Example of My Reflective
Writing
Improving
Cultural Knowledge and Understanding through Study Excursion
At
glance, study excursion is just like ordinary travelling. We go to the famous
place and enjoy it. But, the fact is different. While travelling emphasize on
fun elements, study excursion emphasize on the study of cultural elements by
coming into tourism places and getting information from the foreigners. I will
explain some events and advantages which I got in study excursion on 9th
of December 2011.
The
first interesting event is the presentations of international students held on
the hall of the hotel start from 08.00 PM – 10.00 PM on Friday 9th of
December 2011. They are from Cambodia, Gambia and Timur Leste. The first
presentation was delivered by the international student from Cambodia, Dourng
Ratha Augustine (Ratha), the second presentation was explained by the
international student from Gambia, Embrima Sarr (Ibrahim), the last
presentation was told by Hercio Camilho Fernandes Xavier (Hercio or Xavier)
from Timur Leste.
Ratha’s
presentation title was Study Excursion;
Tradition and Culture of Cambodia.
The explanation was about general information about Cambodia, Culture
and Tradition, and Symbolization of Cambodia. He explained almost everything
about Cambodia. The Geography of Cambodia, the neighbor countries (borders),
some ceremonies/ceremonial events, some symbolization of Cambodia, etc. The
special thing is I and some of my bedmate friends had special time to have
conversation with Ratha for couple minutes. The thing that I got after spending
some time with Ratha that He is very aware with cultural product on his country
such as; temples, traditional jar, etc. However, this eventually increases my
cultural appreciation on cultural products in my country.
The
second presentation was delivered by Ibrahim from Gambia. Among the three
presentations, Ibrahim spoke English better. He used to speak English since the
official language of Gambia is English. His presentation was about general
information of Gambia and his cultural shocks when he was in Indonesia for the
first time. He explained the territory of Gambia, the borders, the traditional
clothes of Gambia, etc. In my surprise, Ibrahim has some good knowledge of
Islam. He and I discussed about religious and cultural issues in Indonesia. He
was very aware that the culture of Indonesia was influenced by some religions
and the history of the regions. One point that I underline after discussion
with him intensively for a couple of minutes, improvement on cultural awareness
must be balanced with the improvement on religious awareness, so that, we can
avoid misunderstanding with the people who have different culture and the
people who have different religion. Because being ignorant might cause great
misunderstanding which potentially causes problems not only for people around
us but also for ourselves as well.
The
final presentation was delivered by Hercio from Timur Leste. He was fifth
semester student of Geology department at Universitas Gajah Mada. He was
considered the most handsome presentator by my girlfriends at that time. The
title of his presentation was “Timur
Leste”. He shared his knowledge related to his country such as the general
knowledge of Timur Leste (the location of Timur Leste, borders, the president,
the export commodity etc), the official language used, traditional clothes of
Timur Leste, and so on. It was interesting presentation although his English
was not good as the other presenters. I could find some similarity in their
cultures with the Indonesian cultures and sometime compared it. In the question
and answer section, I asked him several questions related to the cultural and
political issues in Timur Leste. My first question was about the languages in
Timur Leste. Actually, some of the people of Timur Leste were still using
Bahasa Indonesia as their daily language. However, it is just a few of them
while the others use Timur Leste’s languages (tetum, fataluko, makasae, etc).
My next question was about the political issue. I ask his personal opinion
about the chance of Timur Leste in joining back with Indonesia. He personally
does not want to join back to Indonesia. The essential thing which I get is
knowing the similarity and the differences of the cultures will make us know
the weakness and the strength of ourselves so it can avoid being selfish and
underestimate the others.
After
the presentations and question-answer sections finished, we toke photograph
together. It was quite interesting experience, while getting fun, we could also
learn something and improve ourselves in some aspects especially the
improvement of cultural knowledge, awareness and attitude. Hopefully, the next
study excursion can be better. Open the mind then we will see the greatness of
the world.
