KGRE Radio Program 5203 Part 4 — Indonesian Music — Anggun Anggun is here today on KGRE. Kevin met her in Jakarta in late May, 2006 and here she is to introduce herself to you on KGRE. ‘I'm Anggun. I'm 32 (laughter), Indonesian, Javanese actually, and singer, song writer and … a wife. There's always been this kind of problem actually … holding … actually I, I don't speak much of languages. I only speak Indonesian, English and French. I used to speak a little bit of Javanese. Well, it's not actually a language, it's dialect and I think being a musician, being an artist you've developed a certain easiness with with languages, with sounds, and it certainly helped me in learning languages different because I learnt, I learnt by ears first and then through the theory.’ KGRE Radio Program 5205 Part 4 — Anggun and English Part 1 When Kevin met Anngun in Jakarta he asked her about learning English. Anggun certainly can speak English very well and here she is today on Kang Guru Radio English. Listen for her comments about English and French. And a question for you to answer — which language did she learn first — English or French? Okay? Which language did she learn first — English or French? Anggun – ‘I learnt English first, ya. I actually learnt it at school when I was nine because I went to Catholic school. And err the problem that I'm still having is with the time because with the conjugation. Because you know how it is in Indonesian language there is everything is in present. You just have to say when? hi hi. So I still have problems with that kind of err I think it's it's it's in my blood. I just don't know how to say things properly sometimes. And conjugation is still something so very unnatural for me. And the same, the same problem happens to me in French. And it's erhm it is a much more complicated language.’ Maybe you have the same problem as Anggun — conjugation of verbs in English. Past, present and future tenses often cause problems for Indonesian students but keep working hard and remember to use your English everyday, every day!

KGRE Radio Program 5111 Part 6 — Shanty and Learning English When KGRE first met Shanty we were quite surprised at how well she spoke English and how very, very happy was to use it. Shanty is certainly a very confident young woman — not just with English but we think in many areas of her life. Here she is on KGRE today. ‘I don't know I don't think I ever learn, no I don't think I ever learnt it from school. I just watch a lot of movies, ya, a lot of movies. I don't know I don't think I ever learnt, no I don't think I ever learnt it from school. I just watch a lot of movies, ya, a lot of movies.’

Some tips about learning English from Kang GURU

When KGRE meets students and teachers all over Indonesia, this question is often asked. ‘What is the easy and best way to learn English’ Unfortunately there is no easy way to learn English. English can be difficult but there are ways to make learning more effective and enjoyable.

Enjoy learning English!

It is difficult to learn anything if we do not enjoy it. Therefore try to have fun with English and try to make it a challenge rather than a chore.

Become a member of an active language club!

Meeting regularly with other keen language students will give you a lot of practice time and many good experiences. It is often easier to learn more from your friends in a social and fun environment.

Be active!

To really learn a language, especially speaking and listening, you need to be an active participant. Don't just be a bystander or spectator. Get in there and go for it — full steam ahead!

Fluency?

Some students think that the faster they can talk English then the more fluent they are. Remember if people cannot understand you then you are not actually fluent.

Perfection?

Many students want to speak ‘Perfect English’. They will even try to speak English until they are perfect. Your English will never be perfect — even native speakers do not use perfect English, especially in day to day conversation and in other informal situations. Your Bahasa Indonesia is not always perfect either so why expect your English to be perfect?

Check out this great English language site, too – Click Here

Learning Languages

Greg can speak many languages including Swedish, Norwegian, French, German, Indonesian and Danish. He gave KGRE some basic tips recently and maybe these tips can help you too.

Greg works for the AusAID supported ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Program (AADCP)

Learn some basic words and phrases as soon as you can. These are key words to get you started.

‘hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘how much?’.

Learn to say ‘what is the word for …?’, or ‘how do you say …?’. Whenever you meet a foreigner or an English speaker you can ask them for a little help. People will be happy to talk to you and help you.

If you ask someone for a word and then you quickly forget it, don't worry! Ask them to repeat the word until you have got it right. Keep asking and soon you will remember.

Learn to count up to a million.

When you learn new words such as numbers and the basic words and phrases above, try and use them immediately. Don't be afraid and don't wait till you think you know them perfectly. Just practise and have fun.

Use every opportunity to practise your new language. Ask anyone you know who speaks a little English (such as your friends and workmates) to speak with you only in English.

Study Tips from Sonja

Every week KGRE receives letters from KGRE fans asking this question ‘What is the best way to learn English?’ Unfortunately, there is no easy way to learn English, but Sonia is here today with some tips to make your learning more effective, and hopefully, more enjoyable too.

