Contributor: Masyithah Mardhatillah (also known as Masyithah Mirza)
Whenever being asked about my testimony to the English Extension Course (EEC), I like to make a joke that people do not need to go to China to learn English. I told them that studying at EEC is more than enough. The joke is closely related to the religious tradition of Islam in which a hadith or prophet’s saying states that knowledge or science must be pursued as far as China. It is perhaps a little bit exaggerating. I have found EEC a real right place to study English. EEC leads me to integrate my previous English lessons into more proper English. Thanks to God for the two amazing years I had with EEC. I will continue voluntarily recommending this program to everyone.
One of the things I got after two years at EEC is the confidence to speak English no matter how hard and awkward I am to deliver and transfer what I thought in English orally. I do not speak English every day, yet EEC introduced me to an environment in which the slogan No English No Service really applies. Therefore, I felt not too much of a cultural shock when a couple days ago, I had a great opportunity to visit Australia and it was the first time I went abroad. In particular, the subject CCU or Cross Cultural Understanding (A and B) really helped me deal with different situations and meetings with new people (thanks to Miss Sharilyn, my EEC instructor). The visit was for running a program called 2016 Australia Indonesia Moslem Exchange Program sponsored by An Australian Government Initiative, Australia-Indonesia Institute, Australia-Indonesia Connection and the University of Melbourne.
My teammates and I visited three cities during the two-week trip to Australia. Melbourne became the first, Canberra the next destination and then Sydney. The schedule was so tight that five of us were so tired at the end of the days. Most of the programs were serious meetings and light discussion with academicians, social workers, NGO staff, school staff, artists, politicians, media workers, Moslem figures as well as other believers, such as Jews, Christians, Sikh, Bakhai, and Budhhists. We also visited mosques, cathedrals, churches, temples, universities, museums, schools, libraries, beaches, parks, sanctuaries and of course shopping centres and tourism destinations. There was no holiday and we did not even have time to do ‘private’ schedule(s) beyond the schedule arranged by the committees. Every day we were accompanied by guides and had meetings with people who most of them are native English speakers. Just imagine how hard my life would have been if I had not known a ‘paradise’ called EEC.
Among all participants, I was the youngest and the most junior one. Four of my teammates were senior lecturers from Malang, Yogyakarta, Ponorogo and Jayapura. Two of them obtained their Master’s degrees abroad and two others went abroad several times. I was once pessimistic and inferior considering that I was the most amateur one. However, I told myself many times that there should be a reason for me to be selected as one of the 10 successful applicants all around Indonesia. Being the most newbie, I had a golden opportunity to learn many things from the seniors. I also encouraged myself that I was not randomly selected to be a successful participant and that my English is not as bad as what I thought, even though I do not learn it intensively anymore as I did when I was at EEC.
Thankfully, some lessons from EEC helped me a lot particularly to understand strange vocabularies I seldom heard in Indonesia. In the second semester of EEC, I took Vocabulary B class taught by Pak Hirmawan Wijanarka. Two of vocabularies discussed at the classes were commonly used by Australians and I felt very happy to know the meaning without asking friends or consulting a dictionary. Those are chauffeurs (cab drivers; British version) and brunch (breakfast and lunch). Thanks Pak Hir, your class was amazing and your examination system was no compromise!
One of the main pillars of the program was about interreligious dialogue to build peace and harmony. That was why some meetings were arranged to facilitate MEP participants, who were considered as representatives of Indonesian Moslem leaders, have meetings with leaders from different religious and cultural groups. I was once asked to tell my story about multicultural and multi religious life I experienced in Indonesia. In my sharing, I said that in Madura, I found a nearly homogeneous society in which people were generally the same. Most of Madurese residents are Muslim and they practice relatively the same culture. Although a Sunni-Shia conflict in Sampang was inevitable and unsolvable till today, unfortunately, I stated that in general, Madurese people were homogeneous. Therefore, I chose to share that particular story when studying at EEC.
I told them about how it felt to study in a private university where I became a minority but it did not matter anything. As far as I could see, most of EEC students are Moslems who come from outside Sanata Dharma University. In this context, I am not part of the minority but in the more general context, I am the minority because most of Sanata Dharma students are Christians (correct me if I am wrong). I continued telling them that in Indonesia, particularly in Yogyakarta and Sanata Dharma, harmonious life is well-kept by different religious believers. Moslem students like me do not find any special mosque to do prayers at the break time, yet the university allows them to use a space to say prayers. I added that all lecturers and staff are also tolerant in dealing with prayer time and giving so much respect to Moslem students to do prayers including during examination weeks.
I feel that EEC is like my home where I have improved my English as well as doing daily inter-religious and multicultural dialogues with friends and teachers. Unsurprisingly I know a little bit more about Christology and it did help me in my visits to Australian churches and cathedrals, including my pleasure visit to Bible Garden at Charles Stuart University, Canberra. Long live EEC! Thanks a lot for the English and multicultural lessons.
ECHO 