Card 1

Part 2

Describe a teacher who has influenced you in your education.

You should say:
where you met them
what subject they taught
what was special about them
And explain why this person influenced you so much.

Note:
Mr. Dion
Elementary School
All subject, expect religion, English, and sport
Careful, loyal in working
The way of teaching
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I am going to talk about a teacher who influenced in my

education.
His name is Dion. I met him in early 1990s when I studied in
Xaverius Elementary School in Ambon, the capital city of Maluku.
He taught me when I was in class 5 and 6, in which during two
years, he taught all subjects, except religion, English, and sport.
I consider him as my first favorite teacher because of his
attention toward student development. He really paid attention on how
we could understand a subject, particularly how we prepared ourselves
to meet The National Examination. Related to this, I love how he
organized our class so we could adsorb knowledge given in class room.
Twice a week, we had to change our sitting position in class, so
everybody could experienced all side in our class. We had a pattern of
this change, in which there was a day we moved to left side and right
side, and another day we moved forward and downward. It trained us
to adapt in many situation. This is a reason why I always remember
him. Another reason is we always had pre test before class and post
test after class so he could follow our progress.
This teacher really influenced the way I study until today. In
which I view that preparation before studying is really important to
help us having a basic knowledge before we know it well by studying
deeply. I also implement it when working. As consequence, I will get
good achievements at the end of the process.

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Part 3

Developments in education in Indonesia

How has education changed in Indonesia in the last 10

years?
In the last 10 years education system in Indonesia has changed in
many aspects, such as content of national curriculum and assessing
components of studying process. In which topics of studying has
designed to accommodate skills, knowledge, and character
development which relevant to national and global issues nowadays,
like students are encouraged to care with environmental problems
such as climate change through doing 3R, reduce, reuse, and recycle
paper. Meanwhile, studying process is assessed in not only theoretical
aspects, but also practical aspects. However, Indonesia still face
protest toward their national evaluation which focuses student
achievement on examination during a week or tend to ignore students
progress during a period of studying in a stage of education.

What changes do you foresee in the next 50 years?

In the next 50 years I predict that Indonesia will implement digital
learning in schools, particularly in urban area. This will be influenced by
pressure to lessen tree logging in supporting paper fabrics. As
consequence, white boards and broad makers will be changed to big
touch screens and stylus pens and students will use computer during
schools. Paper will only use in examination. Related to that, manual
text books will be changed to e-book, so internet will be more popular
than nowadays.

What are the major problems facing Indonesian schools

and how can be they overcome?
I think the main problem in Indonesian schools is how to provide school
as a pleasant environment for studying. It is a complicate problem
because there are many aspects we have to overcome, such as
providing good curriculum and improving schools infrastructure and
enhancing teacher ability. However, our government and school itself
has tried to make a number of relevant efforts, such as evaluating
continually contents of national curriculum, building an appropriate
number of classes to accommodate studying participants or restrict
number of students applying for a school so the school cannot be
overload and teaching and studying process can be more effective.
Besides that teacher performance has appreciated through teacher
certification, certain trainings, and test of teacher competence. This is
also a way to encourage teacher to enhance their ability continually to
deal with their responsibility in school.

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 How do the expectations of todays school leavers compare
with those of the previous generation?
In my perspective, graduation people in previous generation expected
to have a job in sectors which relevant to their education background
so they can implement their skills and knowledge and develop their
professional career well. It was not really difficult for them because in
that era job vacancies were wider than nowadays. In contrast,
graduation people nowadays have to face the impact of unbalance
number of the number of job seekers and place for working. So, they
tend to expect every job which they can have income to support their
life. It makes several people perforce to work in irrelevant sectors. For
example, a bachelor of science in chemistry without accounting
background has to work in a bank or be a marketing staff in a
company. Meanwhile most people also try to have additional business
to have additional income, such as involving in online shopping or
being a member of multilevel marketing.

What role do you think extracurricular activities play in

education?
I think extracurricular plays important roles in developing students
talent which cannot be accommodated through studying in class. For
example, if students love writing, they can involve in writing club to
deliver their hobby. This can also be a way to balance students
activities between using their mind to absorb studying materials and
feeling relax by other things. We cannot refute that student may often
feel bored by school activities, so they can release their tediousness
through extracurricular activities.
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Different styles/methods of teaching and learning

What teaching and learning styles are favored in your

country?
In Indonesia, normally people love teaching methods which appreciate
them in many ways. So, most Indonesians are keen on class
discussion, in which they can present their ideas and debate it. This
activity make them more enjoyable in accepting knowledge and it can
explore their ability more because they have chance to work
independently or in a team to collect more relevant information, so
they can know well their ability compare to other and can help each
other to fix their weakness.

How beneficial do you think it is to group students

according to their level of ability?
I think grouping students according to their level of ability is beneficial
to avoid gap in a class. Consequently, teacher can be easy to deliver
knowledge because every student has equal ability in absorbing

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 knowledge. Groups of weak students can be paid attention more
related to their development in studying, while groups of smart
students can have enrichment materials to encourage an exciting
competition between students, and then avoid their tediousness in
studying something that cannot explore more their ability.

Card 2

Part 2

Describe your favorite room.

You should say:
what you use the room for
how the room is decorated
what objects there are in the room
And explain why it is your favorite room.

Note:
Bedroom
enjoying time off,
decorated simply
bedroom, working table, wardrobe, collection/personal things
its function and outside view

I am going to talk about my bedroom which is my favorite room.

