ability in English or other L2.-

7th Meeting: Places

Photo from http://www.cooltownstudios.com/2005/05/02/a-treasure-trove-of-public-spaces

It turned out that there were only 4 people in our last week class. So the teacher pretty much review quite a big chunks from last week in today's class. Happy me! But I am also happy because my Spanish Classmate sent me the notes of the class so I did have something before I come to class. 

We learned the public places and practice using the question sentences we've learned so far. 

Today is about pair work and listening. 

It was all great but I get off on a shaky start simply because I felt so unprepared due to my absence from the last class. Which on the other hand is silly because, I have the notes. 

The listening was more complicated than the last one but we managed in the end.

6th Meeting: Something missed... something to be reminded of...

I don't think everybody knows that I received scholarship for my MA study. I missed this class meeting because I was in London for the event with the Scholarship. Therefore, I will share a little bit about my chevening adventure

I'm honored to received the prestigious FCO Chevening scholarship for 2012/2013 MA study in Sussex. There are 32 scholars from Indonesia and East Timor this year. They are currently studying in universities all over UK. I chose Sussex University for several reasons.
1. My husband (also a Chevening Scholar-2009/2010) did his MA in International Education and Development at Sussex University. I (we) fell in love with the city and I with the university: the research, the study life, the ambiance. Hence, my return
2. Our Landlords, Jan and Rusty, have become a family for us. we do not feel like renting a flat at their place. It's like living in the ground floor of your own family house. Our baby daughter was also born during our stay in UK. When we left, I made a silent promise. If ever I get an opportunity on a scholarship in UK. I would like to return to Sussex.

The scholarship is very competitive. Application comes from all over Indonesia. I am the only one from my province, Maluku.

Why am I chosen? Well, It is still feel surreal for me. I also feel shy whenever we are in a meeting and someone pointed me as scholar. hehehehe... that comes with all the high expectation... aaannndd... it's scary. The truth is I am someone who is passionate of English, of teaching/education and of working with young people. The scholarship put down the selection criteria for the typical successful applicant as follows

• is a professional graduate, in early or mid-career, who displays both intellectual ability and clear leadership potential
• has already worked for 2-3 years in his/her chosen profession
• is committed to return to his/her home country and contribute to its socioeconomic development, by implementing the new skills and knowledge acquired in the UK
• has a proven track record of professional excellence and achievement, with the prospect of becoming a leader in his/her chosen field
• is able to show at interview that he/she possesses the personal qualities to benefit from the scholarship and use it to succeed in his/her chosen career
• has a clear idea how the scholarship will benefit their country on his/her return

Do I ticked all the boxes? Perhaps. The list seems very prestigious and wow. I believe that I am given a great opportunity based on my work. Being selected to receive the scholarship means that someone sees the potential in me and want to invest in that. Believing that I can make a difference, to make the world a better place. So... here's a bit about me.

My BA is on English Teaching from Local University, University of Pattimura. During my last months to finished my high school (1999) a conflict erupted in my Island, Ambon and then spread to the whole province. It was a sectarian conflict between Muslim and Christian. It is awful and sad because the religion is used as the vehicle. Our province is known for it's social contract, Pela and Gandong, that are practiced from generation to generation from ancestor long before religion came. It is a social contract that ensure our harmonious living despite race, religion and customs. Long story short, the sectarian conflict lasted for 6 years. I was a refugee and live in refugee camp for 3 years. That year saw me entering university for my BA and went to classes in alternatives buildings, while avoiding snipers and road blocks, because our university was burnt down together with my village.

During this 3 year period, I was involved working with peace and reconciliation movements. I was then selected to be trained in Canberra, Australia together with youth from 6 others conflict areas in Asia Pacific, to be the pioneer group and established the Young Ambassadors for Peace (YAP) in Asia Pacific. In Ambon, Maluku, YAP work as the youth counterpart along side other local organization such as Maluku Interfaith Institution, Concerned Woman of Maluku and religious institutions. YAP works with the ex-combatants and conflict effected young people, providing activity on peace building, conflict resolution, reconciliation, trust building and community organizing. I was the country Co-coordinator for 3 years. We hold workshops and group activity with a diverse focus and approaches. One of the activity was the English Groups which was run for sometimes but it provided the young people with a reason to come to the basecamp (set in the border areas). It gives them opportunity to 'learn' English (very useful later) and to bond with friends from the opposite group.

On the other hand, I have been running English Class at home since 1997/1998 and even in refugee camp, we managed to keep this running. This brings income for my family. We (my mother and I) were even contracted to teach English the Navy top rank officer, which we did for 1 year.
Just 2 months before my leave to UK, my English Class has been upgraded to a Language Center. The official name is Marlene's Language Center. It has it's government licensed and recognized by the National Education Department. (We have at the moment 100 students and more to come this coming January). This means that we are eligible to issue certificate for our English Course. However our Language Center also offers customized Dutch and German classes as well. I am super excited with this. Because in the future, I am planning to connect my Language Center with my Youth work. Perhaps, develop a qualification and skill based programs for them so they are ready for the working world. I have ideas already with my Language Center as recognized organization and later my degree in English Language Teaching. God's willing I can put all this opportunity to good use and benefit many people.

To learn more about my work and conflict in my place:
- Uniting World Program / Young Ambassadors for Peace / Ambon, Maluku
- My latest Article at Uniting World on Conflict in Ambon
- Also On Provocateur for Peace
- Other article about the recent conflict
- Say Peace NOW in Ambon
- Musabaqoh Tilawatil Quran in Ambon