Language Engage in Modern War

Nowadays advertisement on the media TV in Indonesia are varies and creative. The advertisers use the language that could make people interested in their products. But as I see many advertisements on TV, it seems that some advertisers secretly challenge each other. For example the advertisement of Bintang Tujuh Masuk Angin/Jamu Masuk Angin (traditional medicine for cold) which says that “orang malas kalah sama orang pintar, orang pintar kalah sama orang bejo” (lazy people lose with smart people, smart people lose with lucky people). The sentences is quite familiar for Indonesian people, except for the last word ‘bejo’  which is from Javanese language, but it is still acceptable for Indonesian people because Javanese language is well-known in this country. Everyone may have different idea about the purpose or the meaning those sentences. From those sentences, I notice that it has two potential purposes which bring its own meaning. The first is, those sentences are create to encourage Indonesia people to work harder, and the second is, those sentences are refer to another Jamu advertisement which came earlier before this advertisement.

            The first purpose of the sentences of the advertisement which I have mention above is to encourage Indonesian people to work harder. The fact that smart people are not always become successful people. This is supported with the data of BPS (Badan Pusat Statistik) Indonesia which deal with the number of unemployment in Indonesia. The data of BPS said that about 6, 32% or 7, 61 million people in Indonesia are unemployment including 0,54 million people who are S1 bachelor (BPS data, February 2012). The creator of this advertisement may decided those sentences as the advertisement to encourage people to work harder and wait for the luck comes to you, because everyone has their own chance to become a successful man/woman. People might get sick while they work hard. A common sickness in Indonesia is masuk angin (cold) which is because the weather sometimes changes. That is why this product was made for they who get masuk angin.

The second purposes of the sentences in this advertisement refer to another Jamu advertisement which came before this advertisement. Many people might think that is nothing wrong with Bintang Tujuh advertisement, but if people look deeper to the sentences, they may find what I have found. The second sentence “orang pintar kalah sama  orang bejo” is refer to Tolak Angin advertisement which is says “orang pintar minum Tolak Angin” (smart people drink Tolak Angin). From this point, you must notice that there is a relation between those two sentences. Since Bintang Tujuh advertisement comes after Tolak Angin became a well-known product, it seems that Tolak Angin is being challenged by Bintang Tujuh product through the language in their advertisement. In this year Tolak Angin got an Award as a Top Brand in 2012 for the Herbal Medical category. It means that many Indonesian people agree that Tolak Angin is the product they look for when they get cold. From this point, Bintang Tujuh seems have some reasons to challenge Tolak Angin product.

            As I summarize my analysis about spoken discourse by the advertisement of Bintang Tujuh, I conclude that the discourse has a tendency to the second point I explained above. Since many advertisers will do anything to make the people/consumers interested to their product although they have to fight other advertisers through the language in the advertisement.

Cerpenku: part 1 "Hari Baru"

Hari itu adalah hari yang baru untukku. Yah, untuk pertama kalinya aku akan meninggalkan kota kelahiranku untuk menimba ilmu di kota lain. Madura adalah pulau kelahiranku, sebuah desa kecil bernama Kebun, disanalah aku tinggal dengan orang tua dan saudara-saudaraku. Disinilah aku sekarang Malang. Ku tak pernah menyangka jika aku akan meneruskan pendidikanku di sini.

Aku diterima di Universitas Negeri Malang (UM), jurusan Sastra Inggris melalui jalur SNMPTN. Aku diterima di jurusan Sastra Inggris bukan karena aku pintar berbahasa Inggris, tapi lebih ke keberuntungan. Aku mengikuti ujian SNMPTN karena aku ingin meneruskan minatku di bidang informatika. Aku menyukai komputer dan segala sesuatu tentang itu. Maka dari itu, aku ingin menimba ilmu yang lebih dalam lagi tentang computer. Universitas Brawijaya (UB) lah tempat dimana aku ingin menimba ilmu itu, sebenarnya dulu aku ingin sekali belajar di ITS, namun karena sesuatu aku batalkan niatku, dan memilih UB.

