Misses Everything on Perth

This is my second week on Surabaya. I don't know what happened with me. I felt something strange with my room at my first day in my room on Surabaya. There's no heater like usual in my room on Karen's house. And I miss chips at Perth. I think Surabaya doesn't have chips as big as chips on Australia. And I miss Smiggle, which place that sell cute stationary (not like in Surabaya).

Beside that, I miss all people on Perth. I miss my friends on Melville Senior High School, thanks for your hospitality,Ms. Bina Kadaba, thanks for your kindness,Mr. Phillip White, thanks for let us to studied at Melville and make connection between Surabaya, Indonesia with Melville, Western Australia,and my host family , thanks for everything(and I'll never to forget this one).

Semoga dengan persahabatan dan persaudaraan kita ini akan selalu terjaga sampai kapanpun.
Amin

Australia students want to learn Indonesian. Why not??

Monday, August 10 2009, we started our lesson in Melville SHS. We were very happy to start the lesson in Melville SHS. Winnie, Natasha, and me studied together in many classes. We found that a lot of differences in Australia if we compare to the process of learning and teaching in Indonesia.



Melville SHS is a unique school. We found that students here have a lot of practice than the theory and Melville SHS just has 5 periods. When we came to Indonesian class , we saw a lot of poster tell about Indonesia. First,we started the Indonesian subject with introduction. The Indonesian teachers were Pak Bobby and Ibu Loughlin That was a cool experience when the other students introduced themselves.Secondly, we saw the pictures that told about Bali, that was a good picture but, once more, why there are no pictures tell about Surabaya. That,s a big problem.



Anyway, that was a great experience to learn Indonesian with the students from Melville SHS who studied Indonesian.. Australia students want to learn about Indonesia. Why not??

dress-code :)

Some schools have their own dress code and some schools don't. But how about Melville SHS? Do they have their own dress code? The answer is yes, they do. Melville have their own dress code for the students, but not for teachers.

Surabaya Senior High Schools' Uniform

Melville SHS dress code

For the students' shirt, they have plain white polo shirt with black collar and MSHS logo, an aviation polo shirt with MSHS logo and a Music Department polo shirt with MSHS logo. For girls who wants to wear skirt, they must wear black or bottle green skirt, not to be longer than mid-calf and must not to be shorter than mid thigh. And for boys and girls who wear shorts/pants, they wear black or bottle green pants, not jeans. For students' windcheater, they have green hooded windcheater with MSHS logo. Also, they have a Physical Education dress code, which is a bottle green polo with gold and white stripe. Last but not least, for footwear, it closed in shoes only, NO thongs, slides or ugg boots.
And usually, there are some students that have their hair dyed, but it doest matter to have our hair dyed in Melville SHS.
So Melville has a casual uniform for students and I think it looks really comfy to wear it. Not like the one we have in Surabaya, a formal uniform.

Also, I want to discover more about it, like why do they have uniform for students and not for Teacher's. And maybe, I can find out who is the designer of their uniform. Who knows?

Winnie :D

What is normal?

Things considered normal at Melville that I consider unusual:

• Sit on the table(in the classroom)
• The student talk when the teacher still keep talking
• Drinking from the tap
• Value time

Australian have different norms with Indonesian, that is why many things that considered normal in Australia, especially Melville are unusual for me. Like the students sit on the table when study at the classroom with the teacher. I have been see it, when Ibu Peni explain something in the library, then someone come and sit on the table.

Sit on the table is fine in Australia but not polite in Indonesia. In Indonesia, students must sit on the chair if the teacher come into the classroom and explain about the subject. That is to respect the teacher who give something important to us.

Indonesian school vs Australian school

Indonesia and Australia are quite near and are similar in some ways, but they totally contrast in schools. Both schools use a uniform but in Indonesia the uniform is much more formal because all of the uniform is the same from hat to toe.

They are only different between boys and girls. But the Melville uniform is much more informal. They just have the same jumper and polo shirt, but the students feel free to use anything for the shorts or skirt, as long it's black.

The way they study is also very different because in Indonesia all the students must study all the subjects but in Australia they are able to choose some subjects that they like.

However there's also similarities between Indonesian and Australian schools. Both are lead by a principal, and the science laboratories are also the same as those in Indonesia.

Maybe there's more differents and similarities here, but i just stay not to long so i haven't found the other different and similarities.

Language Make Connection

Today, on the 5th of August 2009, we, the Surabayan delegation and year eight students from Melville Senior High School went to the Indonesian Consulate by bus. The Surabayan student delegation sat beside the eight year students. We passed many things along the road. We saw the “Canning River” and the “Swan River”. We also saw great buildings such as “The Swan Bell Tower” and the “Concert Hall”. They are very great buildings. They had a unique structure that will get attention from new-comers.

