EVALUASI KINERJA DOSEN

Dear all  students of faculty of letters,

The end of even semester is nearly approaching by few weeks ahead. For the sake of teaching-learning quality improvement, The Faculty of Letters will do the evaluation on the lecturers and students progress. 

As the students, you are expected to get involved in scoring and evaluating the lecturers’ progress. To do so, you can download the available lecturer evaluation form by clicking the link below. Please kindly print out the form depending on how many lecturers teaching in your class (if there are 5 lecturers, each student must print out five forms and fill it out). If you have finished, please return the evaluation forms to the faculty. 

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Department Head 

English Literature Study Program

Arapa Efendi S.S., M.Hum

Click the link below to download the evaluation form

http://downloads.ziddu.com/download/23806009/KUESIONER.doc.html

Phonetics and Phonology (The Study of the Sound Productions)

Have you ever wondered and given questions to yourself how the sounds are produced when you're speaking? What organs of your speech are involved when you produce vowels or consonants? We have 5 vowels in Bahasa Indonesia, do we have the same numbers of vowels in English? These questions can be answered in through Phonetics and Phonology. Phonetics and Phonology are concerned with speech with the ways in which humans produce and hear speech (Clark & Yallop, 1990:1). These two production and reception of speech sounds in all its complexity. That is, they study the whole process and all the mechanisms involved in the production and reception of speech.

What is the difference between the two? Phonetics is concerned with the anatomy and physiology of speech, with the production organs (Articulatory Phonetics). Therefore, what we are going to focus on is the anatomy of the speech organs involved in the production of sound. Thus, phonetics is simply the study of how the sounds are produced. There are three important aspects of studying phonetics; 1) how the sounds are produced (articulatory phonetics; 2) the physical characteristics of the speech organs to which the sounds are produced (accoustic phonetics), and; 3) how the sounds are perceived (auditory phonetics). What about phonology? Phonology is concerned with the "systems and patterns"  of sounds that occur in the particular language. For instance, we might be interested on the intonation or stress of the sound when we are speaking. However, both disciplines must be studied together. Phonetics and phonology only study the two different aspects of the same reality. In short, speech is complex human phenomenon which involves mental and physical components and both phonetics and phonology aim at accounting for this complexity.

Now we turn to the first discussion on Phonetics. At first, we'll begin with the discussion of the speech organs. Speech organs are the organs needed for the sound production. It is also called the vocal organs. The speech organs are divided into two categories; active and passive articulators. Active articulators are the speech organs that move to passive articulators to produce the speech sounds, in different manners. For instance, the most active articulator refers to the "tongue". Meanwhile, the other two active articulators the lower lip and glottis. Compare to the active articulators, passive articulators refer to the speech organs that remain static during the articulation of the sounds. Upper lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, and pharynx wall are passive articulators.


To be continued...

Writing a News Report

Before you go further to know what a news report is and how you should report (write) the news, try to think of the answer for the following questions?

1. What is a news report?
2. Is there any specific format for the news report? Then, what needs to be included?
   

What is a news report?

The answers to the above questions will lead you to a clear understanding of the general questions about what the news report is and how you should write it. First, it is better to pick the word "news". When talking about news, there are some words that might come to your mind such as informative, factual, and fresh. From those three words, we must assume that a news must contain of at least an information and that information should be both  factual and fresh. It should be informative as the writer has to present important information with a very limited space (i.e. newspaper article, magazine, etc). Thus, informative words are necessary to the news value therefore it would not seem to hang around the topic. However, a news must also be factual in the way that it presents the fact to its readers. A news should also be fresh. By the word "fresh" it means that the information you present must be current. Besides, the article that you write as your news report must have a very interesting title (as appear in the news headline). Make it more eye-catching, so that it will attract the readers to read your article. Second, what about news writing? Simply, a news writing is a kind of report writing on what you have observed. Before you start writing, in a news report you are required to learn and observe your object. During observation, you must collect supporting data (interview, field-noting, or recording) so that you are might get the big picture on what you have to write. This is perhaps something that differentiates between news report (writing) with the other types of writing that do not need such kind of observation.