I use this room mostly for my personal activities, such as resting my
body after finishing my daily activities and enjoying my hobbies, such
as writing a poem and short story, watching movie from my laptop, or
reading books.
It is a small room. Its wide is less than seven meters square without a
special or thematic decoration. Its wall was painted purple. I think the
color is matching with white window and door.
In this room, I place a bedroom, wardrobe, and my personal and
collection things, such as novels.
This is my favorite room because of its function related to my personal
needs and its position which I consider as the best position in my
house. There is a beautiful panorama presented to me through my
window. I really adore this view. I can see sunrise every morning, enjoy
the full month, and a small yard where my mother plant vegetable or
fruits there. This view can inspire me to create a poem or make me
relax after I experience boring time or difficult problems.

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Part 3

The functions of family rooms

Describe the main activities that go on in a family room in your

culture.
Indonesians usually use their family room to socialize with their family
member. Most of them place television in the room so they can watch
television together while sharing many things. In some family, this
room can be larger than other rooms in their home. Sometimes this
room is also used to accommodate some special family gathering
which involves many related families, such as what they call arisan. It
is a regular family gathering in which the family members collect an
amount of money every month, then take turns to draw it to win the
money. However, money is not the aim of the activity. The activity is
more emphasized on their togetherness. The activity encourages all
family members to involve in so they can know well each other and
enhance their relationship.

Compare the function of family rooms today with a generation

ago.
I think compared to previous generation the function of family rooms
nowadays is relatively unchanged. It still exists as place where family
gets on together and socializes each other, although its intensity is not
as well as in previous time, in which existence of internet may
influence good communication between family members. They can be
in a room but each of them may be busy with their smart phone while
sitting together with their family.

Evaluate the importance in Indonesian culture of spending

time with family as opposed to spending time with friends. Is
this changing?
In my view, this culture has changed partly. In my grandfathers
generation, family was everything, so people would spend much time
with their family than their friends. Nonetheless, nowadays, although
most people still view their family as their motivator to achieve
positive aspects in their life, it does not directly make them spend
more time with their family. Some parents even allow their children for

5
 having much time with friends than family in order to expose children
in todays environment. In other side, some children may feel more
comfortable to share everything with their friends because of lack
attention of their parents, so they tend to spend more time with their
friends than their family.

Entertaining
Describe how people entertain guests in your country.
Indonesian people are happy to welcome guests in their country. They
usually show their cultural wealthy in many ways. For example, in
formal ceremony, they will present their traditional dances. In some
cultures, such as in Timor Island, guests will be welcomed by giving
them a traditional shawl and talking natoni, it is such as a special
traditional poem to appreciate or welcome the guests to their home,
and then they will provide areca nut and a distilled -palm wine as a
symbol of fraternity between them and the guests.

Evaluate the importance of hospitality as a value in Indonesian

culture.
Hospitality is an important value in Indonesian culture and a part of
Indonesian identity. It appears on their daily lives, such as when they
meet other people, including visitors they will smile and accost friendly
and behave politely in communicating with other.

Compare what forms of entertainment young people and

adults prefer in your culture.
In general there are various kinds of entertainment that people love in
my culture. Although different in theme or content, overall their
favorite entertainment can be movies, songs, or book.
Commonly young people keen on movies or songs which illustrate
problems in their era, such as teenager love story, friendship, and how
they find their identity. Some of them also like to see a music concert
presenting their favorite singers.
Meanwhile, adults prefer to entertainment which make them relax after
working or encourage them to find the meaning of live, so they will
enjoy movie accommodating this theme, books like autobiography of
well-known people, or songs recalling their old-memories.

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 Card 3

Part 2

Describe a photograph or picture that you like.

You should say:

what the picture / photograph shows
when the picture / photograph dates from
how the picture / photograph makes you feel
And explain why you particularly like this picture/photograph.

Note
Oenesu
2006
Nostalgic
Only one photo with university friends

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Im going to talk about a photograph that I love.

The photograph shows my university friends and I when we visited a
Oenesu Waterfall, one of popular tourist destination in the regency of
Kupang. We were standing in a big stone in the middle of a small river
and a waterfall as background.
The photo was taken in around 2006, when we enjoyed our semester
break.

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 I always feel nostalgic when looking the photo. We seem really happy
as it is showed in our expression. I remembered we just released our
stress after facing a difficult year in which we had to deal with many
laboratory work and problems in student associate that we organized.
This is our favorite photo because it is the only one photo presenting
all my friends from same generation in chemistry department of Nusa
Cendana University. It is really important for us because at the time we
did not experience technological era which was as exciting as what is
happening now. Social media as facebook or twitter had not existed
yet. Fortunatelly, we had known digital camera so we can save this
photograph as our special things remembering one of special periods
in our life.

Part 3

Photographs of important events

Describe the types of events that people take photographs

of in your culture.
Normally people take photographs mostly in their special events such
as birthday or wedding party. At the moments, many families and
colleagues come to enjoy their happiness. So it is important to capture
the moment in many photographs.

Consider why people take photographs of important

events.
I think some important events, such as wedding party only happens
once in most people life. It is a special event which needs to celebrate
or memorize in many way, including taking photo. Through
photographs people can remind again the events or people who came
to the celebration. Some people may live in another city, island, or
country so we cannot meet them very often. We can see the
photograph when we miss the people.

Speculate on changes in the way people in your culture

record important events over the last generation. What
changes do you predict will occur in the future?
There are many changes in the way Indonesian people record a special
event in their life. One noticeable example is how people take
photographs. In my grandfathers era, they captured their special
moment using analog camera with roll film. It would result less than

8
 fifty photographs and the photo had to produce with using service of a
professional photo studio. After that, they placed the photographs in a
photo album.
Compared to the era, nowadays, people can take hundreds
photographs using digital camera or smart phone. They can print it by
their self or publish it in their social media, such as facebook or
istagram, so everybody can see the photographs.
I predict, in the future, there will be more modern camera or smart
phone with better facilitation for fulfilling people desire to take a photo
and istagram will be continually exist in providing a media in which
people can share their special moments through photographs.

