English Club

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to see KangGuru Radio English (KGRE) activities in Madura, East Java. There, it held English Teacher Workshop and KangGuru Club Connections (KGCC) gathering. I met Mr. Kevin Dalton, KGRE's Project Manager and Ms. Cheryl Reid, KGCC Coordinator. KGRE has assisted English language learning in Indonesia since 1989. Through its 110 radio stations across the country, the program helps to improve Oz-Indo relationship. Besides radio program, KGRE also produces magazines, maintains website, provides Teacher Workshops and facilitates English clubs. 
Ms Reid previously worked for Australian Volunteer International before joining KGRE office in Denpasar. She taught English in Pesantren Sunan Dradjat, Desa Bantar Anyar in Paciran, Lamongan through Islamic School English Language Program (ISELP). Now, she’s working to improve KGCC network.
KGCC Bulletin, the Pouch, profiles English Clubs that affiliated with the network. On July-September edition, it writes about Del English Club in Toba –Samosir, North Sumatra and Australia English Club in Malang. As I read through the magazine, I remember the time where I used to be a member of an English club in the college.
I decided to join English club in university when my friend, Suci, started to speak the language during the club’s recruitment interview. I was spellbound. So, there I go, applying to be ITB’s Student English Forum member. Don’t be puzzled of my crippled grammar, because we didn’t learn it in the club. As far as I remember, it’s not the activity that glued us together, but the people. We love each other! :pppp
Furthermore, SEF also appreciates local languages, so it can be flexibly changed into Student Sundanese Forum (SSF) or Student Minangese Forum (SMF), depending on the majority who gather at the club’s office :p
I didn’t have any idea what an English club’s programs are. Some fellow members thought that English club was no different than English course. Well, perhaps it can substitute conventional conversation class. Others, likely not much.
From my experience, if all the club’s members have the same level of English skills, it would be easier to develop and ‘grow’ together in mastering the language. But those who happened to have less proficiency could use the old (and powerful) technique: keep exercise it all the time. The advantage of English club compares to formal classroom course is the comfy environment and (as I told you) the people. We didn’t feel obliged to use English all the time –instead, we can use it when we wanted to (uh, is this positive or negative?). Back in SEF during my era, English Master Adrian kindly thaught us various new vocabs and idioms through his soliloquy.    
When I first joined the club, the seniors pointed at scrabble game, UNO cards (uh, this is nothing to do with English activity isn’t it?) and English books collection on the office shelves as tools to improve our language skills in a fun way. But Play Station games which Ranti –my Biology classmate- brought to the club attracted more members than the old stuff.
The activity became more regular when we were introduced to a new game of English debating. University of Indonesia’s English Debating Society held the first Indonesian Varsity English Debate or IVED in 1998, after the fall down of Soeharto. It’s a good activity since it takes minimal six people to compete and one adjudicator to give judgment. So, seven people can play and learn in the mini tournament altogether. Besides sharpening our English, debating also encourage us to gain knowledge of actual issues. Every time other varsity teams beat us in the competition, we renew our pledge to read newspapers more intensively.
In 2001, ITB won the bid to host the 4th IVED. Below is the picture of some SEF members who became the event’s committee (There are three students from Parahyangan English Debating Society or PEDS who helped us also, which are Bona, Reygie and Poppy).

My experience in English club did influence the recruiting process when I was applying for jobs, but Duy’s former employer confused why she put ‘useless’ activities such as English debating in her CV.