I made something different this time, it's a Matching game about Animals and their homes. This counts as a Noun exercise so do it if you think you need to practice your nouns. Basically all you need to do is click this link to download it, and then you can knock yourself out.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Thursday, December 3, 2015
MENGEJA JOGJA: Yogyakarta, Jogja, Jogjakarta, atau Yogya?
Banyak orang menyebut Yogyakarta dengan nama berbeda-beda.
Orang-orang tua menyebut Ngayogyakarta, orang-orang Jawa Timur dan Jawa
Tengah menyebut Yogja atau Yojo. Disebut Jogja dalam slogan Jogja Never
Ending Asia. Belakangan muncul sebutan baru, yaitu Djokdja. Sekilas
memang membingungkan, namun menunjuk pada daerah yang sama. Lalu,
bagaimana bisa kisahnya sampai nama kota ini bisa begitu bervariasi?
Paling tidak, ada 3 perkembangan yang bisa diuraikan. Nama Ngayogyakarta dipastikan muncul tahun 1755, ketika Pangeran Mangkubumi yang bergelar Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono I mendirikan Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. Kraton yang berdiri di Alas Bering itu merupakan wujud Perjanjian Giyanti yang dilakukan dengan Pakubuwono III dari Surakarta.
Tak jelas kapan mulai muncul penamaan Yogyakarta, apakah muncul karena pemenggalan dari nama Ngayogyakarta atau sebab lain. Namun, nama Yogyakarta secara resmi telah dipakai sejak awal kemerdekaan Indonesia. Ketika menjadi ibukota Indonesia pada tahun 1949, kota yang juga bergelar kota pelajar ini sudah disebut Yogyakarta. Sri sultan Hamengku Buwono IX juga menggunakan nama Yogyakarta ketika mengumumkan bahwa kerajaan ini merupakan bagian dari Republik Indonesia.
Berbagai penamaan muncul kemudian, seperti Yogja, Jogja, Jogya dan Yogya. Bisa dikatakan bahwa variasi nama itu muncul akibat pelafalan yang berbeda-beda antar orang dari berbagai daerah di Indonesia.
Uniknya, hampir semua orang bisa memahami tempat yang ditunjuk meski cara pengucapannya berbeda.
Karena kepentingan bisnis, nama Jogja kemudian menguat dan digunakan dalam slogan Jogja Never Ending Asia. Slogan tersebut dibuat untuk membangun citra Yogyakarta sebagai kota wisata yang kaya akan pesona alam dan budaya. Alasan dipilih 'Jogja' adalah karena (diasumsikan) lebih mudah dilafalkan oleh banyak orang, termasuk para wisatawan asing. Sempat pula berbagai institusi mengganti Yogyakarta dengan Jogjakarta.
YogYES.COM memakai nama Djokdja dalam rubrik Tour de Djokdja. Nama itu bukanlah rekayasa, melainkan pernah digunakan pada masa kolonial Belanda. Terbukti, saat itu terdapat sebuah hotel yang bernama Grand Hotel de Djokdja di ujung utara jalan Malioboro. Kini, hotel itu masih tetap berdiri namun berganti nama menjadi Inna Garuda. Nama 'Djokdja' dipilih untuk memberi kesan kuno dan mengajak para pembaca bernostaligia.
Dengan berbagai lafal dan cara penulisannya, bisa dikatakan Yogyakarta merupakan daerah yang paling banyak memiliki variasi nama. Jakarta hanya memiliki satu (Jayakarta), sementara Bali tidak memilikinya sama sekali. Kota wisata lain di dunia seperti Bangkok, Singapura, Cartagena, Venesia bahkan tak terdengar memiliki nama-nama variasi. Kota-kota metropolitan seperti New York, Los Angeles, dan London juga tidak mempunyai.
Kini anda tak perlu bingung lagi jika kebetulan ada orang yang menuliskan kota Yogyakarta seperti caranya melafalkan. Jika mencari tahu tentang seluk beluk kota ini di internet, nama Yogyakarta merupakan yang paling tepat sebab merupakan nama yang paling umum digunakan dalam bahasa tulisan. Alternatif lainnya, anda bisa menggunakan nama Jogja, nama kedua yang paling sering digunakan.
Paling tidak, ada 3 perkembangan yang bisa diuraikan. Nama Ngayogyakarta dipastikan muncul tahun 1755, ketika Pangeran Mangkubumi yang bergelar Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono I mendirikan Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. Kraton yang berdiri di Alas Bering itu merupakan wujud Perjanjian Giyanti yang dilakukan dengan Pakubuwono III dari Surakarta.
