JBR Bali - Java part 4
Salatiga - The Study
The course was structured each day with 2, 1 hour 40 minutes tutorials, breaks for morning tea (Rehat Pagi) at 10.40 am and lunch (Makan Siang) between 1 pm & 2 pm. After lunch there were seminars, tutorials on things such as, 'Informal Bahasa' and 'Conflict Management In Ambon and Poso' by Satya Wacana Law lecturer Theo Litaay. As you can see, they were varied topics. We were generally finished the formal part of the day by 3.40 pm
In addition to the formal side of things, all participants had to choose a 'Cutural (Budaya) class to attend from 4 pm to 5.40 pm. The classes were Batik, Cooking (memasak), Martial Arts (Pencak Silat), Javanese Dancing (Menari Jawa) and playing the Gamelan. I chose 'Cooking' along with 4 other students and it turned out to be a brilliant selection as we got to eat the food we cooked. 'Enak sekali'
We had 5 tutors in all, The co-ordinator Was Caspar Kundaka who was aided variously by Atik Setiyanti, Antonina Anggraheni (Nina), Victoria Usadaya, and Frances Sinanu, (Course Director).They were all good tutors and lovely people. I enjoyed all the tutorials. Each afternoon we were given the lecture notes for the next days tutorial so that we could study them and be prepared for the next morning's sessions. In all there were 8 different themes and in each 'theme' contained listening exercises, translations grammar and a number of exercises for completion. During the lectures 'Friends of PIBBI' came and the discussed the more relevant parts with us in Indonesian.
I was in level (tingkat) 2 along with Pete Pullen and Vivian Stephens both of whom turned out to be 'bonza' blokes. They were in Salatiga to get a Credit for the degree they were taking back in Australia. I had been on the same flight from Bali as Vivian but neither of us was aware of that. Pete, for his part had blown in from Korea having been there for part of the summer break. Respectively they were from Brisbane and Canberra.
Classrooms were light and airy (Open windows) and in the afternoon, when the humidity rose. a ceiling fan wafted the air around. Concentrating was a little hard at times as there were always students from other faculties wandering around outside and with the open windows any noise seemed to find its way in.
The lectures/tutorials were probably the easiest part of the course however; the homework and prep for the next day took up a lot of effort and energy. Generally I took at least 3 hours on homework each night but it did translate into good marks of between 75% and 90%, so the effort was justified Preparation was also arduous with almost the same amount of time being given to it and as a result my class participation next day was up to scrutiny. Participation accounted for much of our final 'Grading'. I was able to get a lot of help from a number of students who were on a 1 month training course in my hotel. I enlisted a couple of them, Septi (Born in September) from Palembang, Sumatra and Yusuf from Solo in Java to check my work and advise me with translating text. I was often up until 12 midnight (4am Melbourne time)
During the 2 weeks of my stay there were 2 tests. The first was on Monday 14th and consisted of a quiz on the first weeks work. We all passed the quiz with marks in the above 80% range which was very satisfying. Test no 2 took place on the last day of the course for me (Pete & Viv had 2 & 4 weeks respectively to do) and was of 2 hours duration with both written and oral work. The oral side consisted of me speaking in Indonesian on 3 out of 5 listed subjects for 10 - 15 minutes. As it turned out I got high marks once again.
The overall grading was arrived at in the following way
Daily performance, Class participation 40%
Class and or home assignments 25%
Quiz 1 10%
Test 2 25%
100%
It wasn't until my 'graduation' ceremony on 18th January that I would find out what sort of pass (if any) I had achieved.
There were no lectures on the weekend so I envisaged myself taking in the sights of Salatiga and surrounding area, resting, swimming in the pool and generally taking it easy. There was however, an optional 'Excursion' from 2.00pm Friday returning to Salatiga late on Saturday night. The overnight part of ths excursion was to be with a family in Desa Tanjung, about an hour out of Jogyakarta. Everyone put their name down including me.
It turned out to be a good decision as I had the most enjoyable time with Bapak Mariano, and his family........................... but that comes in part 5
Clive M