Is there any specific format for the news report?

Yes, there is! there are, at least, 6 parts that you should remember in a news writing. Those six parts are summarized as follows:

1. News Headline
2. Byline
3. Placeline
4. Lead
5. Body
6. Quotation (gathered from interview), and
7. End

News headline is the most integral part in a news writing. It shows what your article is about and this must be an eye-catching headline that would attract the readers to read your writing. For instance, instead of writing "Culinary Place in Balikpapan", you might write "The Most Visited Culinary Place in Balikpapan or The Booming Culinary Place in Balikpapan". The first option seems to use a very standard language and thus it does not affect the readers to read the article in the same way with the second (optional) place. Second is the Byline. It consists of the information about the writer and the date your writing gets published. Meanwhile, the Placeline refers to the place or the setting of your writing. Thus, if you write an event that takes place in Jakarta, you should begin your writing with the place followed with the dashes and then body of the news report (i.e. " Jakarta--The police announced that the thieves.....".  The Lead is the first sentence that introduce the news. It should sum up the whole story that you write. As the news headline, you should make interesting, eye-catching, yet informative. In addition to that, you may give the supporting details to your Lead. Remember, the supporting details (in the body of the paragraph) should be related with what you write on your lead. It means that do not give any irrelevant details idea to your Lead. Since the news should be factual, you need to give something factual that will support your writing. The way to do this is to conduct an interview, field-noting, or recording in order to get close to factual information. After interviewing the respondent, you might transcribe the interview and put it into the body of news writing with the "quotation marks" to indicate that you have conducted the interview and your writing is valid. 

The last part of news writing is an "END". The ending or the closing of news writing is called end. The -end part of a news writing do not mean that you have to end the news writing in certain way rather just to end your writing. 

Arapa Efendi

Here is the website to see the example of news writing :http://www.thejakartapost.com/

Apatis

Sepulang dari Stasiun Tugu (Jogja), saya melintasi Jl. Gejayan sekitar pukul 2.45 dini hari. Dari kejauhan terlihat seseorang tergeletak persis di tengah jalan, tidak jelas apakah itu hanya aksi teatrikal atau korban kecelakaan. Ketika mendekat ternyata betul itu manusia dan tidak ada aksi teatrikal di sana karena jalan itu kebetulan lagi sepi kecuali para penjual dan penikmat Gudeg yang biasa nongkrong di pinggir jalan dan itu pun berjarak sekitar 15 meter dari korban kecelakaan. Setelah mendekat, ternyata ada 2 korban (wanita) kecelakaan tergeletak di tengah jalan, satu di sebelah kanan (menuju ke arah selatan) dan satu lagi yang saya temui di sebelah kiri (ke arah utara). 

Mirisnya, pengendara roda dua dan empat lalu lalang saja di depan korban kecelakaan tersebut, hanya menengok dan kemudian pergi dengan cepat tanpa memperdulikan korban yang terkapar dan terlihat sangat sekarat tersebut. Penikmat gudeg pun tak kalah apatisnya, mereka hanya berdiri dan menengok kemudian kembali ke “piringnya” masing-masing. Setelah menunggu, barulah bersama beberapa anak muda, korban tersebut bisa dibawa ke RS terdekat dan itu pun harus menunggu beberapa menit untuk mencegat kendaraan roda empat yang ketika melihat korban langsung tancap gas. Setelah itu saya mampir ke tempat penjual gudeg di pinggir jalan karena memang saya sangat lapar setelah 8 jam berada di dalam gerbong kereta. 

Sesampainya di penjual gudeg, beberapa orang kemudian menanyakan perihal kecelakaan tersebut. Bingo! Ternyata mereka tahu persis kecelakaan itu, tapi kenapa tidak ada satupun yang tergerak untuk setidaknya mengangkat korban ke pinggir jalan atau mencegat mobil untuk membawa korban ke RS terdekat? Usut punya usut ternyata penyebab pertamanya adalah karena mereka takut diinterogasi dan menjadi saksi kecelakaan tersebut, atau lebih buruknya dituduh menjadi penyebab kecelakaan tersebut. 