Art

Describe the most important traditional art forms in your culture.

I think the most important traditional art forms in Indonesian are our
traditional clothes. It is various and different in each culture in
Indonesia. For example, Java has batik, Celebes has songket, and East
Nusa Tenggara has woven product. In specific, in East Nusa Tenggara,
the woven product has specific character in each ethnic. The motif of
woven products presents local people reflection toward their
philosophical value or certain social status in their society.

Comment on the changes in Art forms in Indonesia over the

last generation.
I think art forms in Indonesia have relatively unchanged over the last
generation. Most art forms are influenced by traditional art which is
Indonesian identity. It is a heritage of our ancestors. Therefore, people
tend to preserve it. Changes are commonly on the function of art
forms. Take painting or sculpture for example, in our ancestors
generation, it was heirloom, and then in my grandfathers era it
changed to a souvenir or a decoration thing.

Compare the importance of art and science for humanity.

In my perspective art and science are two aspects playing important
roles for humanity. Both are product of human thinking or reflection
toward their lives.
Art exists to interpret philosophical value in simple forms which can be
more understood and accepted universally. For example music which

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 can be a media to deliver human feeling or protest toward humanity
problems.
Meanwhile, science exists to overcome humanity problems. Its fields
are more applicable than art. Science enables a number of inventions
to not only solve problems in society but also to enhance our standard
of lives. For example, the internet existence has helped people in
fulfilling communicating needs directly or medical inventions have
helped human to overcome diseases.

Assess the extent to which computer graphics may be

called an art form.
I think computer graphics can be considered as an art form. Not all
people can do it. We need not only computer skills but also art sense to
results a nice computer graphics. Although computer provides a
number of sophisticated drawing features, art sense has to play more
in designing and then processing a creation used computer graphics.
And I think, most good programs involve human ability in drawing
using stylus pen in a screen. In addition, choosing patterns or colors
really influence more on human sense than computer performance.

Card 3

Part 2

Describe a town or city you would like to visit.

You should say:

where is it
how it is similar to your hometown
how it is different from your hometown

And explain why you would especially like to visit this place

NOTE
Ambon
Maluku
Topography
Culture
I have ever lived there and would like to know its changes

10
.

I am going to talk about a city that I really would like to visit. It is

Ambon, the capital city of Maluku.
Ambon city is located in the Ambon Island. The area is around
Ambon Bay.
Ambons topography is similar to Kupang, the capital city of East
Nusa Tenggara which my hometown. Therefore, both cities are
categorized as sister city. The similarity is they have hilly topography
with population density started from coastal areas to higher areas.
They have a lot of beautiful beaches and it is one of their attractive
power invited visitors to enjoy the city. So, tourism is an important
sector in Ambon and Kupang, besides other sectors such as fishery.
However, there are some difference between Ambon and Kupang,
such as their city management, culture, and history. In city
management, Ambon is a small city with better city design than
Kupang. Urban areas in Ambon are arranged well. Meanwhile, culturally
and historically, both cities are totally different in many aspects, such
as their traditional art forms, foods, and colonialism influences toward
the city.
I would like to visit the city because I was grown up in Ambon. My
family and I moved to Kupang in 2000 because of blood disturbance in
Maluku. So, I would like to know how the city has changed after the
tragedy and I really miss visit some beaches, like Natsepa beach which
has long coastal line and taste some special food, such as papeda; a
kind of sago porridge.

Part 3

Urbanization

How have cities changed in Indonesia in recent decades?

I think most cities in Indonesia have developed in recent decades. Take
Kupang for example. Kupang is the capital city of east Nusa Tenggara.
In the last ten years, this city was only look more alive in some areas,
such as in Kuanino and Kampung Solor which are a shopping-center
area. Nonetheless, shops were limited in accommodating the local
people necessities. In addition, lack of public transportation to some
area made people immediately returned to their home when sunset
came. So, the city looked quite in evening.
The condition has changed when urbanization developed rapidly after
Indonesian Government authorized autonomy areas in Indonesia,
including Kupang. This enabled many investor came to Kupang and
developed the city in many sectors. As consequence, nowadays there
are many big shopping centre located in many areas. They offer

11
 unlimited living necessities, from simple to luxurious things. Due to the
development, people become more consumptive and their lifestyle is
also changed as well. There is increase of the kind of public
transportation, such as taxi or motorcycle taxi which accommodates
people mobility from early morning until evening, even midnight.
Moreover, many visitors come to Kupang every year and it encourages
the development of hotel in Kupang and some new tourist destination.
In short, the city is more alive and exciting than before.

What changes do you predict will occur in the next decade?

I foresee in the next ten years, Kupang will be more developed.
Considering what our government plan nowadays, I imagine, we will
have many thematic city gardens or public areas, besides Taman
Nostalgia or Ketapang Satu, which accommodate people need to
socialize in opening areas where they can enjoy beautiful nature or
beach, and also delicious culinary. Besides them, people will
experience traffic jam in all city streets because of the increase of
number of personal vehicle that people have as a prestigious things or
really compulsory things supporting their mobility.

Explain the causes of urban drift in Indonesia. (i.e. people

moving from rural to urban areas)
I think one important factor encouraging people to move from rural to
urban areas is because they would like to have a better life. In their
perspective, urban areas are more potential in supporting the aim.
They think there will be many job vacancies or entertainment in city
than village. It may be influenced by unbalance proportion between
urban development and rural development, such as its infrastructure
supporting human necessities. As consequence, the urban areas
become more crowded and full of social problems, while rural areas are
less developed. Many people prefer to be employees in city than
develop agriculture areas in their village.