Join a conversation club or a discussion group

Learners who belong to language clubs have a lot more opportunity to use their English in an interesting way. They can learn form other members of the club and can also help others to learn too. Did you know that learners who are involved in a conversation club generally improve faster than those who aren't? So, join a club today and get speaking!

Listen to the news or other programs in English

By listening to the news in English on the radio we not only get a lot of information but it's also a great way to hear the correct pronunciation and intonation patterns of the announcers. Listening to the radio can be difficult, but don't give up too easily. ‘Get into the Habit’ and keep listening regularly, especially to Kang Guru!

Read articles or books in English

If you choose this study tip, remember to choose an interesting topic! It's much harder to read something that doesn't interest you. Choosing a story or article about something you enjoy will make your reading more worthwhile, more fun and more effective.

Increase your vocabulary

You can do this by checking new words in a dictionary and writing them down with their meanings or in an example sentence. But don't just write them down and forget about them! Go back and look at those new words every few days and try to use them when you speak or write in English. Let's just recap on those study tips.

• Join a conversation club or a discussion group
• Listen to the news or other programs in English
• Read articles or books in English
• Increase your vocabulary

Study Tips from KGRE-ites

Today we're going to hear some very useful study tips from one of our KGRE fans, Naomi Slowna. Naomi is from Pematangsiantar in North Sumatera, but she moved to Bogor to study and graduated from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture. She enjoys learning English and likes to use it when communicating with people all over the world. Here's Naomi to pass on some of her English study tips. Listen carefully, what are the two ways Naomi improves her English?

‘I had English lessons regularly at school. Many of my friends also took English courses after school hours. So at first they had better English than me. I never took an English course but I used my time effectively and studied English all the time. But actually, the most powerful reason for me to learn English is my hobby — music. I have loved music since I was 5 years old, especially English language songs. But I didn't have much money to buy all the cassettes that I wanted. Even now when I like a song I always need to know the lyrics. So I listen to the song on the radio carefully and try to write down the lyrics according to what I hear. Sometimes the lyrics of songs can't be heard clearly, especially if there are slang words. Nevertheless I can still learn a lot about vocabulary. You can do the same too. Now, my hobby is watching movies. This helps me a lot to increase my English skills. Now my English proficiency is far better than before and it is the result of all the time I spent listening, writing and learning. I still write down songs lyrics that I like and as many as I can. I believe our hobbies can be very useful to help us study English. If you have a hobby then use it to study English, okay?’

Naomi uses songs and films to learn English, and what a great idea that is.

Gede Surya in Leweyan — Surakarta

‘By listening to the news in English on the radio we can get a lot of information and pay careful attention to the pronunciation and intonation of the announcer’.

Even if listening to the radio is a bit difficult at first, don't give up too easily. Keep listening regularly and gradually you will recognise more and more words. Get Into The Habit and listen regularly — especially to Kang Guru, but there are other English language radio programs, as well as television.

Andy Hanafi from SMU 1 Tompobulu-Bantaeng, South Sulawesi

‘Joining a conversation club and participating in discussions is the best way to improve’.

Learners who are members of active language clubs have a lot more opportunity to use their English in an interesting way. They can learn from the others in the club and they can also help others as well. Research has shown that language learners who are involved with a conversation or language club generally improve faster than someone who is not.

Arfan Toppano — Bengkulu

‘Increase your vocabulary by looking up any new words in a dictionary as soon as you can and then write it down somewhere and keep it’.

That is excellent suggestion Arfan. Checking the meaning of new words and then writing them down does help you to keep those words. Look at these new words every few days. Don't just write them down and forget about them. Look at them often and try to use them in some writing or speaking practice.

Neneng Hendriyani — Bogor

‘If you want to read an English book or article then make sure you choose an interesting topic’.

It's so much harder to read something that is not interesting for you. Try to choose a story or text about a topic that you enjoy. It will make your reading more worthwhile, more fun and more effective.

Mohamad Abdul Latif — Jember, East Java

‘Throw the shyness away. Learn a new vocabulary everyday’.

Yes, Mohamad. That is so very important. One of the reasons that people are shy about using English is that they do not know enough vocabulary. Or they do not know the right vocabulary for a certain situation. This makes people nervous and shy because they get stuck trying to think of words they want to use. Learning new vocabulary everyday is one way to become more confident to speak with others.

