“Welcome to Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto”
The day has finally arrived. It is officially our first day as exchange students here in Indonesia. Although we experienced some fatigue from our journey, we were very eager and excited to meet the UMP Faculty of Education. During this day we had a small gathering with them and they welcomed us very warmly. We got to introduce ourselves to them and at the same time they introduced themselves to us.
They talked to us about the SEA teacher program and our class assignments. I was assigned with my fellow student teacher, Margie in MTS Muhammadiyah Purwokerto. At first, when I found out that I was not with my schoolmate, I was a little hesitant because Larissa and I always did things together back home. But then I remembered that this is an opportunity for me to grow, not only as a person but also as a teacher. The mentor that we were assigned to was Pak Sae. He said that he studied in the Philippines for three years and had many friends from there. He seemed very approachable and I would like to learn a lot of things under his guidance.
Joining this program is not a walk in the park. They told us about how different teaching English is here compared to the Philippines. In here, they see English as a foreign language and they start learning it at junior high. This is another challenge for me since I am a Special Education major and I am used to handling younger kids. However, despite this I will try my best to apply the different strategies that I have learned in Special education and make learning English meaningful for these students. One thing that an instructor, Pak Tono, told us that struck me the most was “When in Rome, do as Romans do.” and that is what brought me back to why I joined this exchange program in the first place. I wanted to see what it is like to live and work in another country. I wanted to see how I can stand on my own and how much I can learn from this experience in order for me to also apply it when I get back home.