Urbanization problems

What are the problems associated with city life in

Indonesia?
There are a number of problems in city life in Indonesia, such as social
gap between rich and poor people, a number of criminal problems like
rubbing and robbery, traffic jam, and lack of opening areas or green
areas.

What are the causes and effects of the problem(s)?

In my perspective, the problems are influenced by the increase of
urbanization. Many people would like to move to urban areas because
they think they can obtain better life than in rural areas. However,
some people who do not have appropriate skills or knowledge may not
win in competition to have jobs or better lives. They can perforce

12
 become homeless drifter or criminals. As consequence, they can build
a dirty area in city. It can annoy city aesthetics. Meanwhile, criminals
can make people feel unsecure and have to afford a number of
protections to avoid criminal actions, such as rubbing, robbery, or
pickpocket.

What are the potential solutions to the problem(s)?

To overcome the problems may relatively difficult, but I think
encouraging inhabitants from overpopulated areas to less populated
region can be a potential solution. It can lessen the number of city
inhabitants and encourage equal distribution of development in all
regions in a country. However, the society need to be directed to
enhance their understanding toward the efforts, such as give them
certain training or education so they can develop their live
independently in new areas and support their basic necessities, such
as providing house and health environment to live.

Card 5

Part 2

Describe an important year in your life.

You should say:
how old you were
what important things you remember from that year
where these things happened
And say why you think that year was so important for you.

13
 NOTE
2014
28 years old
Decided to continue my study
Kupang
Initial episode in my live

I would like to talk about one of important years in my life. It

is 2014.
At the year, I was 28 years old.
In early year I finally decided to continue my study because I
would like to have more enthusiastic life. I started to feel static
in my job in which I think I must enhance my knowledge and
skills to contribute more for my institution development. Then,
my youngest sister would be graduated in June 2014, so I would
stop to take responsibility for my sisters life.
After making the decision, I focused learning English. I
started with taking some courses such as TOEFL preparation and
then I was selected as ELTA NTT participant. TOEFL and ELTA
were attended in Undana Language Center in Penfui, a place in
Kupang city.
2014 is important for me because I walked out of my
comfortable zone by making a decision. I signed it as an initial of
new period in my life. I have exposed myself in a new
environment in which I can meet new people and learn more
from them. It is really beneficial in my personal development.

Part 3

Family History

Evaluate the importance of family history in Indonesia

(i.e. oral history that is handed down from one
generation to another).
Family history is important part of Indonesian identity, especially
oral history. It is really common and popular in some cultures,

14
 such as in Dawan ethnic, an original ethnic in Timor Island, East
Nusa Tenggara. Their oral history can include secret history or
sacred content, so it is only told to selected people, usually a
chieftain. In delivering the history to a community, they use
poetic language which needs to be interpreted to catch its
meaning. In short, oral history also shows an art sense
illustrating their cultural wealth.

Discuss the best ways to keep family history alive.

In my perspective writing a book can be the best way to
preserve family history. It has longer lifetime than oral history. In
oral history, only selected people can tell the history, so there is
tendency in which the history will be disappeared in a
generation. This problem can be overcome by written a book, so
the information can be alive longer and easy to be explored.

Compare family history and national history. In what

ways are they different?
I think both kind of history is different in its content. Family
history is only limited or exclusive to a family or an ethnic, such
as legend of a place or a family name, while national history
includes wider areas in a nation, such as colonialism era in a
country.

National History

Discuss whether it is important for citizens to study

the history of their nation.
Yes, surely. National history is an important knowledge which
must be known well by each citizen because it is a part of their
identity. For example, how their country is established. The

15
 national history plays important role in building their nationalism
in contribute for their country development.

Why has studying history become less popular these

days in your opinion?
In my perspective, unpopularity of studying history is influenced
by less facility and interesting ways attracting citizen to know
their history. For example, our museum is managed unwell, so
people feel tedious to visit their museum. Moreover, most
history teacher less able to provide enthusiastic studying
materials, so history becomes a boring subject in school.

What can be done to encourage young people to

become interested in history?
I think the best way to encourage young people interest toward
history is changing their mind set toward history through
providing attractive way to learn history. It can be done by
renovate and fix bad management museums or historical places.
For example, providing digital museum in which young
generation can show national history by watching short movie
with many historical evidences collected by the museum.
Another way is organizing an annual competition encouraging
young people to explore or preserve local or national history,
such as create essays or short movies.

Card 6

Part 2
Describe your favorite clothes.
You should say:
what your favorite clothes are now
how your taste in clothing has changed over time

16
 what kind of clothes you dislike and why
And explain why the way you dress is important to you.
.

NOTE
Elegant clothes: calm color, blazer, blouse, long trousers or
skirt
Childish to adult sense
Tank top
Importance : show my personality

I am going to talk about my taste in wearing certain clothes.

I like wearing clothes which I can be looked elegant or
disguise my weaknesses. I am skinny, so I must avoid clothes
which I can look as senior high school girls. I love wearing blazer
with short dress or skirt and long trouser and the color must be
calm.
My taste in clothing has changed when I become an adult
woman. When I was a teenager, I did not really care about my
clothes. I did not have any specific taste in clothing.
Nevertheless, after working, I think my clothes must support my
performance. I have to meet many people from different jobs or
social level, so I must consider what clothes I wear.
Besides that, I do not like wearing tank top because I have
small arm and it makes me unconfident to show it off.
The way I dress is essential in showing my personality, such
as how I respect myself and environment where I must socialize
well.