Parah bukan? Ketika melihat korban terkapar sekarat, seseorang masih sempat memikirkan kepentingan pribadinya, serta mempertimbangkan untung-ruginya menolong si korban. Mungkin pengalaman ini hanya sedikit dari banyak kejadian yang (hampir) sama di masyarakat kita. Saya bahkan sudah tidak percaya lagi bahwa kita adalah masyarakat yang dikenal sangat mengutamakan kebersamaan dan berbudaya, atau segala macamnya dengan tingkah-laku yang sangat apatis dan bahkan terkesan cynical (hanya peduli pada dirinya sendiri). 

Kontemplasi: Bagian Kecil dari Korupsi

Seringkali kita menghujat dan mengutuk para pelaku tindak korupsi, tapi pernahkah kita merenungkan bahwa terkadang (sadar maupun tidak sadar) kita juga menjadi bagian kecil dari korupsi tersebut? Beberapa  minggu yang lalu ketika pulang ke Kalimantan, saya pergi ke salah satu dinas milik pemerintah untuk mengurus beberapa dokumen. Sebelum pergi ke kantor dinas tersebut, abah (ayah) saya menyarankan agar saya menyisihkan uang sedikitnya Rp.20 ribu (dimasukkan kedalam amplop) untuk diberikan kepada petugas nanti sebagai tanda terima kasih & agar urusan saya lancar, ujarnya.

Saya membiarkan saja saran tersebut, dan tidak menyiapkan apapun karena setahu saya mengurus dokumen tersebut sudah sewajarnya menjadi pekerjaan para petugas dan mereka dibayar untuk itu, melayani masyarakat. Sesampainya disana, ratusan orang sudah menunggu untuk mengurus kelengkapan dokumen (kebetulan hari itu bertepatan dengan penerimaan CPNS daerah dan provinsi). Beberapa petugas terlihat duduk di depan, sedangkan para pengunjung dan saya mengisi ratusan kursi di depan mereka bak anak SD yang menunggu giliran dipanggil namanya untuk mengambil rapor. Kebetulan saya duduk bersebelahan dengan seorang kawan lama. Orang-orang pun berlalu lalang di depan saya ketika tiba giliran mereka. Terus terang saya agak risih dengan sikap para petugas di sini yang menganggap wajar canda (yang menurut saya hinaan) yang menyangkut hal pribadi seseorang di depan umum. Ya, tidak beretika! Itulah kesan pertama saya. Belum pernah saya mendengar petugas yang berujar "Aduh ikam lagi, kenapa gantikah status sudah, maka semalam di suratnya belum kawin, wahini sudah kawin, kayamana nyamanlah kawin, nyaman lo? (wah kamu lagi, gimana sudah ganti status ya? kemarin di suratnya belum menikah kan? sekarang sudah menikah. Gimana nikah, enak kan?)" dan ratusan orang di ruangan itu pun sontak tertawa sementara si pemuda hanya bisa "nyengir".

Kembali lagi ke masalah korupsi, dan benar saja ketika urusan mereka sudah beres mereka berjabat tangan dengan si petugas-petugas "nakal" ini dengan amplop-amplop putih ditangannya. Sebuah kotak pun telah dipersiapkan di balik meja untuk menampung amplop-amplop tersebut. Saya pun bertanya kepada teman di sebelah saya perihal tujuan amplop (yang berisi uang tersebut). Jawabannya sudah bisa ditebak untuk biaya "administrasi". "Administrasi apa?" tanya saya. "Biasa. Biar urusannya lancar dan cepat" Jawab teman di sebelah saya. Teman saya pun kemudian menjelaskan panjang lebar, bahwa ternyata uang yang di amplop tersebut bervariasi jumlahnya dari paling sedikit Rp. 20.000-50.000. Dan sudah menjadi kebiasaan orang-orang untuk "sukarela" menyumbang kepada para petugas tersebut. Yap! Giliran saya pun tiba, saya diminta tanda tangan berkas dan kemudian menuju petugas yang sudah menunggu dengan senyum yang menurut saya misterius itu. "Permisi, saya mau mengambil berkas saya, Pak" pinta saya. Petugas tersebut tidak langsung menyerahkan dokumen saya, tapi malah berbasa-basi perihal ini dan itu, sekolah saya, termasuk kebiasaan orang disini. Setelah lama berbasa-basi yang menurut saya tidak penting, akhirnya si petugas pun menyerahkan berkas saya dengan wajah yang "terpaksa" layaknya wajah orang yang susah BAB setelah saya bilang "Kenapa disini harus bayar, Pak? Kalau untuk administrasi saya mau minta bukti pembayarannya". Petugas tersebut hanya diam, dan kemudian menyerahkan berkas saya.

