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 9^th 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 9^th 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.                                                     

HAM: Solusi Bagi Umat Islam?

HAM: Solusi Bagi Umat Islam?

Pada 10 Desember mendatang akan diperingati sebagai hari Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) sedunia. Dimana pada moment ini sering dijumpai para pegiat HAM dibeberapa daerah mengadakan aksi – aksi terkait penerapan HAM dan aturan – aturan yang dianggap tidak sesuai dengan HAM.

Pada hari Rabu, 1 desember 2010 yang lalu, Human Right Watch (HRW) dalam konferensi pers, mendesak pemerintah lokal di Aceh dan pemerintah pusat Indonesia agar mencabut Perda Syariah; mengenai larangan Kholwat dan aturan mengenai busana Muslim. HRW menilai bahwa pelaksanaan Perda syariah ini telah melanggar HAM dan konstitusi indonesia. Perda ini memang telah lama menjadi target pengecaman para penggiat HAM dan aktivis liberal yang pada hakekatnya telah membenci syariah Islam.

Seharusnya umat Islam aware terhadap masalah Hak Asasi manusia itu sendiri. Faktanya, dalam ruang lingkup lokal, nasional bahkan International, propaganda HAM sering merugikan umat Islam. Sebut saja di Perancis (France) dimana ada peraturan yang melarang muslimah untuk mengenakan Burqa’. Muslimah yang tertangkap mata sedang mengenakan Burqa’ akan terkena hukuman dan yang paling ringan adalah mendapatkan ticket (di Indonesia semacam tanda tilang) yang biasanya berupa denda. Di Swiss, pembangunan menara masjid dilarang. Abu Dhabi, dimana muslimahnya didatangi (baca: diperkosa) tentara – tentara Sekutu (Allied force) rata 5 – 7 kali sehari. Di Palestina, Zionis laknatullah membantai umat Islam dan menjarah tanah kaum muslimin, dan banyak peristiwa – peristiwa lainnya. Dimana HAM? Kenapa HAM muncul ketika umat Islam ingin melaksanakan syariahnya secara penuh? Fakta – fakta yang diatas sudah sangat cukup membuktikan kita bahwa HAM bukan solusi bagi umat Islam dibelahan Dunia manapun.

Selain berstandar ganda dan menyesatkan, HAM merupakan salah satu alat ampuh penjajahan barat, khususnya Amerika, atas negeri – negeri Islam. Dimana negeri – negeri kaum muslimin dicekoki oleh Barat dengan pemahaman – pemahaman yang melemahkan aqidah. Sebagai contoh dalam aspek freedom of religion, bukanlah semata – mata ketidakbolehan memaksa seseorang untuk memeluk agama tertenu; tetapi kebebasan untuk murtad, dan bahkan untuk tidak memeluk agama sama sekali. Dengan alasan HAM dan toleransi, Ahmadiyah yang menghina Islam dengan mengakui Mirza Ghulam Ahmad sebagai nabi setelah Rasulullah Muhammad SAW. dibela habis habisan oleh para aktivis HAM dan Liberal, disisi moralitas HAM tidak melarang orang – orang yang dengan bangga menyuguhkan lekuk tubuhnya ditempat – tempat umum, sementara muslimah yang ingin menggunakan burqa ditilang, dan masih banyak lagi kisah – kisah memilukan lainnya. Masihkah kita doyan dengan HAM?

HAM = No, Islam = Yes

Say No to Human Right

Nilai HAM yang nisbi, yang sarat dengan kepentingan – kepentingan baik politis, ekonomi dan Ideologis pihak tertentu (dilihat secara theoratical maupun practical), semestinya membuka mata kita (manusia, bukan hanya kaum muslimin) untuk kembali kepada nilai – nilai yang paripurna. Itulah nilai – nilai ilahiah. Itulah nilai – nilai Islam. Islam sangat menjunjung tinggi kehormatan dan kemuliaan manusia.

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“dan Sesungguhnya telah Kami muliakan anak-anak (keturunan) Adam,” (Q.S. Al – Israa’ [17], 70)

Atas kemuliaan itulah Islam melindungi setiap jiwa manusia. Perlindungan tersebut bertujuan untuk menyelamatkan dan memelihara eksistensi manusia. Karena itu, pembunuhan atas satu jiwa pada hakikatnya sama seperti membunuh semua manusia. Sebagai contoh: balasan yang layak bagi orang yang membunuh adalah dibunuh pula. Semua itu tertuang jelas di Al-qur’an (lihat Q.S. Al – Maidah: 32, Al – Baqarah: 178 – 179).

Hak – hak lainnya seperti hak memiliki dan mengusahakan harta (economy), hak berpolitik, hak pendidikan, dan hak primer yang lain dijamin pemenuhannya oleh Islam melalui tanggung jawab negara dalam merealisasikan kehidupan Islam.

Walhasil, sudah semestinya kita kembali kepada prinsip – prinsip yang bersumber dari sang Pencipta, Allah SWT. Dengan keyakinan yang penuh dan keikhlasan untuk taat terhadap risalah-Nya, perlindungan atas hak – hak manusia hanya akan bisa terwujud manakala Islam mengatur kehidupan berbangsa dan bernegara dengan Al-Qur’an dan As-Sunnah melalui institusi warisan Rasulullah SAW yaitu dengan khilafah Islamiyah.

Down – down fake Human Right, Rise – Rise with Islam![1]

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By: The Wise

IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya

Tarbiyah, Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Semester V

Contact:

e-mail & facebook; harry_gaul123@yahoo.co.id, 

sites; www.harrythewise.blogspot.com

HOW TO BE A BORING TEACHER?

Teachers should be boring to make the students bored. Making a boring class is much easier than making an exciting class. Believe me that many teachers are fond of making a boring class. I do not know whether they do it intentionally or not. If you want your students get nothing in the class, I highly recommend you to do these following activities and to have such of following characters.

To be a boring teacher, you should talk much or endlessly in the class. Let the students listen to you all the time, works best if you teach speaking class. Or be the silent teacher, come to the class give the students assignments and sit still.

The next activities that you can do to ascertain yourselves being boring teacher is you should become surprisingly predictable teacher. Do the same activities in each and every time you teach in the class. Your students will absolutely do your instructions without any explanation from you. It is good to make the teacher spend their energy effectively and also good to make the classroom more boring.

After you know what activities that you should do to become boring teachers, you must also know what characters the teachers should have. In order to make the class more boring, you must be the authority, the king, in the class. If the students do not follow your instruction or make some errors, you must be sure to punish them or at least scold them, do not hesitate. You will absolutely will be “the iron-fist king”, it is good to make class be not exciting.

 These are some factors that absolutely help you to make a class boring. Do not in doubt, just do it appropriately then you can feel the class atmosphere changing. Your students become yours, the class become yours, and your students get nothing.

do you want to have the soft copy download it here.

By : Hari Subagyo