Part 3

Clothes and Fashion

17
 Is chasing a fashionable image a waste of time and
money?
Yes, it is.
I think fashion image is a part of modern lifestyle. Many people
are addicted to follow it. Following fashion development is such
a prestigious thing in human life. Unfortunately, fashion trends
are change expressly. As consequence, people tend to waste
their time and money to monitor and adapt the newest items,
such us checking online shops frequently and spontaneously
buying the items without consider their prices.

Describe how attitudes towards fashion and image

have changed over the last decade in Indonesia?
In my view, over the last decade, Indonesian attitudes towards
fashion and image have changed in many ways. It is influenced
by technology development which enables people to share
information directly around the world. As consequence, people
can easily monitor fashion trends. This gives positive and
negative effects in Indonesians life. One of positive aspect is
fashion industry in Indonesia can be developed. It also
encourages the birth of many creative designers in Indonesia
who expand local items as main character in their fashion
design. However, many fashion industry contract popular
celebrities as their fashion items in order to attract people use
their product. They can promote it by using the internet and
make people interested in and even addicted to the product. In
one side, the industry can take benefits financially, but in
another side costumers get their pride through using the popular
fashion items and become more consumptive.

What do you think of designer clothes for small

children?
I think small children can be potential market for cloth industry,
including for designers. Nowadays, many parents would like to
dress up their children well. Designers can take the chance for
designing nice cloth for small children. In my perspective, it can
be a challenge for the designers because small children normally
have certain sensitivity toward certain textile materials.

18
 Describe the importance of traditional costume in
Indonesia?
In Indonesia, traditional costume is still one of important things.
People still use it in many celebrations, such as in their
engagement or wedding. Normally, the events include a
sequence of traditional mores. Traditional costume shows people
identity. It is a pride for them to show where place they come
from.

Are school uniforms better than free choice of clothes

for school?
I think uniforms are better than free choice of clothes for school.
Uniforms can avoid social gap between poor and rich students.
Meanwhile wearing free clothes can encourage students to show
off their own and be arrogant or affront other.
Wearing uniforms can also be a part of educational way in
school, in which students can learn how to adapt and respect an
environment and experience similar behavior or similar rights to
have an education in school.

What should people do with their old clothes to

prevent waste?
I think reuse can be a good way, in which we can use old clothes
to make another thing which have high economical value, such
as handicrafts, handbag.

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 Card 7

Part 2

Describe something you have made or created.

You should say:
what it was
why you decided to make it
what steps you took to complete it
And say how you felt about making it.
.

NOTE
A seat
Reuse and reduce waste material
Buying cover (artificial leather), drawing pattern, sewing,
filling
Satisfied

I am going to talk about one of my creation. It was a seat. I made it

before Christmas 2015.
I made it because I found that the major proportion of our
domestic waste is waste material from sewing activities in our house.
As the reason, my mother is a tailor, so we cannot avoid the waste
materials from many textile products. She usually places the waste
into a plastic bag or cardboard. In my eyes, it disturbs aesthetics in our
house. So one day I thought to make something to overcome it. At the
beginning, I planned to make handicrafts, but I would spend much
time. Better to make something easy and I thought waste material
might be better to fill a seat.
Then, I went to buy artificial leather. After that, I drew the pattern. I
used our sofa as reference of its size (length, width, and height). I
copied the pattern in artificial leather and cut it. Next step, the pattern
was sewed by sewing machine, and filled by waste materials from
various textile products. The seat was finished and I showed it to my
family.
I felt really satisfied and proud of my creation, moreover my family
liked it although they laughed at the first time they saw it.

20
Part 3

Creativity

How do you define creativity?

In my perspective, creativity is a mental process which can produce
ideas and concepts. For example, painting or writing a poem.

Do you think creativity is encouraged enough in Indonesian

schools?
I think it does not enough.
In many schools, several teachers still constrain their students to follow
their instruction or obstruct critical thinking. For instance, they do not
accept student critics and statements or think out of the box and give
bad value to the students. There are also several teachers who do not
care toward student creativity, for example they do not pay attention
more whether their students copy their homework from other or not.
However, there are several teacher in school how use creative method
to make students understand their material. For example, a math
teacher can allow their students to make a creative drawing to
remember mathematics formula.

What is more important being original or being able to follow

instructions well?
I think both aspects are important and have to be combined well in
order to obtain good results.
Being original shows how really we are. It proves our confidence.
Meanwhile, we need to follow instructions well because some things
can run well according to a sequence of instructions.

What are the best ways to develop creativity?

I think the best ways to develop creativity is dare to show ourselves.
For example, if we have talent in writing, we have to try publishing our
creation, so people can read it and know us. This can encourage not
only appreciation which makes us more confident in working, but also
critics which help us to make self correction in order to explore more
our ability.

To what extent are artists and creative people valued in

Indonesian society?
As long as I view, artists and creative people are adequate appreciated
in Indonesian society. They are given big chances to perform their
ability. They can exhibit their creation in some events, such as in local

21
 and national festival and people do not protest toward prices offered
on a creative thing.

Will people in the future have more opportunities for creative

pursuits or less in Indonesia?
Considering how Indonesians appreciate creativity, I think there will a
big chance in the future for creative pursuits. Moreover, many
creations have carried Indonesian culture. For example, in fashion,
many designers like to combine their creation in cloth with traditional
woven product or using traditional material for accessories.
Card 8

Part 2

Talk about a book you liked when you were a child.

You should say:
what the name of the book was and who wrote it
what the book was about
what you liked best about the book
And explain why that particular book was your favorite book.