Well, 20 atau 50 ribu memang sedikit jumlahnya, tapi coba jumlahkan berapa uang yang ada di kotak tersebut jika pengunjung yang datang paling sedikit 500 orang/hari, untuk apa uang sebanyak itu? dibagi-bagikan? bukannya itu pungli? (pungutan liar), dan pungli oleh para oknum dari dinas kerja pemerintah juga termasuk korupsi bukan? Seandainya kita menolak, pasti budaya "sumbangan sukarela" tersebut tidak akan terjadi dan mengakar di masyarakat kita. Bukannya, hal tersebut sudah menjadi kewajiban para petugas untuk melayani masyarakat secara sukarela? Dan mereka memang diberikan gajih untuk itu. Saya teringat Pak Dukuh di Jogja yang hanya meminta uang ganti fotocopy Rp. 1000 untuk beberapa surat pengantar yang saya minta. Menurut saya itu wajar, dan jarang sekali orang seperti beliau ini saya temukan di dinas-dinas pemerintah (Kalimantan Tengah) yang katanya orangnya berpendidikan. Sekian.

Komunikasi Politik 6 Penguasa

Ada 3 hal mendasar yang menjadi tolak ukur pola komunikasi (communication style) politik seorang pemimpin. Pertama, komunikasi politik dipengaruhi oleh "watak" atau bawaan dari pemimpin tersebut. Kedua, bagaimana sang pemimpin menjalankan kekuasaannya (e.g otoriter, demokratis, lamban, tempramental, dan lainnya). Ketiga, pola kepemimpinan dipengaruhi oleh situasi politik yang terjadi saat itu. 

Tidak dipungkiri bahwa "watak" atau bawaan seseorang dapat mempengaruhi pola komunikasi orang tersebut. Soekarno, misalnya, dikenal sebagai pemimpin yang berwatak keras. Hal ini tidak lepas dari pengalaman-pengalaman hidupnya yang kaya akan getirnya perjuangan sebagai seorang anak muda yang pada waktu itu acap kali keluar-masuk penjara demi tercapainya cita-citanya untuk membangun negara ini menjadi negara bebas dan mandiri. Faktanya, ia menjadi sosok yang ideal pada waktu itu untuk memimpin negara ini. Tidak heran, hal ini pun mempengaruhi pola komunikasinya. Misalnya, ia tahan berjam-jam berpidato tanpa teks dan pidatonya pun mampu membakar semangat orang-orang yang mendengarkan pidatonya. Soekarno juga dikenal sebagai pemipin yang "alergi" terhadap kekuatan barat. Maka jangan heran ketika istilah "antek-antek asing" sering sekali mencuat dari mulutnya pada waktu itu. Sama halnya dengan Soekarno, Soeharto, sebagai presiden kedua Indonesia, juga memiliki watak yang keras. Latar belakangnya sebagai the real soldier membuatnya memiliki pola kepemimpinan yang keras pada saat itu. Secara tidak langsung, hal ini juga mempengaruhi pola komunikasi politiknya yang otoriter.  Sayang, seiring dengan menurunnya pamornya di penghujung 1990-an, kegarangan komunikasi politiknya yang terkenal sangat offensive-pun tidak lagi bergema di negara ini. 

