Kampung Inggris: Avidity is Translated Here
Setting my foot for the first time on this land, I noticed souls working for their aspiration. When asked how long have you been here? They release various answers: one month, two month, six month, one year. The significance of English has amassed turned these people’s way here. Self introducing is happening every time to make more and more new mates. Everyone needs brotherhood here.
Kampung Inggris is a name to address Tulungrejo village situated in Pare Sub-district, Kediri East Java. People in Aceh would normally assume that it is a good suggestion to stay in Pare in case they desire to escalate their English proficiency. It is frequently heard, when someone expressing his/her problem with English, the statements released ‘I ought to depart to Pare’, ‘it seems that I would learn English in Pare for several months’, or ‘in Pare, you would find a supportive environment. I found it is true now to be here, even I wish I had been here before years past.
Tulungrejo is dubbed as English village on account of hundreds of English learning services available here. The courses offered vary from very basic English, speaking practice, pronunciation, to English proficiency test classes. The methods employed are plenty and various. Some learning centres offer the so-called camp programme where the students should stay in the dormitory to learn in more hours. During this programme is the of Bahasa Indonesia prohibited. The students found not complying with this rule should receive consequences such as delivering English speech on the pavement of the street. So, it is common to behold the punished students in the evening publicly speaking English as the unique punishment on a shoulder of the street where vehicles are passing by.
Frankly speaking, this village is an amalgam of determination, time sacrificing, aspiration, and belief which together make the most supportive environment to learn English ever. You would not find here people bullied or mocked because of orally practising their English with dense Javanese accent or erroneous grammar. Rather, you would frequently notice groups of students learning everywhere in almost every nooks, inside or outside classrooms. They correct each other’s mistake, they communicate their English so freely. The poor lexical capacity would not hamper their words to spill out. In this essence, shyness nearly finds its distinction here. People from far places come here carrying their dreams to realise. Tolerance is portrayed in daily endeavours.
Besides taking courses, other things impressing are the stores renting bicycles, thus here are students cycling everywhere. Some choose to hire motorcycles, but not so many. Others choose to walk on their foot going to the course places. I myself cycle from my rented house to my course place as the majority of students do here. This is not only cheap but also environmentally friendly. This helps me do more savings, if you let me be frank.
Compared with staying in other big cities like Jakarta, Bandung, or Surabaya, being temporarily in Pare, you are financially safe, I can say. In Jakarta, I would spend Rp.20.000 for an edible lunch. Yet, meals costing Rp. 3000 until Rp.8000 are the common ones to find. The fee for the courses is also inexpensive. I can simply say, it is a pocket-friendly life here. Unluckily, today (Monday, 2 April 2018) is the final day I can stay, even my A2 German course in Goethe Institut Jakarta starts this morning. Yeah, I happen to skip today’s and tomorrow’s classes for I would depart tonight by train and arrive tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I know it is not good to miss the German class because I know well how the class runs. The class covers almost one unit of the textbook in every single meeting, even more. Withing the missed classes are complex grammatical rules and new words whose the continuations I may learn when I rejoin. You can picture that, don’t you? Attending a class where people are discussing something more advanced than what you have learned.
I am spending my last hours here, it is a rejoice. The nuance impresses me with religiosity. As in Aceh, when the Azan is calling, rows of the congregation stand firm. Once a group of jama’ah prayer finished their prayer, another group who haven’t yet pray make the second round of jama’ah too, and so on. In the rented accommodations are heard Quranic verses being recited when the dawn is breaking and the sun is sinking. From the mosque loudspeakers is amplified the sounds of Marhaban poem being recited by some boys in the evening. More staggeringly impressive is that in some mosques, shalawat is chanted after shalah and people are shaking each other’s hands. Meanwhile, in other mosques, the congregation tend to profoundly say their zikr and vigil in silence. The diversity of both thoughts doesn’t hinder the peace to thrive.
The time of leaving is coming. Tonight I would be embarking by train from Kediri station. some urgent stuffs are waiting there in Jakarta. And, it is not a mistake to wish a return to here someday. Farewell Kampung Inggris.
Jakarta, 3 April 2018