NOTE
The anthology short story from Horizon written by some
popular Indonesian authors
Various short stories with various theme
Beautiful narrative
Include some of my favorite authors

I am going to talk about a book that I loved much

when I was a child.
The book name is The Anthology of Short Story from
Horizon. Horizon is one of popular literature magazine in
Indonesia. The book was written by an ex editor from the
magazine.
Relevant with its name, the book includes some
short story from several popular Indonesian authors, such as
Mira W, Gerson Poyk with some explanation about writing
technique of a short story and literature review of story content
such as plot, setting, how to develop a character in a story, and
how environment around the authors influence their creativity or
writing style.

22
 The best of the book is all explanation really helped
me in understanding a story in many aspects, moreover at the
time I just showed my interest in Indonesian literature.
I particularly love this book and consider it as one of
my favorite books because of its content. All short stories had
beautiful narrative and showed special character of the author.
For example, Mira W. is a doctor and she always write about
doctor lives or Gerson Poyk always write about some place in
East Nusa Tenggara which is his home village or about teacher
which his previous profession. These not only widen my insight
about many things in human life, but also inspire me to find my
own style in writing.

Part 3

Reading habits in your country

To what extent have peoples reading habits in

Indonesia changed over the last generation?
As long as I view, reading habits have developed well in
Indonesia nowadays. For example, before 2000, only several
people liked reading books. I think it was caused by there were
not many variety of books in market at the time, so people
might be feeling tedious to read. But, nowadays, due to
development in many aspects, reading has become one of life
necessities.

What has caused these changes in peoples reading

habits?
I think development in many aspects is the main factor
influencing reading habits. In detail, it encourages strong
competition in our society, so people see reading materials, such
as books or newspaper as media of information that can
enhance their insight as a part of ability they should have to win
a competition, for example to obtain a job or pass scholarship
selection. Moreover, this present time is the era in which
thinking liberty is really appreciated and reading materials can
be used to deliver people ideas. In other hands, there is a lot of
reading club inviting people to join to share their thought toward
everything they read in a book for example.

Are libraries going to become less or more popular in

Indonesia in the future?

23
 I predict libraries will become unpopular in the future. My
statement is influenced by a number of facts I view nowadays.
Many people begin tedious to visit a library. Lack of book
collection in Indonesian libraries can be one aspect influencing
the behavior. Another reason is, many people tend to choose
using their mobile phone or portable computer to read e book or
various reading sources in the internet. It does not waste their
time and makes them more satisfied than follow a number of
rules to read books in a library. Therefore, in the next ten years, I
foresee, library will be a quite place or a museum of old books.
As consequence, library will change their reading materials in
digital forms in order to attract people to visit the place.

Do people in Indonesia tend to read to learn things or

for entertainment?
I think most Indonesians tend to read for entertainment, only
several people who read to learn things. It appears of what
reading sources they choose. Most people like reading magazine
or entertainment column in newspaper to get information about
personal life or gossip of well-known people.

In what ways are books preferable to movies?

I think contents of a book or movie or how ideas or stories are
delivered influences people preference. Take Harry Potter written
by J. K. Rowling for example. The book content is perfect.
Rowling can provide good description of fantastic things in every
story. When the book was adopted in films, film-marker could
not provide fantastic items as well as it is defined in the book.
So, to enjoy Harry Potter totally, people prefer to read the book
than watch the movie.

Have any books changed your view of life in a deep

way?
Yes. It is Bilangan Fu, a novel written by Ayu Utami, an
Indonesian popular female author.
In the book, she provided some critics toward spiritualism in
Indonesia, also history and ordinary things in our society.
Through the book, I reflect many things in our life, including
history which I did not care before. Finally, I could understand
that history is a part of our identity and I learn that human
emphasize their existence through socializing with others.

24
 Card 9

Part 2

Describe an enjoyable event that you experienced when

you were at school.
You should say:
when it happened
what was good about it
why you particularly remember this event
And explain how you felt about this event.

NOTE
Literature meeting : The Man of Letters talked and Students
Asked
In 2003
The good of it: met Indonesian authors, encourage literature
love
My first literature meeting
Happy, lucky, inspired

I would like to talk about an enjoyable event that I attended

when I was in Senior High School.

25
 It happened in the middle of 2003.
It was a literature meeting sponsored by Horizon foundation
managing a popular literature magazine in Indonesia. The
meeting topic was The Man of Letters Talked and Students
Asked.
The event was excellent because it was aimed to encourage
student interest in Indonesian literature. At the time, the area
was not as popular as nowadays. Most students do not love
reading and they were skeptical to literature products, such as
novels, poems, or short stories. However, actually this event
would be focused more to encourage reading fondness of
Indonesian students which was still lower than other countries.
I especially remember this event, because it was my first
literature meeting. It was important for me because I started
loving literature when I was in Senior High School. So, in my
learning process, I had to know how creative process in writing
of popularsuccesful authors.
Therefore, I was really blissful and excited during attending this
event. Moreover, I could meet some authors who I often read
their writing, such as Taufik Ismail who have written my popular
poems and Gerson Poyk who are from Rote, a small island in
East Nusa Tenggara. I even still save the materials that we got at
the events and complete with the signed of authors involving at
the event.

Part 3

Schools
Explain the difference between educationversus-
training.
The difference is education is a continual learning process to
develop our ability and character in various aspects, while
training is a short activity to enhance our specific knowledge
and skills which is aimed to fix our weaknesses or refresh our
performance to contribute in a sector.

