動物園に行く 一昨日、私と友人は日曜日に神戸の動物園に行く約束をしました。私たちは駅で13.15に集まるになる予定していました。13.10に私は着きましたが、誰もいませんでした。友人に連絡した、遅れてなると言いました。だから14.00に駅で着きました。天気はとても寒かったです、さらに45分を待たならないでした。14.00に私の友人は最終的着きましたが謝罪しませんでした。私は非常にがっかりしました。動物園の旅行はひどかったです。

When the 'T' Words are Just Too Difficult to Pronunce As a non native English speaker, one of the difficulties I have in pronunciation is pronuncing words that have T in the middle and end with an R. Pronuncing words such as ‘water’, ‘daughter’, and ‘better’ is so arduous. The T is like pronunce somewhere between T and R and I can’t seem to get it right. In the Indonesian language we usually pronounce a very thick T just like in ‘tax’, ‘temper’, and ‘touch’. There were times when I pronunce the word ‘daughter’ using my Indonesian tongue and I got a confused look because of it. And when I tried to correct it using (what I consider as) a ‘native’ pronunciation I got an even more confused look. He eventually knew what I meant after I wrote it in a piece of paper. Another bad experience in pronuncing the ‘T’ words is during my English writing class. I had to say the word ‘castle’ three times and my English professor still didn’t get what I mean. I almost wanted to kill him at that time.

Small Things Matter Some people say that human were created with two ears and one mouth so that human will listen more rather than to speak more. To some point, I agree that we should use our ears more than use our mouth, but in some occasions there are a lot of acts of kindness that people can do with their mouth, for example: 1.Smiling. I have a friend that when she talks she always put a smile on her face. Even it is just a ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’, she adds the ‘smile spice’ in her greetings and the rest of the conversation become delicious. It is difficult not to smile back at her because she always talks with enthusiasm. Sometimes, just to be around her is already a pleasant experience. 2. Giving encouragement. Another friend likes to give words of encouragement, such as, ‘You can do it’, ‘Ganbatte (do your best/good luck), ‘Don’t worry, you’ll improve’. Well, sometimes those words doesn’t have an immediate effect, but still it feels nice to hear that. 3. Paying a compliment. One of my professors has the habit in paying compliments to his students. It looks like he never runs out of positive words, whether it is during class or when he returns our assignment that has been graded. ‘Well done’, ‘good job’, ‘nice works’ and ‘excellent’ are only some of the examples. 4. Wishing people well. Instead of saying ‘bye’ as a farewell, some of my friends will say ‘have a great day’ or ‘ki wo tsukete’ (take care). And I tend to believe that it will indeed bring me a great day, free of troubles. For me, it is just delightful to be surrounded by these acts of kindness, and I am very grateful of that. But if you think that these acts of kindness is not important, imagine if you live in an environment with the reverse quality. It would be awful, right?

The Most Civilized Country is... The most civilized country in the world is a country where the people… 1. Greet each other even with a smile, 2. Prioritize pedestrians who cross the street while they are using expensive car, 3. Stand in line in order to get on the bus, 4. Say ‘thank you’ and ‘good luck’ frequently, 5. Give other people in need, 6. Don’t cat-call to women, 7. Don’t sound their car horn when there is another car broke down in the middle of the street, 8. Don’t take other people’s property without their consent, 9. Don’t judge others based on mere appearances, 10. And instead of judging other people choices with right and wrong, they wish for other people well-being and happiness with their choices.