Tak jelas kapan mulai muncul penamaan Yogyakarta, apakah muncul karena pemenggalan dari nama Ngayogyakarta atau sebab lain. Namun, nama Yogyakarta secara resmi telah dipakai sejak awal kemerdekaan Indonesia. Ketika menjadi ibukota Indonesia pada tahun 1949, kota yang juga bergelar kota pelajar ini sudah disebut Yogyakarta. Sri sultan Hamengku Buwono IX juga menggunakan nama Yogyakarta ketika mengumumkan bahwa kerajaan ini merupakan bagian dari Republik Indonesia.
Berbagai penamaan muncul kemudian, seperti Yogja, Jogja, Jogya dan Yogya. Bisa dikatakan bahwa variasi nama itu muncul akibat pelafalan yang berbeda-beda antar orang dari berbagai daerah di Indonesia.
Uniknya, hampir semua orang bisa memahami tempat yang ditunjuk meski cara pengucapannya berbeda.
Karena kepentingan bisnis, nama Jogja kemudian menguat dan digunakan dalam slogan Jogja Never Ending Asia. Slogan tersebut dibuat untuk membangun citra Yogyakarta sebagai kota wisata yang kaya akan pesona alam dan budaya. Alasan dipilih 'Jogja' adalah karena (diasumsikan) lebih mudah dilafalkan oleh banyak orang, termasuk para wisatawan asing. Sempat pula berbagai institusi mengganti Yogyakarta dengan Jogjakarta.
YogYES.COM memakai nama Djokdja dalam rubrik Tour de Djokdja. Nama itu bukanlah rekayasa, melainkan pernah digunakan pada masa kolonial Belanda. Terbukti, saat itu terdapat sebuah hotel yang bernama Grand Hotel de Djokdja di ujung utara jalan Malioboro. Kini, hotel itu masih tetap berdiri namun berganti nama menjadi Inna Garuda. Nama 'Djokdja' dipilih untuk memberi kesan kuno dan mengajak para pembaca bernostaligia.
Dengan berbagai lafal dan cara penulisannya, bisa dikatakan Yogyakarta merupakan daerah yang paling banyak memiliki variasi nama. Jakarta hanya memiliki satu (Jayakarta), sementara Bali tidak memilikinya sama sekali. Kota wisata lain di dunia seperti Bangkok, Singapura, Cartagena, Venesia bahkan tak terdengar memiliki nama-nama variasi. Kota-kota metropolitan seperti New York, Los Angeles, dan London juga tidak mempunyai.
Kini anda tak perlu bingung lagi jika kebetulan ada orang yang menuliskan kota Yogyakarta seperti caranya melafalkan. Jika mencari tahu tentang seluk beluk kota ini di internet, nama Yogyakarta merupakan yang paling tepat sebab merupakan nama yang paling umum digunakan dalam bahasa tulisan. Alternatif lainnya, anda bisa menggunakan nama Jogja, nama kedua yang paling sering digunakan.
(Taken from https://www.yogyes.com/id/yogyakarta-travel-guide/jogja-or-yogya, credit to Yunanto Wiji Utomo)
Doom and Gloom: Should Islam be More Cheerful?
I've been a muslim for 24 years, and along my life, I've been going to different mosques to do Friday afternoon prayers. However, no matter where the mosque or who the preacher for the afternoon is, the pre-prayer speech always seems to spread sad messages, either how we're all doomed if we're not following the Qur'an by the book (no pun intended) or a tale about how Allah was angry at a particular person for not following his tenets. With no intent on sounding sacrilegious, it just gets boring after a while.
There's an old proverb that goes like this: "you'll catch more flies with honey". I understand that Friday preaches are not intended to convert more followers into the religion but you're not going to get much appeal by scaring them with doom and gloom. At that point, it just sounds like you're scaring them into obeying the tenets of Islam and that's not a good thing. There are some happy verses in the Qur'an as well like An-Nahl: 97 about how to live in happiness and Ali Imran 190-191, they still encourage people to worship Allah but they don't give the impression of sadness or the consequences of not worshiping Him outright.
There's an old proverb that goes like this: "you'll catch more flies with honey". I understand that Friday preaches are not intended to convert more followers into the religion but you're not going to get much appeal by scaring them with doom and gloom. At that point, it just sounds like you're scaring them into obeying the tenets of Islam and that's not a good thing. There are some happy verses in the Qur'an as well like An-Nahl: 97 about how to live in happiness and Ali Imran 190-191, they still encourage people to worship Allah but they don't give the impression of sadness or the consequences of not worshiping Him outright.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Google Translate: Should You Use Them?
If you're in the business of learning a language, you know that the first site to go to is google translate. It's free, it's quick, and it could translate pretty much any relevant language in the world. Heck, I even put the link to my blog in case any visitors can't understand what I'm saying. The thing is, should you actually use it?