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of single

sex versus co-educational schools.
In my perspective, singe sex schools have benefits in delivering
knowledge and skills effectively which is specific for a particular
gender. For example a school for household administration
which prepares women to be a good wife. And then I have
watched a film which a female teenager sent to a senior high
school for women in a remote area in England. The school is

26
 aimed to educate female lady to be a smart and an independent
woman in the future, so school facilities including boarding
house were set suitable for woman. I think the kind of school is
not existed nowadays considering some drawbacks of single sex
school. I think people need more co-educational school because
human need education about how they respect differences in
the world, including in gender. Co-educational school is more
humanist. People can learn to socialize with various people and
build a respective relationship each other. Even, in seminary
which is really exclusive for catholic-priest candidate, they only
have sex single education in their boarding house or activities
which specific for how they lead a holly mass in church. It is not
women areas. However, in theology or philosophical studies they
are exposed to a plural environment. They have class room
experiences with laity women and men so they can learn by
sharing both theoretical and practical aspects in human lives.

What factors contribute towards building a good

school?
I think there are many factors, such as what educational system
we choose to implement at the school. However, the most
essential aspect in developing a good school is our commitment
toward our visions and missions that we have determine to build
a school. This can direct us to focus on providing good facilities
and services, such as schools infrastructure, loyal teachers, and
good teaching and studying system, and also good school
management.

Are school uniforms important and should they be

compulsory?
Yes, it is really important and should be compulsory.
In my view uniforms are better than free choice of clothes for
school. Uniforms can avoid social gap between poor and rich
students. Meanwhile wearing free clothes can encourage
students to show off their own and be arrogant or affront other.
Wearing uniforms can also be a part of educational way in
school, in which students can learn how to adapt and respect an
environment and experience similar behavior or similar rights to
have an education in school.

Consider whether the role of the teacher should be as

an authority or a friend.

27
 I think the teacher should be a wise friend. It means that they
should be a friendly learning partner for their students. In which
they should make students feel comfortable to ask questions
and share knowledge through encourage students to explore
their ability in many ways, such as showing up their critical
thinking and or help them when they feel down toward their
weaknesses, such as getting a bad mark in an examination.

Evaluate the role of the teacher in the second

language classroom.
I think the kind of teachers play important role in helping
children to be able in using second language. For example,
English teachers in Indonesia have duties to help their children
understand English vocabulary, tense, and grammar so, they
ability can support them in the future to win a job vacancies or
scholarship to study overseas for example.

Card 10

Part 2

Describe a competition (or contest) that you have entered

You should say:
when the competition took place
what you had to do
how well you did it
And describe how you felt about the competition.

28


NOTE
Writing competition
Via online
Writing a letter
Give my emotion on my letter
Blessed having people that I love

I would like to talk about a writing competition I have

involved in few years ago.
It was held by nulis buku, a publisher focused their project
on writers who would like to publish their book independently.
It was an online competition centered in Jakarta, the capital
city of Indonesia.
To join the competition, we should be a member of The nulis
bukus community, the membership is done by online
registration via our email, facebook or twitter account. The
competition was attended to produce a book to welcome a
valentine day, which its royalty was contributed to children with
cancer through a foundation managing it.
All participants had to send one or two love letters to their
family, friends, or boyfriends or girlfriends. We had to design our
own paper and use our hand writing. After this, our creation
would be selected and collected to make a book.
It was an exciting competition for me, particularly because I
really love writing with this way. There was such as desire
burning me when I wrote a love letter for my parents and a man
who is my first love. I did not care to win the competition. I just
really happy told what I feel about our relationship. Lucky, I was
selected and my letters included in this book.
I am grateful join the competition, took part to help children
with cancer, and involve in celebrating my valentine through
celebrating a lovely life I have in relationship with other people.
Part 3

Competition
Define what you understand by the competitive spirit.
In my mind, competitive spirit is a spirit to show up our best
ability in positive way to be better than other. This involves our
honesty and respectful toward our competitor.

Describe the psychology of competing.

29
 I think there is a tendency to become a winner or feel satisfied
as the highest achievement of a competition. It encourages
every participant to explore more their ability and show it up in
positive way such as playing honestly or negative way such as
behaving deceitful.

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of

encouraging competition at a young age.
In my perspective competition can be beneficial for young
people. It trains them to aware there is many hard competitions
in life that they should win in positive way through behaving
positively toward every challenge they face. This can also be a
way to explore and find their ability and strong their characters
to be developed more.
However, there is also a drawback, in which young people can
be loss control and have great desire to be a winner so they are
ready to take even negative way to achieve something.
For example, competition to hold position as a leader of student
organization in school, it has benefit in building student
responsibility toward an organization, but it can be negative if
some young people would like to hold the position with purpose
to have popularity so they choose discreditable way such as
grafting their friends to win in the election.

Should competition within the school system be

promoted?
It should be only in positive way or for academic purposes, such
as scientific writing competition or competition to create an
innovative thing to solve solid waste problem in urban area. It
can be beneficial in encouraging student participation toward
practical things in their life or student involvement in
overcoming social or environmental problems.

Has Indonesian society become more or less

competitive over the last decades?
In my view, Indonesian society has developed more in many
living aspects so they are really competitive nowadays
compared in the last decades. The completion appears more in
hunting a job or scholarship, even to be a student of a state
school.

What is the value of international competitions?

I think our involvement in international competition can
encourage our nationalistic spirit and can be a media to build
mutual understand between two or more countries. In which

30
 every country can know well each other, their weaknesses and
strengths, so they can evaluate their self and then consider a
partnership in order to balance each other. Through the way
they can keep safe their region stability.

Card 11

Part 2

Describe a city you have visited which has impressed you.