I was sitting with Keegan. He is a year eight student from Melville Senior High School. He has been learning Indonesian for 2 years. He has just moved from Sydney few years ago. When he’s learning Indonesian, he has some difficulties remembering the words. I have tested his abilities in speaking Indonesian and he is pretty good with Indonesian numbers. He and his family, planned to go to Indonesia (Bali Island). He would love to go to Indonesia sometimes. That is the same as me, as I would like to come back to Australia, especially Perth.

He loves to learn Indonesian and even though he finds some difficulties with it, he would love to learn some more of the language. His spirit to learn Indonesian is the same as me, as I love to learn English and improve my English. I found this as a connection between me and Australian people.

Why not Surabaya ??

Why not Surabaya ??

The delagation had an excursion to the Indonesian Consulate with the students who learn Indonesian at Melville High School. We were very interested when we saw a video about Indonesian culture. There was a lot of culture shown on the video, but the Surabayan delegation felt disapointed because there was no part of the video about Surabaya. That was alright, because we were very satisfied when we played the gamelan and angklung. It was amazing to play the traditional music from Java with the students from Melville SHS .

We also had a good experience when we interviewed one of the students who learn Indonesian. We asked, " What do you know about Indonesia? and What Indonesian words can you say?". Then, he answered," I know that Indonesia has a lot of culture and it's very popular with its history. Now, I just can say Selamat pagi, Selamat siang, Selamat malam, Terima kasih and nama saya Zac." All of Indonesian people must be proud because Australian people know the history of Indonesia.Then, we asked him again," Why do you want to learn Indonesian?",He answered ," Because, it's a challenge for me to learn a cool country's language and it will help me when I grow up, because I want to stay in Indonesia someday." That was a cool and weird answer for us because actually most Indonesian people want to live in a better country than Indonesia. On the other hand, all of us felt very satisfied on this trip. We saw positive sides of Indonesia in this excursion to the consulate.

A Little Chat with Year 8 Students

An excursion with Year 8 Melville SHS Students to the INDONESIAN CONSULATE? That was what we did this morning (5/8/2009). During that time, we had a little chat with two Melville SHS students. They are Louis and Ethan. Firstly, I want to tell you about my little chat with Louis. Louis said that he started learning Indonesian this year. He thinks that Indonesian people are very busy and hard-workers. He likes to learn Indonesian because it is an interesting language. He also spoke a little Indonesian to me, like "Nama Saya Louis". After talking with him I learnt that its okay for us to learn something new, because it's good to enrich our experiences and our knowledges.

Berbeda dengan Louis, Ethan sudah belajar Bahasa Indonesia sejak duduk di Year 3. Ia tertarik untuk belajar bahasa ini karena katanya, sepertinya menarik untuk mempelajari Bahasa Indonesia. Kata Ethan, Bahasa Indonesia itu keren dan katanya budayanya juga keren. Dan lucunya, waktu saya tanya "apa yang kamu tahu tentang Indonesia?" dia menjawab, "Indonesia punya waterpark yang keren di Bali ..hehe". Ethan juga berbicara bahasa Indonesia kepada saya, seperti "Nama saya Ethan" dan "Apa kabar?".

written by : Natasha and Winnie

Melville's and Surabaya's students play the Gamelan together

This was my first time as a visitor to the Indonesian consulate in Perth. I was so excited when I heard, I would go to the consulate. I had a big job to do while I was there. I must ask a student questions. Only one. I made a friend from the year 8 students from Melville Senior High School when I was in bus. I asked him so many questions about Indonesia. I asked a question about 'what do you think about Indonesia?', but firstly I asked his name. His name was John. Then he answered just all about Bali. I didn't know why. But I was satisfied, he could answer my questions.

Then we went down from the bus into the consulate. In the consulate, we met the consulate staff. We then watched a video. The video was about traditional dances in Indonesia and the Gamelan. After that, we went to the other room to play the Gamelan. I was so excited because I would introduce the Gamelan to the Melville Senior High School's students. Before we did it, we were divided into some groups as Slentheng player, Demung player, Gong player, etc. We were very happy, we could play Gamelan together.

Setelah kita melakukan itu semua, kami lalu kembali ke Melville Senior High School dengan bus. Lalu saya memberikan pertanyaan lagi seputar Indonesia. Saya menanyai dia tentang 'Kata-kata Indonesia apa yang dia ketahui?', dan dia menjawab banyak kata dalam bahasa Indonesia. Sebagai contoh, dia bisa mengatakan terima kasih, salam, angka, dan masih banyak lagi. Dalam perjalanan pulang, dia bercerita banyak seputar kota Perth. Tentang Swan River, Kings Park, dan banyak lagi. Banyak pengetahuan baru tentang kota Perth yang saya dapat dari John. Sungguh suatu pengalaman yang indah karena bisa mengunjungi kedutaan Indonesia di Perth.

Thank you so much for your time. Good bye.

Intan begins to blog!

This photo was taken during our blogging workshop at Melville Senior High School.