Bagaimana dengan Habibie? latar belakang pendidikannya di Aachen, Jerman, dengan predikat kelulusan Summa Cum Laude serta pengalamannya bekerja cukup lama di salah satu perusahaan penerbangan ternama di negara tersebut dan pengaruh kultur Sulawesinya, membentuk watak aslinya yang sangat demokratis, meletup-letup, dan cepat mengambil keputusan. Namun, terkadang ia enggan dikritik. Kedekatannya dengan presiden Soeharto (pada waktu itu) menempatkannya pada posisi yang dilematis. Di satu sisi ia sangat loyal terhadap "gurunya", namun desakan dari masyarakat luas pada waktu itu sangat deras dan membuat komunikasi politiknya terkadang sangat normatif. 

Sebaliknya, pola komunikasi politik mantan presiden Megawati dan Gusdur sangatlah lemah. Hal ini tentunya tidak lepas dari background keduanya yang amat sangat berpengaruh terhadap pola komunikasi politiknya. Tidak dipungkiri bahwa rekam jejak Megawati didunia politk sangatlah minim walaupun beliau dikenal sebagai ketua umum PDIP perjuangan yang cukup berpengaruh (pada saat itu). Hal lain yang mempengaruhi lemahnya pola komunikasi Megawati adalah latar belakang pendidikannya yang tidak cukup istimewa. Maka jangan heran jika tidak ada yang istimewa dengan pola komunikasi politik beliau. Pola komunikasinya sangatlah normatif, emosional, anti kritik, dan kurang akan gagasan-gagasan baru (less innovative). Hal ini lah yang membuatnya lamban dalam mengambil keputusan. Seringkali, intervensi-intervensi orang-orang terdekat sangat mempengaruhi keputusannya.  Senada dengan hal ini, pola komunikasi Gusdur (K.H Abdurrahman Wahid) juga dikenal kurang efektif karena seringkali masalah-masalah serius tercampur dengan guyonan-guyonannya. 

SBY? secara gamblang kita bisa melihat bahwa "bawaan" beliau adalah ragu-ragu, bimbang, dan sangat hati-hati dalam bertindak. Penulis, melalui narasumber,  mengenal beliau sebagai orang yang sangat hobi membaca buku. Ketika di AKABRI, beliau lebih suka membaca buku sedang teman-teman yang lainnya keluar mencari kesenangan. Hal ini yang mungkin membuat Presiden Soeharto (pada saat itu) tidak pernah memilihnya mengampu jabatan TNI, kecuali jabatan Pangdam Sriwijaya (yang itupun cukup singkat). Sayang sekali pada saat pemerintahannya (hingga kini) ada banyak sekali masalah-masalah serta perpecahan-perpecahan yang terjadi di kalangan masyarakat sehingga membuatnya bertindak harus super hati-hati. Namun terlepas dari faktor kehati-hatian ini, justru sekaranglah negara ini membutuhkan pemimpin yang tegas dalam mengambil keputusan, bukan malah membaca masalah dan kemudian mendiskusikannya dengan para politisi-politisi (baca: kabinet-kabinetnya) yang faktanya berasal dari latar belakang berbeda satu sama lain. Tentunya, kita bisa berasumsi bahwa setiap orang pasti akan mendahulukan kepentingan kelompoknya dibandingkan kepentingan bersama. Jika sudah demikian, mau dibawa kemana negara ini? 

Siapa komunikasi politiknya cukup efektif? jawab, (mantan) Presiden Soeharto, tentunya. Pada masa pemerintahan beliau, situasi politik negeri ini sangatlah stabil (bukan labil seperti sekarang), pembangunan ekonomi cukup sukses dan dalam hal ini wajar jika beliau dikenal dengan "Bapak Pembangunan". Hal ini tak lepas dari komunikasi politik beliau yang tegas dan cepat dalam mengambil keputusan meskipun pada akhirnya hal ini harus dibayar mahal karena blunder yang dilakukannya karena terkait masalah KKN. 

Ringkasan "Dari Soekarno Sampai SBY: Intrik & Lobi Politik Para penguasa" oleh Prof. DR. Tjipta Lesmana, M.A.

