English Class

Hi!

At last, after all this years, I get the chance to study English inside a real English class.  I got admitted in an Academic English class in K****n along with my friends (Titi, Tri, and Yuda).  The schedule is flexible, the study materials are good, the classes are more comfortable than my workstation, and the teachers are...mmmm...we shall get there later.  The most obvious downside is the location. Well, it is strategically located in the city, near BSD and ITC BSD, but it means I have to spend almost half an hour to get there and the road is not very friendly (there are big holes on the street where you can easily stuff a baby cow). However, I get a seat in this class for free. So, I feel that complaining is not very nice. Every thing has its up and downside after all.

Some people asked, "really? you never learn English formally?" Well, I learned English too at school, but the classes were halfway decent except perhaps when I was in high school. My teachers were cool and the way they teach was fun. Junior high did not really give much contributions. The teachers were quite smart, but they were too busy showing it off rather than teaching us how to speak up.  At elementary? my school was what Indonesians refer as SD Inpres. Every time the rain pours, we ran home because the building was leaking. There was more water inside than outside. It did not even have fix schedule, let alone an English class. Then at the university, students who already have TOEFL score above 550 could be exempted from taking English class. At that time, I would do anything to skip a class. So, I studied day and night, aced my TOEFL, and skipped both English I and II. Stupid, I know. You don't have to tell me. I end up having one hell of a messy English which is disastrous for my job right now.

In order to make things right, my boss, Sik Sumaedi (he is not structurally above me, but hey, no one can deny his leadership over me and my friends. Actually some people deny it, but their efforts are futile and pathetic most of the time) asked me and my friends to take an Academic English class. So, here we are. Titi, Tri, Yuda, and I cram around one class trying to learn English.  All of us actually get a lot of daily exposure on English, but we don't seem able to learn to use it as fast as we all expected.  Titi is quite a fast learner, Tri is extremely vigorous, and Yuda is...what would you call it? ardent. I am really happy God gives me the chance to learn among passionate friends.

Where are we? oh yeah...we have comfortable schedule and classes.  We have three sparkling books and other study materials and two teachers, Sugeng and Greg. Both give us encouragements and all, but they have totally different teaching style. I'm not sure whether it is because they have different parts to teach (Sugeng teaches us on reading and writing and Greg teaches us how to speak) or because they are naturally different.  Sugeng talks a lot in class (not that I don't like it. He is more than entertaining), while Greg pushes us to talk all the time on various subjects (once he said that sometime he felt like a foreigner in the US, but I think he is still very American. An American who has an exemplary cultural sensitivity).  I can do well with either of them, but I wish the teaching proportion between those two can be more balanced.

We arrive at the downside point now...the location. Like I said before, it is in the middle of BSD (literally lies in the middle of two major roads). It is approximately 12km from my office and theoretically, it should be 15-20 minutes drive. However, the road is crowded and just like I said, there are these huge holes along the road.  Driving there feels like 40 minutes of torture.  So, let's review...I have good class, teachers, friends, and study materials, I get in for free, and the road is suck, hugely. The benefits clearly outweigh the costs...I cannot complain, right?


Dya