My name is Felkiza Vinanda. I am an Indonesian student who is currently studying at English Department of Petra Christian University. Last year, I experienced a cross cultural event in Indonesian Culture class. I was in the first semester and I met a foreigner student who came from Netherlands. Her name was Marloes Lankreijer, a beautiful girl with long brunette hair. Furthermore, we were involved in a group presentation called “Group I” and we had to present a particular topic from the book which based on our understandings. Specifically, the topic was “Culture as Our Ways of Life”. This topic let us to expand the concept of culture as the ways of life. Meanwhile, we divided the material to each student who was involved in the group and later, we had to summarize the material until it became a form of presentation.
Unfortunately, the material was written in Bahasa and Marloes could not understand any single thing. As I became the leader of the group, I had to make sure that Marloes could really get the points of the material or the presentation would be a failure. In other words, I had to make a short summary of the whole materials, so that Marloes could understand what the book said. After several minutes of a small and private presentation of the material, I assured her that she could really get what I meant. She nodded her head and said, “Maybe I can get some additional information about our material by browsing through the internet, or else, I can make it on my own! How’s that?”. I smiled and answered, “Sure! It will be great! Just send me your material. Do you have my e-mail address?”. “No, let me just… wait,” she grabbed something from her bag. Oh, that was a small and cute agenda book. She also took her pen and wrote my name on her book. “Okay, what’s your e-mail address?,” she asked. “Felkiza@gmail.com F-E-L-K-I-Z-A,” I tried to spell my name slowly, so that Marloes would not get the wrong address. “Alright, thank you very much. I’ll do it tonight. See you later!” she moved and waved her hands with a big smile.
Later, I received her e-mail at that night. “Wow, she is very punctual,” as I said to myself. “She really meant it when she told me that she would do it tonight.” I laughed at myself and tried to compare with my bad habit of being not very punctual. I tended to postpone my deal at works, either school assignments or a job. For example, I had already made a “to-do list” on a certain day. The first written thing was completing the Basic Philosophy class assignment, the second written thing was making an outline for Descriptive Paragraph Writing class, and the last thing was writing an article for a magazine that I worked for. “Those things should be done today”, I added at the end of the note. However, I got tired after several hours of class meetings that I attended. I chose to sleep, I woke up at night, and then I found myself doing nothing. “I had not completed the lists yet!,” I realized.
Following this further, I tried to understand that there was a different view of time among us. Marloes, as a Dutch, sees time as a form of an arrow which is straight to the front and not to be able to turn backwards. Nevertheless, I, as an Indonesian, see time as a form of a circular arrow which makes the capability to turn backwards. Another thing that matters, when the due day of presentation came, I met Marloes who was sitting alone on a bench, holding a paper on her hands and mumbling some words. “Hi, Marloes! How is it going?” I sat beside her. “Well, yeah I think I’m ready.” She smiled.
Then the due time came. We went to the second floor and moved forward as the presenters. During the presentation, I was a bit nervous. I only read my material; I meant, I read the same words, the same punctuation, and I did not use my own words. I also only gave a few examples. That was very different when it came to Marloes. She, who was wearing a black blazer and a white top, stood up confidently and appeared with a neat-style (I remember I only wore a casual shirt at that time). She explained the material with her own words and she gave a lot of examples, such as the thing that surprised me: she made a table of the differences of the Dutch and Indonesians ways of life. She seemed to be well-prepared as she left everyone’s applauses in behind.
Afterwards, there were some students who asked a question for the material. We answered the questions, but somehow some of them could not really get what we meant. Then, Marloes came forward and explained the material, based on her understanding. She still left us surprised as we often stuck at one thing and kept thinking about it; over and over again. Hence, I understand the appliance of seeing time was important there. Marloes was well-prepared at that time, while I was not. If I had prepared the materials, I would have been so confident that I did not have to read the materials by not using my own words.
Unfortunately, the material was written in Bahasa and Marloes could not understand any single thing. As I became the leader of the group, I had to make sure that Marloes could really get the points of the material or the presentation would be a failure. In other words, I had to make a short summary of the whole materials, so that Marloes could understand what the book said. After several minutes of a small and private presentation of the material, I assured her that she could really get what I meant. She nodded her head and said, “Maybe I can get some additional information about our material by browsing through the internet, or else, I can make it on my own! How’s that?”. I smiled and answered, “Sure! It will be great! Just send me your material. Do you have my e-mail address?”. “No, let me just… wait,” she grabbed something from her bag. Oh, that was a small and cute agenda book. She also took her pen and wrote my name on her book. “Okay, what’s your e-mail address?,” she asked. “Felkiza@gmail.com F-E-L-K-I-Z-A,” I tried to spell my name slowly, so that Marloes would not get the wrong address. “Alright, thank you very much. I’ll do it tonight. See you later!” she moved and waved her hands with a big smile.
Later, I received her e-mail at that night. “Wow, she is very punctual,” as I said to myself. “She really meant it when she told me that she would do it tonight.” I laughed at myself and tried to compare with my bad habit of being not very punctual. I tended to postpone my deal at works, either school assignments or a job. For example, I had already made a “to-do list” on a certain day. The first written thing was completing the Basic Philosophy class assignment, the second written thing was making an outline for Descriptive Paragraph Writing class, and the last thing was writing an article for a magazine that I worked for. “Those things should be done today”, I added at the end of the note. However, I got tired after several hours of class meetings that I attended. I chose to sleep, I woke up at night, and then I found myself doing nothing. “I had not completed the lists yet!,” I realized.
Following this further, I tried to understand that there was a different view of time among us. Marloes, as a Dutch, sees time as a form of an arrow which is straight to the front and not to be able to turn backwards. Nevertheless, I, as an Indonesian, see time as a form of a circular arrow which makes the capability to turn backwards. Another thing that matters, when the due day of presentation came, I met Marloes who was sitting alone on a bench, holding a paper on her hands and mumbling some words. “Hi, Marloes! How is it going?” I sat beside her. “Well, yeah I think I’m ready.” She smiled.
Then the due time came. We went to the second floor and moved forward as the presenters. During the presentation, I was a bit nervous. I only read my material; I meant, I read the same words, the same punctuation, and I did not use my own words. I also only gave a few examples. That was very different when it came to Marloes. She, who was wearing a black blazer and a white top, stood up confidently and appeared with a neat-style (I remember I only wore a casual shirt at that time). She explained the material with her own words and she gave a lot of examples, such as the thing that surprised me: she made a table of the differences of the Dutch and Indonesians ways of life. She seemed to be well-prepared as she left everyone’s applauses in behind.
Afterwards, there were some students who asked a question for the material. We answered the questions, but somehow some of them could not really get what we meant. Then, Marloes came forward and explained the material, based on her understanding. She still left us surprised as we often stuck at one thing and kept thinking about it; over and over again. Hence, I understand the appliance of seeing time was important there. Marloes was well-prepared at that time, while I was not. If I had prepared the materials, I would have been so confident that I did not have to read the materials by not using my own words.
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