Gricean Maxims and The Interpersonal Considerations

Gricean maxims are designed to make verbal interaction become quick, clear, and efficient. Grice (1975) proposes four maxims for verbal interactions: quality maxim, quantity maxim, relation maxim, and manner maxim. Maxim of quality requires speaker to speak truthfully. In order to support communication, one should be truthful and should not say what one thinks is false. One can only make statements if they are supported by evidence. Maxim of quantity requires speaker to pass sufficient information. The contribution made has to be as informative as required to proceed with the conversation. One should not make the contribution more informative or less informative than is required. Maxim of relation demands relevance in the conversation. The given information should be relevant with the topic of the conversation. One cannot suddenly give unrelated information in an ongoing conversation. Finally, maxim of manner requires clarity. Interactants must avoid obscurity of expressions. One should avoid ambiguity when giving information. Furthermore, the given information should be brief and orderly.

However, the “maximally efficient” verbal interaction is almost impossible to be done due to the interpersonal consideration among the people in the society. Thus, Gricean maxims are violated. These violations, however, are acceptable in the community for the presence of the cooperative principle which allows every interacting individual supports each other. Besides, In order to understand language use as social action, one has to consider the implication of speech act in particular context. Speech act and language use are sensitive matters which have many influencing factors to be considered. One cannot perform speech act without putting much concern to other’s face. The level of politeness applied reveals the interpersonal consideration of the interactants.

Politeness theory  (Brown and Levinson, 1978) brings contribution to our understanding of the effectiveness of communication in social interaction. Politeness is the result of some interacting factors such as the social distance, the degree of power, and cultural beliefs. Therefore, what is said to be an effective communication does not necessarily quick, clear, and maximally efficient.  One should not make the contribution more informative or less informative than is required. Maxim of relation demands relevance in the conversation. The given information should be relevant with the topic of the conversation. One cannot suddenly give unrelated information in an ongoing conversation.

Finally, maxim of manner requires clarity. Interactants must avoid obscurity of expressions. One should avoid ambiguity when giving information. Furthermore, the given information should be brief and orderly. However, the “maximally efficient” verbal interaction is almost impossible to be done due to the interpersonal consideration among the people in the society. Thus, Gricean maxims are violated. These violations, however, are acceptable in the community for the presence of the cooperative principle which allows every interacting individual supports each other.

Fransisca Kristanti "The Interpersonal Underpinning of Talk: Face Management and Politeness" on Pragmatics Course

The New Rules of The World

No doubt if all countries should go through the globalization era in this world, and there is no country that would be able to escape from it. Thus, the relationship among nations becomes the most important thing in achieving each own goal when the globalization comes up. On the one hand, during this globalization world, it has become the common issue that a country should build cooperative relations with another country and extremely requires a hand of another to support the growth of globalization. It then becomes such important thing that can be used as a tool to find out the social changes. If we try to see the globalization through the economic perspective, the international market offers more and more job opportunities for people and it indirectly raises the income for the government and here globalization becomes something promising for a country to improve sustainable economic development.

However, in this movie, The New Rules of the World, globalization becomes the reasons for international branded-companies to widen their wings in Indonesia. And, the existences of these branded-companies require many workers and labors of Indonesia to support the need of the companies, let’s say Nike, GAP, Old Navy, and Reebok (as what mentioned in the movie). Ironically, those workers and labors often work over time with the low salary in a month (more or less Rp. 10.000/day with 24-30 hours of working time) for the private goals of the company that is to raise the ordered-product. For example, for the product which costs Rp.112.000 they only get Rp. 500. As a result, Indonesia is claimed growing as a country with of 70% poor people.

