Thursday, April 29, 2010

Happy April,,Happy Kartini's Day !!!


Woman. . .
So many words can not describe the meaning of woman. Girl??? Female??? Mother??? Sister??? Daughter??? All are woman.

Long time ago, woman just become the sign of the weaknesses. Too weak to become strong, too weak but also so pure. Contrary, woman is the sign of the purity, the symbol of true love and never ending love. Who does not ever get love from a woman??? No. . . no one. Everyone have it, they have woman's love inside them.

Now... So many woman arise as the symbol of power. the power that bring a new world to the womanhood.

KARTINI, a woman that well known by her struggle to mark out the degree of womanhood in Indonesia. Although she was lived in Colonial era, she never gave up to reach her idea about woman's independent. The fabulous idea that bring the Indonesian Women to the brighter days. The excellent idea that accompany Indonesian Women to the door of victory. The idea that bring me in extraordinary world.

Kartini was a Javanese woman who lived in colonial era of Indonesia. She was a daughter of Javanese aristocrat, R. M. A. A. Sosroningrat who was work for Dutch Colonial as a governor. Her mother was M. A. Ngasirah. By her background family, she was called as Raden Ajeng Kartini. "Raden Ajeng" is an earl of Javanese. Kartini was the fifth child and second eldest daughter in a family of eleven, including half siblings.

What was make her different to other woman in her era??? The first was her status as a noblesse that allowed her to attend in school. Not all woman could not attend at school in Dutch era. School was just for rich people or the noblesse. In school, Kartini learned Dutch as the language of colonial at that time. Because of her fluency of Dutch, she got many friends, pen friends from Dutch. Books, newspapers and European magazines fed Kartini's interest in the way of European women's thinking, and fostered the desire to improve the conditions of indigenous women, who at that time had a very low social status. How a lofty idea. This is the second thing that make her become famous and become hero, Indonesian Woman's hero.

Unfortunately, She just allowed to attend the school until she was 12. Because after 12, in Javanese culture, a girl should be ready to going marry. During seclusion girls were not allowed to leave their parents' house until they were married, at which point authority over them was transferred to their husbands. Although she did not at school anymore, but the her desire in education was not disappeared. During her seclusion, Kartini continued to educate herself on her own. Kartini's concerns were not just in the area of the emancipation of women, but also the problems of her society. Kartini saw that the struggle for women to obtain their freedom, autonomy and legal equality was just part of a wider movement.


Then, She married to Raden Adipati Joyodiningrat, also a Javanese noblesse which had 3 wives in November, 12th 1903. This was against Kartini's wishes. Her husband understood Kartini's aims and allowed her to establish a school for women in the Rembang. She still continued sent letter to her Dutch friends. In her letter, Kartini wrote about her views of the social conditions prevailing at that time, particularly the condition of original Indonesian women. The main things that she wrote in her letters was protest the tendency of Javanese Culture to impose obstacles for the development of women. She wanted women to have the freedom to learn and study.


As a good woman, Kartini born her son in September, 13 1904. He was become the only son of Raden Ajeng Kartini and Raden Adipati Joyodiningrat, because Kartini died after she born her son.

Because of her strugling and her merit in bring the independence woman in Indonesia, Our first president, Mr.Sukarno declared that Kartini's birthday in April 21st as Kartini's Day. A special day to remind Kartini's merit and a special day to declare that Woman is not just the sign of weaknesses, but the symbol of Independence.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

What is your English Look like???

As the students of English Program, it surely that we should speak English all the time, especially in college. To the lecturers and also the classmate. However, we are not native speakers, our mother tongue may be influence our English. Some weeks ago, I had started a new topic in MyEc in EnglishClub.com.

However, English is International Language, it is become an alternative for us to communicate to other people who have different mother tongue. It become a Lingua Franca in certain communities in the world.

Many people believe that because of its utility, English almost spoken in this world. It make sure that English has been influence by the mother tongue of a non-native speaker. In Indonesia, the structure of English sentence usually used in Indonesian roles. It is under control actually. The speaker do not realize what English that he uses.

It does not happen in Indonesia only, In Malaysia, the people commonly use English-Malay for their conversation. Also in Singapore, there is SingLish or Singapore-English. What kind of phenomena is this? Is it common happen to non-native speakers? So, what your English look like?