Selasa, 28 Februari 2012


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.