I spent my childhood until my young age in a small village
in Banyuwangi. I studied in a private elementary school which only had 5 classrooms
for 6 levels of classes. I didn’t have English subject in my primary school
but, when I was on the 6th grade, I started to feel curious about
English because I used to listen to the radio broadcasted from Bali. Banyuwangi
is quite close to Bali and it was easy to receive channel from Bali radios.
Just before I entered a state junior high school, I told
myself that I had to study English because I would meet students from state
school who received English lesson in their primary level. Then I asked my
parents to buy me a dictionary and because nobody knew English in my family, I started
to read the tenses part in the dictionary. I felt I know very little English
but I didn’t understand.
In junior and senior high school, my favorite subject was
English. However, there was a problem, I couldn’t use active English. All the scores were all for the writing and
grammar things, while I really wanted to speak in English. It was quiet hard to
have active English that time because I lived in a small village, only if you
go to English course you could get partner to speak English, and that’s only
with the tutors.
Things changed a bit as I went to university. I was still
passive until my second semester, simply because I wasn’t used to. But then, I
joined a debating club that explored more skills on thinking and speaking. And
that’s how I started to actively speak in English. Ah, I once had an experience
of joining a speech competition held by toastmaster, but I was disqualified
because I was overtime. I hope I’m not disqualified today. Ms Aris, kindly
alert me before the time’s up please. After that disqualification, I kept
toastmaster name in mind, but all the busy days kept me away from it until some
months ago.
After all the journey with English since I was 6th
grader, I’m now an English teacher and a freelance translator. My students know
English a lot earlier than me. They develop their skills a lot faster than I
did and I realize that I must also improve myself.