When you're a teacher, you might think using google translate is cheating. And I don't blame you. Your students are supposed to learn materials the old way (a.k.a what you teach them). But think of it this way: It's not that different from looking up things in the dictionary, just a lot more sophisticated than the usual dictionary in book form we all used to carry. Even as teachers, we all carry dictionaries to class. Heck, one of my teachers in high school carried two dictionaries: one in book form and one Alfalink electronic dictionary. What matters is the context on where and what they use it for. If they're using it for a take-home assignment or an assignment where grammar doesn't matter that much (i.e storytelling or writing an informal letter), then you don't have to punish them that much. You can still deduct points from said assignment, but don't focus on the grammar that much. However, if they're using them in Assessments or on their final exam, then you can rightfully deduct their point or fail them outright. Exams are made to test the students' abilities, and they shouldn't be using any outside help for that.
For students, google translate is easily the quickest and easiest tool to use for language-based problems. Like I said earlier, it's free and easily accessible as long as you have internet connection. But it's also very predictable: it either translates the sentence word-by-word (which makes you look like you don't have any grasp of basic grammar) or does it so rigidly your teacher can spot which sentence is the product of google translate and not your own: they just need to type the exact same sentence, and if the result is similar to "your" sentence, then you're busted. Any teacher worth their education knows this, so don't be surprised when your assignment suddenly gets a C, they're not psychic, they just have enough common sense to check for google translate sentences.
All in all, I don't oppose the usage of google translate, but at least be considerate in using them. Treat them like a dictionary: use them when you're allowed to, but don't use them in exams or assignments. We would like to test your abilities, not google's.
When you're a teacher, you might think using google translate is cheating. And I don't blame you. Your students are supposed to learn materials the old way (a.k.a what you teach them). But think of it this way: It's not that different from looking up things in the dictionary, just a lot more sophisticated than the usual dictionary in book form we all used to carry. Even as teachers, we all carry dictionaries to class. Heck, one of my teachers in high school carried two dictionaries: one in book form and one Alfalink electronic dictionary. What matters is the context on where and what they use it for. If they're using it for a take-home assignment or an assignment where grammar doesn't matter that much (i.e storytelling or writing an informal letter), then you don't have to punish them that much. You can still deduct points from said assignment, but don't focus on the grammar that much. However, if they're using them in Assessments or on their final exam, then you can rightfully deduct their point or fail them outright. Exams are made to test the students' abilities, and they shouldn't be using any outside help for that.
For students, google translate is easily the quickest and easiest tool to use for language-based problems. Like I said earlier, it's free and easily accessible as long as you have internet connection. But it's also very predictable: it either translates the sentence word-by-word (which makes you look like you don't have any grasp of basic grammar) or does it so rigidly your teacher can spot which sentence is the product of google translate and not your own: they just need to type the exact same sentence, and if the result is similar to "your" sentence, then you're busted. Any teacher worth their education knows this, so don't be surprised when your assignment suddenly gets a C, they're not psychic, they just have enough common sense to check for google translate sentences.
All in all, I don't oppose the usage of google translate, but at least be considerate in using them. Treat them like a dictionary: use them when you're allowed to, but don't use them in exams or assignments. We would like to test your abilities, not google's.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
NEW POST HYPE
HI I'M NEW
Joking aside, let me make it clear that although this blog is a school project, That doesn't mean I won't post nonsensical things in it from time to time, that's just how I roll.
I'm a student in UMY (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta), Indonesia. I'm currently majoring in English Education, but I aim to be more than just a teacher. Maybe a super-teacher of some sort, because god knows our education system has been behind for the last several years. The key to revitalizing education is technology, and this blog will help me help others to realize that.
As for non-english posts, expect things from pretty much every hobby out there because my interest changes very, very quickly. Right now I'm into mostly League of Legends (like I've been for the last 5 years or so) and Gundam models. If I do update this blog more than my other one, expect bad quality photos of my HG models.
I guess that's it for my introduction, you should see both Indonesian and English posts in here any time soon. See you all then.
Joking aside, let me make it clear that although this blog is a school project, That doesn't mean I won't post nonsensical things in it from time to time, that's just how I roll.
I'm a student in UMY (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta), Indonesia. I'm currently majoring in English Education, but I aim to be more than just a teacher. Maybe a super-teacher of some sort, because god knows our education system has been behind for the last several years. The key to revitalizing education is technology, and this blog will help me help others to realize that.
As for non-english posts, expect things from pretty much every hobby out there because my interest changes very, very quickly. Right now I'm into mostly League of Legends (like I've been for the last 5 years or so) and Gundam models. If I do update this blog more than my other one, expect bad quality photos of my HG models.
I guess that's it for my introduction, you should see both Indonesian and English posts in here any time soon. See you all then.
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