Interview and Placement Test for the New esc-STIPRAM Students Academic Year 2011/2012

Finally, after the long process of interviewing and giving placement written tests for the new students of Stipram, esc classes started its first class on Monday, 8 August 2011, at 2:00 pm. 

Esc opened seven classes, named after Indonesian traditional spices, such as cinnamon, lemon grass, coriander, candlenut, shallot, turmeric, and ginger, with a total of 230 students.

Esc classes offer a variety of activities, from class discussions, games, role plays, group work, debates, guiding, outing, and other fun activities. Hopefully students can enjoy themselves and improve their English at the same time. At the end of a term, students will be given a certificate and they can move on to the next level. There are six levels in esc – pre- elementary, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, post-intermediate, and advanced. When they have completed all the six levels, students can join the TOEFL preparation class to reach a TOEFL score up to 500. These certificates will be useful when students are applying for a job.

Actually, there are still more students who haven’t joined the test. So, why wait? Take the tests now. Good luck guyz J Happy learning.

wisnu.doc - august 2011

"Lemon Grass" Community Chat Session with Mr. Robert

This morning of Saturday, August 13, 2011, the “Lemon Grass” community held a chat session with Mr. Robert Konstantin from Germany. The session started at 11:30 am and participated by a dozen of students.

Lots of interesting topics were shared during the chat, from simple local traditional food – lotek, gado-gado, and pecel – to discussing popular movies, such as transformer 3 and iron man 3. Surprisingly, Mr. Robert is very fond of eating lotek and gado-gado, especially with extra chilly. 

But, he can’t stand gudeg because it’s too sweet. He likes living in Indonesia and one of his hobbies is swimming. He usually swims at UNY swimming pool where he sometimes dives from the 10 meter diving tower there.

Mr. Robert is not new to Stipram. In 2009, he became a guest lecturer for the diploma 3 and the bachelor classes. “Wow! I was surprised when I first arrived at this campus this morning”, he said. “There were so many students!” he continued. “Stipram has changed and improved and there should be more discussion activities with foreigner like this so that students can practice their English and become more confident in using it”, he pointed out.

Yes, we agree … and so …… lets speak English guyz!!!

wisnu.doc - aug 2011

esc MONDAY AFTERNOON COMMUNITY with Mr. ROBERSON

Yesterday, on Monday July 18, the esc Monday afternoon community held a class with Mr. Roberson, a student from Madagascar, Africa. He is studying  S2 on State Administration in UGM Jogja because he got a scholarship from the Madagascar Government   He’s been in Jogja for almost 2 years. He really likes Indonesian culture. According to Mr. Roberson, Indonesian people are very friendly, especially the Jogjanese. He thinks the Javanese are polite and have very nice communicating skill. Even though he has never met Jogjanese people before he has had no difficulties talking with them because they can accept him very well.

 

Mr. Roberson thinks that Jogja food is strange, because some of the food is sweet and some is too spicy. In fact, there is also very hot food with lots of chilly. He finds the food difficult to eat because he is used to French food.

He added that in Madagancar, only the women are the ones who cook the dishes. Men are not common in doing the cooking. In fact, in villages, men are not allowed to cook.

When Madagascar people meet a tourist for the first time they don’t usually say ‘Hi’ like what the people do in Indonesia. They just look and stare at each other without saying a word, but they still welcome you.

During the class the students played games and had discussions with Mr. Roberson about different culture. Next week, our community is planning to have a class again with Mr. Roberson and his native friends. We are looking forward to it.

wisnu.doc- july 2011

esc KUWARU BEACH OUTING JULY 2011 (Part 2)

Finally, the most interesting thing that differentiate Kuwaru beach with the other beaches in Bantul, Jogja, is the pine trees scattered along the beach. These pine trees provide the visitors some nice, cool, shady places in the beach area suitable for relaxing or enjoying meals and drinks. 

It was said that the pine trees were planted 6 years ago by the people who live around Kuwaru beach as an effort to green the area and support the ecosystem. It is such a mindset that the students or professionals in tourism must have in order to support the go green program, the eco-tourism as well as to reduce the effect of global warming. 

It is a very good job and a briliant way of thinking from the people of Kuwaru which we must also support and maintain. Go green Kwaru!! esc STiPrAm will give full support!

 Wisnu.doc