Learning foreign languages is a beneficial activity. It’s never wrong to start learning any foreign language, even just to entertain yourself, to support your lecture, to talk with someone, to help friends, etc. So, what are the benefits that we can obtain by mastering foreign languages? Of course, there are lots of benefits for us. It’s a good choice to learn foreign languages by joining any language events, like courses, to improve your skills in foreign languages.
Minggu Lingua, or Mingling for short, is a SAFEL program from the FOLT department. This program provides free foreign language training and helps SAFEL’s crew master their skills in foreign languages. In 2023, This program was held from July 7th to July 31st in SAFEL’s Secretary Room in the Student Center. Previously, the committee prepared several things, such as discussing the place of Mingling, choosing the language to be learned, contacting a language tutor, and conducting open registration.
Years of pandemics are past, and bringing back SAFEL’s events better in every aspect is our responsibility. So, we decided to hold Mingling offline for the first time in three years. For Mingling 2023, Japanese was chosen as the language to be learned. Then, we contacted Sensei Zeni to ask if she could teach in our class. She accepted our request to be a tutor for Mingling 2023.
Furthermore, the committee conducted open registration on June 18th for SAFEL’s crew to join Mingling as participants for free. The target number of participants to be achieved was 10, and finally the registration closed on June 30th with 13 participants. The Mingling class was held twice a week on Monday and Friday at 17.00 WIB. SAFEL’s Secretary Room was chosen to be the place to hold the class.
We totally held Mingling class eight times. In the first and second meetings, we learned how to introduce ourselves in Japanese. We also learned about Japanese letters and writing rules. In the third meeting, we learned how to explain daily activities in Japanese. In our fourth meeting, we learned about the Japanese counting system. We also learned how to say Japanese telephone numbers. In our fifth meeting, we learned the days of the week in Japanese. In our sixth meeting, we learned about hobbies in Japanese and also the grammatical rules. In our seventh meeting, we learned about Japanese travel, such as the words and vocabulary used to describe Japanese buildings and places. And at the last meeting, we held the examination to measure how much the participants understood about learning Japanese. The examination requires participants to attend at least six class meetings, and the committee also gave presents to the three participants with the highest scores. The mingling class was held effectively and funly with Sensei Zeni. She answered every participant’s questions and always supported all participants in learning Japanese.
The class materials for each meeting are shared in a poster to SAFEL’s WhatsApp Group by the committee, so those who haven’t joined as participants can still access the materials and learn Japanese. We also shared it in SAFEL’s Instagram post, so you can access it anytime on our SAFEL official Instagram account. With Minggu Lingua, SAFEL’s crew can gain new experience and new knowledge in foreign languages, increasing relations between SAFEL Crew and alumni. We hope Minggu Lingua 2023 is really beneficial to the participants as they can improve their skills and knowledge in foreign languages, especially Japanese. I hope the next Minggu language will be better than now and before. See you in Minggu Lingua 2024!
-Kurniadi Khamdanu