Aku mengambil SNMPTN kelas IPC saat itu, walau sebenarnya aku tidak perlu mengambil IPC karena disekolah aku adalah siswa IPA, tapi kakakku mengatakan jika aku lebih baik mengambil IPC saja. Karena inilah aku ada disini sekarang, jurusan sastra Inggis UM merupakan pilihan kedua ku setelah Informatika UB. Namun tuhan berkehendak lain, aku tidak diterima di UB namun di UM. Aku bersyukur atas kehendak Tuhan, karena dengan diterimanya aku di UM, aku dapat membanggakan orang tuaku yang dahulu sempat tidak yakin jika aku akan diterima di universitas negeri.

Beruntung di kota ini aku tidak sendirian, kakak kedua-ku juga kuliah di kota ini, namun tidak di kampus yang sama. Dia masuk ke Universitas Muhammadiah Malang (UMM) karena dulu ia gagal saat megikuti tes SNMPTN. Selama di Malang dia adalah orang yang paling berjasa membantuku untuk terbiasa disini. Aku sempat tinggal satu kamar dengannya karena aku belum menemukan rumah kos pada waktu itu. Sampai akhirnya aku menemukan tempat kos yang masih memiliki kamar kosong. Yah, walau tak sebagus dan tak semurah tempat kos milik kakakku, aku tetap harus tinggal dsini, aku tak mau menyusahkan kakakku terus menerus. Sebuah kamar kecil berukuran 2x2m dan tinggi 2,5m dan jendela yang hanya berukuran 30x45cm aku tinggal. Kecil bukan?

Advantages and Disadvantage of Teaching English for Adult Learners

English is a language originally from England. This language is recognized as International language, and it is used in many country as the first language, for example the United Kingdom, USA, Australia, New Zealand and many others. Nowadays, English becomes very important and becomes very popular language especially for countries which of the first language is not English for example in Indonesia. In Indonesia, English is taught to students since elementary schools as foreign language. Not only that, many companies requires English speaking ability as the job requirement. Those are show us how important English is, especially for people that look for jobs. As the reflection of this phenomena, many of adult people take English courses before they are looking for jobs or after they already have jobs. Some tutors said that teaching English for adult learners is easier than teaching English for young learners because adult learners usually want to study English because of their own willing, not like young learners that many of them study English because of their parents willing. In the other hand, many tutors said that teaching English for adult learners is harder than teaching English for young learner because usually adult learners have difficulties in remembering rules of English. It seems that teaching English for adult learners are not as simple as it looks. It must has the advantages and the disadvantages while teaching English for adult learners.

There are two advantages of teaching English for adult learners. The first advantage is that adult learners decide to study English because of their own willing and motivation. They may have different reasons in studying English but they all do it because they want to or need to. For some students, the motivation of studying English might come from their interest of English because English has been announced as the International language they want to master and know about English more, so that they takes English courses. Another reason is from jobs. They take English courses because nowadays many company require English ability as the job requirement or for learners that already have a job, they take english courses because they want to have a better job or position. The second advantage is that adult learners have better knowledge than younger learners especially knowledge of using language. Adult learners must have mastered the first language, that is why they will be easier to learn and understand English because they can make such as summarizing of what they have learned using their own language style, so that they will easily understand.

            However, teaching English for adult learners has disadvantages too beside the advantages. The first disadvantage is that many adult learners have difficulties in remembering English rule or grammar. This might happen because the bussiness of adult. If young learners are focused in studying, adult learners cannot only focus in their study, but they also think about their business or another activities, for example their job, their family, and etc. They might easily understand about what they have just learn when they were studying by the guidance of teachers or tutors, but they might also easily forget it after they leave the course and then continue their business or their work. The second disadvantage is that the tendency of stress. Beside having difficulty in remembering the rule or grammar, adult learners also easily got stressed because perhaps while they are studying, they are still think about their jobs and it makes them not focus to their learning. Tiredness and too many tasks from their office and courses are the causes stress to them. If they get disstressed, they will find difficulties in studying, the teachers or the tutors will also find difficulties to teach them because stressed people cannot easily got what the teachers taught to them.

            Finally, teaching adult learners sometimes may be beneficial because it easier than teaching young learners. But, there are some negative sides too when we teach adult learners as what I written above. It is your right to decide whether you want to teach adult or young learners, you must consider with what you choose.