31
You should say:
where it is situated
why you visited it
what you liked about it
And explain why you were particularly impressed by this city.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------

Note:
Serpong
In East Flores
To meet family and religious tourism
Their society respecting to religious aspects
Its characters

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------

I am going to talk about Larantuka, an impressive city in Flores

Island, in East Nusa Tenggara province.
It is the capital city of East Flores region which consists of some
islands, with Adonara and Lembata as the biggest ones. The
city is located in the

Part 3

32
 Urban lifestyle and problems
What are the advantages and disadvantages of living
in a big city?
The main benefit of living in a big city is we can enjoy high living
standard with complete facilities and infrastructures, such as
shopping centers offering many various things, hospitals
providing good health services, qualified schools, many delicious
restaurants, cinemas and other entertainment, various
transportation access, and also interesting salary to enjoy the
city lifestyle.
Meanwhile, the main drawback is we have to live in an exciting
place with a lot of crucial environmental and social problems. In
detail, a big city tends to be crowded and have rich of air or
water pollution. Besides that, everything is costly and causes
hard competition in human life which encourages big gap
between rich and poor people and makes people stress easily.
We also have to be more careful because the high jobless rate
can correlate with the high of criminal rate, like robbery.

What are the negative aspects of crowded cities?

In my view, crowded cities are unbeneficial in providing healthy
environmental and lifestyle. They can result air pollution and
high noisiness from vehicles in main streets. Besides that,
houses are building in narrow spaces with minimum green area
enabling consumption of fresh air and friendly environment for
socializing or for making children playing outside safely.

How has architectural design in Indonesian cities

changed over the last decade?
In my view, over the last decade, city architectures have
developed more in many aspects. The most obvious thing is
architectural styles has changed from complex design with
monotonous color to minimalist modern with simple design and
degradation color. This is applied in housing, offices, shopping
centre, and city gardens. Besides that, supporting friendly
environment campaigns, city development has been rich of
green areas to enhance fresh air.

33
 Who should bear the responsibility of paying for
services in the city - the user or the government?
Both government and user should bear the responsibility.

How can urban transport problems be overcome?

Card 12

34
Part 2

Describe a book you have read that impressed you.

You should say:
when you read it
what it was about
what you thought was interesting about it
And explain why it impressed you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------
Note:
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
In university
Luther who would like to enjoy Christmas with minimum budget
How we mean a Christmas
Simple story

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------

I am going to talk about an impressing book that I have read. It was

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, my favorite author.
I read the book in 2007, some years after I read The Partner, another
brilliant book of John Grisham.
Compared to The Partner which is rich of law terminology, Skipping
Christmas is a comedy novel and can be considered as the simplest
book by John Grisham. The story focused on Luther and his wife, Nora
try to avoid the frenzy traditionally experienced during the Christmas
holiday. It begins when they take Blair, their daughter to airport. Blair
will work in Peru. After that, Nora feels melancholy and assumes that
their Christmas will be different. Surprisingly, Luther calculates and
finds that Christmas is costly and they have invested more than 6
thousand dollars for decorations, gifts, and entertainment. He
evaluates that people commonly work hard over year and waste their
money in end of the year, even they owe and perforce life in financial
trouble during two month after New Year. In his mind, it is not healthy
economically. So he decides to book a ten-day Caribeean Cruise
aboard the Island Princess. Although Nora is skeptical firstly, she
finally accepts the idea. In short, they become only one family
planning to skip the Christmas. Unfortunately, without warning, their
daughter calls on last minutes before their holiday and says that she
will return home with her Latin boyfriend who really interested in
American Christmas. Then, Luther and Nora perforce do not execute
their plan and prepare Christmas with helped by their neighbor.
It is the interesting story for me because I could know how American
tradition of Christmas. I even hope to enjoy white Christmas with
frosty and ginger cake.

35
 Skipping Christmas is impressed me because of its moral value. It is
such the modern version of Christmas Carol drama, in which
Christmas is accepted as the miracle day so we need to share
happiness with others. However, the reasons to skip Christmas like a
critic toward modern Christmas which has been excessive.

Part 3

Different types of reading materials and their purpose.

(Describe) what types of publications are popular

in your country.
Commonly publications like novels or biography books are
popular in Indonesia. Younger Indonesians usually love novels,
particularly which is translation of foreign novels or adopted
from film. Meanwhile older Indonesians prefer to choose
biography of well known people in politic, economic, or
entertainment.

Discuss the effect of electronic media on reading

and literacy.
Nowadays electronic media plays important role to introduce
and promote reading materials and literacy. There are lots of
website, blogs, or fan pages which publish many kind of writer
collection. Take poemhunter.com for example, it is a website
consisting of poems with various themes in the world written by
well known author and the Nobel winner in literacy. It makes us
easy to explore many brilliant creations which board our mind
including autobiography of the authors and their achievements.
In short, electronic media is beneficial in helping us to access
information equally which richen our insight in literacy or
reading materials and also form our mind set of how we view
problems in our life.

(Evaluate) the influence of TV and computer games

on reading habits.
In my view, in one side, TV offers many kinds of entertainment
and news which are important to enhance our knowledge, while
computer games can improve our analytical thinking. However,
in another site, they tend to govern people to enjoy it and ignore
reading habits. As consequence, we can accept reading as a
hard activity, in which we have to manage information or story.

36
 Meanwhile, TV illustrates well all information in pictures or
computer games allow us to only sit and enjoy a game.

(Speculate on) the future of books as a source of

information and relaxation.

The information society

(Explain) why modern society is often called the
information society.
(Comment on) the advantages and disadvantages of
widespread access to the Internet.
(Speculate on) what sorts of information will become
more valuable in the future.

37