English language in Indonesia is considered a foreign language or in short, EFL. Other countries who have English as their second language (ESL) usually would make use of the language better and can be found encountering using English much often than the EFL countries. Although Indonesia is an EFL country, doesn’t mean that it is rather difficult to find people who are good at English. The fact that English has become global and used as an official language in many non-English speaking countries, makes English these days being planted into people’s mindset to think that it’s an important subject to learn even in Indonesia. Especially in this era, you can easily find advertisements, articles, news, and even Instagram captions in English. Even though one person hasn’t mastered English, they are pushed to read English based contents to make their brain get used to the language little by little.

Teaching isn’t an easy task to do and not everyone can do it even if they are knowledgeable. Moreover, teaching English can be a struggle in Indonesia as an EFL country but it would be easy if teachers could find the perfect methods to make the students get interested in the language. Technologies these days can surely help those who are willing to perfect their ways to teach and learn. Unlike decades ago where you have to pull out thousands of books and find the materials correctly and independently, with the help of technologies such as websites, applications, educational videos, online journals, and news which are all accessible to public use, we can find any sort of informative and educative contents that suit our needs very easily.

The issue that we face in this global pandemic situation is that students are not able to study and learn maximally particularly from school subjects. Since English in Indonesia is mostly held by official associations and school, the materials given are not fully absorbed by them since it is not held face-to-face. Students aren’t able to encounter activities such as group discussion, question and answer, storytelling, quizzes, games, etc. that originally are meant to be person-to-person learning methods. But besides that, teachers are obligated to find the best solutions out of every case possible, and in this case, teachers can use technologies to help out those perfecting English learning. Using the help of websites and applications that are available such as Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and many similar others alongside motivation given to the students can boost up their interests, and therefore they will be able to study English more excellently.

During my study in the 4th semester, we were taught to make a scenario where we teach English to young learners with the circumstances where young learners tend to be active, have a short attention span, and mostly understand the subject through playing games, etc.. I managed to put up a game through Zoom room where they can come up with ideas to make sentences out of single word I gave to them, then using Padlet–a platform that lets you and your students post a wall like Tumblr posts and all people in the made-up circle can drop comments down the wall posted–I made them type their answers and correct them afterward. This can be one of the solutions for the teachers to keep teaching English even during the global pandemic era.

Abyana Maheswara
BINUSIAN 2022
English Literature
Aternative/Combined Track 2020
2201799890

I have confident in myself that my strengths would help me in deciding my future career plan. I am collaborative and able to work in a small group. Usually I take part on giving tasks to what each member should be working on. I am empathetic and I relate to the position someone is going through, at least making them feel heard and help them relieve what they have in mind. Another treasure I found within these past few months is starting my hobby on drawing digitally. I use illustration applications such as IbisPaint and Clip Studio Paint. I want to expand my knowledge on other applications as well, like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. To support that, I need to develop my creativity skill by exploring new unlimited ideas, be open and updated to any sources. I am consistent and I work on the projects as hard as I could, putting efforts perfecting the thing I’m working on. Being respectful is also the most essential skill, not only in a working environment but also in common sense in general. I put a lot of consideration into decision making, open-minded and would discuss a task together until we meet the perfect solution.

I have interest in makeup and skincare products since I was in high school so I dream to work in a company such as Female Daily, Sociolla, Althea, Style Korean, Charis or any other cosmetic and skincare sources or brands in Indonesia. I want to be part of the team of an environment where I could work but have fun as well. Work consistent yet playful because working atmosphere could really determine your performance. Another thing is to be able to adapt and communicate well with the people you work alongside with from different backgrounds and various ages.

Looking at the job that I would possibly choose, which are either editor or art director, I believe that my strengths are still in need to be developed and expanded more. Teamwork and creativity is essential because it’s not the place where I work all by myself. Personally, I think everyday we always learn something new, and having a job in a certain company doesn’t mean that you have already achieved the top place and be excellent at everything, instead, we are all still growing and learning new things each day.

Abyana Maheswara
BINUSIAN 2022
NIM: 2201799890
English Literature Alternative Track 2020

written by Abyana Maheswara, B2022

Having a good top notch academic-wise is great and all, but do you know that people who qualifies these “skills” are considered way more reliable and have the chance to succeed more than those who aren’t? Yep. It’s work ethic. You may have heard it, but what is work ethic actually? Work ethic is an ethical principal that places greatest value on hard work and intelligence. It is such a waste for a person to have amazing achievements and is being praised everywhere they go but at the end they don’t know how to work alongside with other people. Work ethic is crucial, especially if you just started working for the first time, whether you’re on internship or full-time job.

Let’s say, you want to get a job, but you don’t have the idea where to apply or what you want to become. What will possibly happen next? You will become desperate and think “just go along with the flow”. Wrong. First thing first you have to set a clear mind. Create a path to the “ideal” world you want to live in. What do you want to be? What career do you think is suitable for you? It is almost the same as searching for dream major and university, except it is broader and universal. To have the “ideal” world set beforehand, you will be able to dig in and explore new information that you may haven’t heard of before.

Professionalism. Be professional. Even though the job would be your first ever job, it doesn’t mean that it’s okay to slack off and play around. The job seeker would have paid attention to your preparations and consider that to your “hireable” point. Suit up, gear up, and don’t be late for the interview. Waiting 30 minutes for your turn is way better than being late for 5 minutes. Next, tolerance. Show respect and be open-minded. You will be working in a space and environment where you are not the only one pedalling your brain. You will work together alongside people with various educational backgrounds and ages. No matter what kind of person or group you will be working with, try to always respect their opinion, ideas, responses and feedbacks, this shows that you value others’ individual worth as well as their professional contribution. Third, flexibility. Grow capability on handling tight schedule, close due-date, emergency changes, sudden meeting and other things related and your reputation will be considered as trust-worthy because your colleagues will appreciate the stability you embody. Forth, integrity. Behave honourably whether someone is watching or not. This will eventually be your biggest “flex” if you manage to apply this while you work, even by yourself. Because when the employees have integrity, their managers can put their trusts in them, knowing that they will work diligently.

Other two essential things are dedication and desire to think. Don’t stop until you finished your job. You never want to go for just “decent” outcome, you want to step further to achieve “outstanding”. Good enough is not good enough for you and your team. You have spent hours perfecting your job and giving attention and devotion to excellence. Your passion shows in how hard you work and the end results you achieve. And lastly, desire to think. It is about how you manage to solve any problems in front of you. Even if it’s not work related, the way you handle and figure things out on your own will also unconsciously examined as valuable to the people around you, knowing that you have high consideration enough to think rational and eventually, people would feel comfortable and love to work with you.