An outstanding visit

 A few days ago on March 8, 2012 to be exact GET-House of English Indramayu hosted a special rendezvous with a special native speaker from Portsmouth, England.

Such seeing a Gulliver our kids seemed to be amazed only by his physical appearance, Michael Lang, a tall English man touched down our venue at 1.30 pm. We served him a plate of Gado-gado nearby as his lunch; rumor has it that most Europeans avoid spicy foods, out of the blue; he ate up a full spoon of Sambal immediately.

The students were posted in room 101, they showed some enthusiasm as the guest entered the room and greeted them by Salam, they responded it cheerfully.

He started the friendly meet and greet by introducing himself and how he and other Europeans prefer being addressed by “Mr. Lang” or “Pak Michael” to “Mister” only, and furthermore he said that it’s impolite to mistakenly address a man by “mister” with no names. Mr. Lang then delivered a brief overview of the UK, comparing the population with the one in Indonesia. He took Java as the example; its population is two times bigger than in the UK where the size of the UK is 3 times bigger than Java.

Just like the other foreigners say about Indonesia, he also added that one thing he liked the most from Indonesia was the smile. They think that it’s wonderful how generous Indonesians are at smiling; as a matter of fact some Indonesians do not mind smiling at a stranger for they think smile is another form of affection.

When it was the time for students to ask questions, some students from Children classes bravely raised their hands while some others just remained smiling. Daris Aviceena, Ari Muhammad Rizal, Octaviani Safitri, Siti Aisyah, Rafa T, M. Hafiz, M. Tsany Lesmana, Asqo B.Z, Fajri Latifah, Ryan A.P.S, Dimas M.P  and many more asked about his age, job, favorite sports, food,  and color.

The questions turned to be more interesting when the adult participants took part in the last session; they are from GEC, and Speaking classes. They dug more about cultures, education, teenagers in his country and even his life experiences. Such as his keys of being a successful man and the reason why he chose Indonesia.

How quickly the time flew for we did not realize that it had already been 6 in the evening and we had to end it, poor Mr. Lang… apparently being interviewed without any pauses made him so thirsty that he drank up 3 medium bottles of  mineral water in no minutes.

Above all, we think this kind of event is a good agenda to facilitate students to communicate with the native speakers directly so that they can improve their language skills and learn the cultures as well.

One thing that I learn from Pak Michael is that it is essential to get blended with the local people by being open-minded, friendly and equipped by sufficient knowledge about them because that’s what I noticed from the way he interacted with us.

Just like what wise men say “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” or in Bahasa we have “Dimana bumi dipijak disitu langit dijunjung”.

                                          Indramayu March 2012 Lely Yuliawaty