Some Suggestions for Holding Discussions in a Club Meeting or Classroom

If a discussion is not successful then some of the reasons may include:

• The discussion topic may not interesting or even familiar to the participants
• The vocabulary or language required for the discussion may not sufficiently well-known.
• Leadership and guidance in conducting the discussion may not be adequate.
• The discussion group may be too large.
• If members or students have difficulties discussing the topic in Bahasa Indonesia then they definitely will not be able to discuss it in English. Perhaps have an introductory discussion in Bahasa Indonesia first and then after some vocabulary work move over into using English.

Some Suggestions for Holding Discussions in a Club Meeting

If discussion activities are not going well then some of the reasons may include:

• The discussion topic may not interesting or even familiar to the participants
• The vocabulary or language required for the discussion may not be sufficiently well-known by the participants
• Leadership and guidance to get the discussion going may not be motivating enough
• The discussion group may be too large
• Can the participants discuss the topic in their own language? If members have difficulties discussing the topic in Bahasa Indonesia then they will definitely find it very difficult to discuss the topic in English. Perhaps have an introductory discussion in Bahasa Indonesia first and then after some vocabulary work move onto discussing the topic in English.

How to Develop Discussion Skills and Ability

• Make sure that participants are interested and have opinions on the topic. This can be done by beginning discussions in Bahasa Indonesia. Gauge the interest and knowledge of participants during this session.
• If appropriate, move onto discussing the topic in English, possibly after some added input such as necessary or helpful vocabulary and ideas. This next session could be done immediately but maybe it would be better to do it at the next meeting thus giving members time to prepare their ideas and their expected input.
• Start the discussion off in a relaxed and easy manner, perhaps with some simple questions or a survey related to the topic. Presentation of a practical problem associated with the discussion topic may be a good idea. For example, the topic of ‘cannibalism’. The practical problem or dilemma could be that students are lost in the desert and the only thing to eat is the body of their dead best friend. What would they do? Could they eat the body or not OR would they just die?
• If knowledge or interest is low then it may be a good idea to change to a more suitable topic. Involving students in the selection of discussion topics is often a good idea.

If you are Serious about improving your English, especially pronunciation and grammar as used in everyday conversation, and also listening skills then please listen to KGRE every week on a radio station near you!

Listening needs practice and if students are really keen to improve their English language skills then they need to practise their listening too. Indra and Indy know the importance of good listening skills and advise you to listen to the radio and to watch television as often as you can. Speaking English with your friends is another excellent way to develop, not only speaking skills, but listening too. Lucky knows that learning English means a lot of practising and motivation.

Kang Guru Radio English is one of the best ways to hear high quality English language material designed especially for the pre-intermediate to intermediate English language learner in Indonesia

KGRE spoke with Andien a few years back. Here is a little of the interview (unedited) and what Andien had to say about learning English.

KGRE has often interviewed members of PADI. Here is a little of those interviews (unedited) with the lads featuring Piyu and Ari.

Indy Barens ‘Actually my English is not as good as my friends but I am trying so hard to learning English. I have a lot of friends who can share with me and teach me how to speak English. Then I read and I watch TV a lot.’ Lucky Resha … lots of practice … talk to other people … practice listening regularly … be confident … learn and understand words from English language songs …

PADI, Andien and Widi from AB Three

Piyu loves to read biographies about important and creative people such as politicians and activists. He has read about the life of George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars and Martin Luther King, the famous American activist. Piyu also listens to English language songs and writes down the lyrics. He loves listening to songs and he told KGRE that he gets a lot of help with pronunciation and meaning from the lyrics

Ari spends a lot of time with his dictionary. He says, ‘And now I always bring my electronic dictionary in my bag because I think we must learn English now because that is very important. Because right now PADI traveling a lot of places at Singapore in Australia also but my, our English is very bad ha ha ha’.

Andien says her English is not that good but KGRE disagrees with her on that point, She also says that she has to practise everyday. She often does this with music, especially with the lyrics just like Piyu does. The grammar in songs isn't always quite right but Andien understands this and is careful of it. She reads lots of books and watches movies on television WITHOUT the Indonesia translation on the screen.

Widi from AB Three reads novels and magazines but she also writes a lot. Writing is one of her ways of studying English better. Sometimes she has to force herself to do it because it is not as easy as reading an English magazine. She says writing letters and stories are a great way to practice English.

‘Well, sometimes I just have to force myself to do that because it's not that easy you know to read English magazine or things like that because sometimes we don't get the meaning of it though we understand what the writing says but sometimes you just have to read again and again and then you get the meaning’.

Tips will be posted regularly so keep watching and keep learning and Good Luck!

Send us your learning tips and you could win prizes from the Indonesia Australia Language Foundation and KGRE.