This phenomenon becomes the reason why IMF, after the old regime let it come again to Indonesia and build such cooperative relationships with it, takes a part in the economic growth of Indonesia by the sake of global development and to bridge that 70% of poor people into the promising future by giving the loan. This loan enables IMF to manage the nature sources of Indonesia. As a result, it just makes Indonesia goes down into the deep poverty and there are more and more poor people because of IMF’s system. It seems like, this documentary movie tries to go behind the hype of the new global economy and reveals that the divisions between the rich and poor have never been greater -- two thirds of the world's children live in poverty -- and the gulf is widening like never before. The film looks at the new rulers of the world -- the great multinationals and the governments and institutions that back them -- the IMF and the World Bank. Under IMF rules, millions of people throughout the world lose their jobs and livelihood. The reality behind much of modern shopping and the famous brands is a sweatshop economy, which is being duplicated in country after country.

In The Spectre of Comparisons, Anderson takes a closer look on the effect of the spread of capitalism and the role of the state in promoting the official nationalism and he also tries to figure out how the capitalism takes the steepening economic stratification of the global economy which has resulted in the ethnicization of political life in the wealthy. In the case described above globalization doesn’t seem to bring much change to improve the economic growth of Indonesia and worse it turns out to bring bad effects for people in which the international branded-companies including IMF with their masks of promising future get Indonesian into deep down of poverty. As a result, the workers and labors become the victims of globalization. This phenomenon seems going along with what Anderson in Imagined Communities ever argued for. He argues that nations emerge in the eighteenth and nineteenth century as a result of various forces in which one of its forces is claimed as the print of Capitalism. In this stand point, it is assumed that the international markets bring the benefits for a country; they offer the job opportunities and vacancies for unemployed people and IMF offers the loans with the promising future but then it only results in the raise of the poverty. 

Arapa Efendi, Movie Review; The New Rules of the World. A Paper on Cultural Studies. 

Can we still believe in world when it remains in silence?

World, can we trust you?
We've been tired of talking
You stand there without any words out
Children were screaming
Mothers were rapped and murdered
Fathers were massacred when they struggled for us
No rain fell down but bombs
Our houses, mosques, and schools were destroyed
Others are blaming one another
While others are praying for us, but you...
Why do you stare at us with that empty look?
While we're bleeding...
(to be continued...)

Nasehat Ramadhan Buat Mustafa Bisri (By Gus Muh)

Mustafa
Jujurlah pada dirimu sendiri mengapa kau
selalu mengatakan Ramadhan bulan ampunan
Apakah hanya menirukan nabi? atau
dosa-dosamu dan harapanmu yang berlebihan yang
menggerakkan lidahmu begitu


Mustafa
Ramadhan adalah bulan antara dirimu dan tuhanmu
dari hanya untuk-Nya
dan Ia sendiri tak ada yang tahu apa yang akan dianugerahkannya kapadamu
semua yang khusus untuk-Nya khusus untukmu

Mustafa
Ramadhan adalah bulan-Nya yang Ia serahkan padamu
dan bulan
serahkanlah semata-mata pada-Nya
bersucilah untuk-Nya
bershalatlah untuk-Nya
berpuasalah untuk-Nya
berjuanglah melawan dirimu sendiri untuk-Nya
Sucikanlah dirimu berpuasalah
sucikan tanganmu berpuasalah
sucikan mulutmu berpuasalah
sucikan hidungmu berpuasalah
sucikan wajahmu berpuasalah
sucikan matamu berpuasalah
sucikan telingamu berpuasalah
sucikan rambutmu berpuasalah
sucikan kepalamu berpuasalah
sucikan kakimu berpuasalah
sucikan tubuhmu berpuasalah
sucikan hatimu, sucikan pikiranmu berpuasalah
sucikan dirimu 


Mustafa
bukan perutmu yang lapan, bukan tenggorokan kering
yang mengingatkan kedhaifan dan melembutkan rasa
perut yang kosong dan tenggorokan yang kering ternyata hanya penunggu atau perebut kesempatan yang tak sabar atau terpaksa
barang kali lebih sabar sedikit dari mata, tangan, kaki dan kelamin
lebih tahan sedikit berpuasa
tapi hanya kau yang tahu
hasrat dikekang untuk apa dan untuk siapa

puasakan kelaminmu untuk memuasi ridho
puasakan tanganmu untuk menerima kurnia
puasakan mulutmu untuk merasai firman
puasakan hidungmu untuk menghirup wangi
puasakan wajahmu untuk menghadap keelokan
puasakan matamu untuk menatap cahya
puaaskan telingamu untuk menangkap merdu
puasakan rambutmu untuk menyerap belai
Puasakan kepalamu untuk menekan sujud
puasakan kakimu untuk menapak sirat
puasakan tubuhmu untu meresapi rahmat
puasakan hatumu untuk menikmati hakikit
puasakan pikiranmu untuk meyakini kebenaran
puasakan dirimu untuk menghayati hidup
TIDAK!!
puasakan hasratmu hanya untuk hadirat-Nya
Mustafa
Ramadhan bulan suci katamu
kau menirukan ucapan nabi?
atau kau telah merasakan sendiri kesuciannya melalui kesucianmu?
tapi bukankah kau masih selalu menunda-nuda
menyingkirkan kedengkian, keserakahan, ujub, riya, takabbur
dan sampah-sampah lainnya yang mampat dalam comberan hatimu

Mustafa
inilah bulan baik saat baik untuk kerja bakti membersihkan hati
inilah bulan baik saat baik merobohkan berhala dirimu
yang secara terang-tarangan dab sembunyi-sembunyi kau puja selama ini
atau akan kau lewatkan kesempatan ini
seperti Ramadhan lalu

ENGLISHES IN THE WORKPLACE: THE ROLE OF ENGLISH AS THE MEDIUM TO FACILITATE INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN PROMOTING LOCAL CULTURES

Taking a few minutes to go ‘surfing’ on the internet and try to type ‘the most spoken language in the world’ what do you find? Obviously, you will find the same thing  that there will be a hundred web pages saying that English is the most spoken language with its outnumber of native and non-native speakers in the world. Therefore, it is not silly to say that we are now living in the world which is occupied by the ‘lingua franca’ of the world. In this respect, English is no longer the language of its native speakers, because it has been widespread as the global language which brings people from different parts of the world, different tongues, and different cultural backgrounds, into the common voice in order to bridge the language barriers. It is a language which anyone can use as a means of facilitating ‘intercultural’ communications.  To define what it is, Novinger (2001) underlines that the term intercultural indicates several differences between communicators. It may include language, national origin, race, or ethnicity rather than put its concept into a ‘micro’ definition such as the diverse intranational sub-cultures. Therefore, the term intercultural communication refers to the international transactional, symbolic process which involves the attribution of meaning between people from different cultures (P 9).

            In addition, Kachru and his co-writers (2006) present the growth of English within 3 concentric circles namely; inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle country.  The concept of inner circle country refers to the countries where English is spoken as the native language. Meanwhile, the outer circle consists of the countries which have the strong influence of English through political and economic areas. Presumably, English in outer circle is spoken as the ‘second’ language where it is used as the official language. The last one is expanding circle country by which English is learned and spoken as a ‘foreign’ language. In Indonesia, the use of English belongs to the last category, expanding circle country where English is spoken as a foreign language. Even so, English in Indonesia is spread rapidly as the result of its  global economic development.

            One of the rapid growths in Indonesian economic sector is a tourism industry. Tourism sector offers the uniqueness of Indonesia to the global world and attracts foreigners to explore its beauty. Successfully, more and more people from different parts of the world come to visit Indonesia for it has so many tourist destinations which are spread in the different islands which each has its own uniqueness. Concerning this reason, the need for English as a tool of global communication is very essential to facilitate the intercultural communications and to prevent communication breakdowns. Tourism industries are those who are very concerned about the ability of their personnel on English as the expansion of globalization requires them to be able to communicate well in order to succeed in facilitating communication because it is very important for us to function efficiently in global environment, and it is important to cultivate a range of competencies which are amenable to different intercultural contexts. In this stand point, English is one of many important competencies that one should master in order to participate and engage meaningfully within the members of the wider global community by which Patel and his co-writers (2011) refer the term  as the global community engagement (P 5).  

Presented in National English Language Teacher and Lecturer  Conference (NELTAL) at UNM, March 31st 2012 with the main theme "Englishes for Communication and Interaction"