When first time got to America, some people thought they would need longer time to recover with something called as cultural shock. It was wondering how Americans would treat people due to the stereotype of their individualism. Americans never mind others’ business and will do whatever they want. In fact, what was told and heard in home country was just the prejudice of people that only see America from the outside, not from the inside. It was revealed in the story of Indonesia group of IELSP at Arizona State University, United States. It was very glad when the first day of the departure in America the Indonesian group got a huge welcome from all people that involved in IELSP program such as Chris Cassucio, the program officer of IIE, Jim Carter, the person who arranged the homestay, Mark Rentz, the director of AECP, Adam, the one who helped Mark for all things related to Indonesian group (although now he is already resigned from his job) and all the host parents with each of their host children name written in pieces of white papers. It was a very impressive welcome. AECP is an intensive English Program in Arizona State University that has carved the most unforgettable memory for myself and all grantees of IELSP Cohort 8 this spring in creating friendship, togetherness, cooperation and better personality.
America has brought me to a consciousness of how to respect and appreciate people truly, especially people with disabilities. For instance, in public transportation, they have a special door for people with wheelchair. The driver will give the most priority for them instead of common people. Besides that, in every single corner of the door, there is a special button to open the door for disabilities. It makes me realize how huge their respect for every single person no matter how they look. It drives me to come at the sense of equality in all aspects of life, creates understanding that all people have the same right to live their lives. Although we’re the minority in this country but Americans never underestimated or intimidated us. In contrast, they are really interested to know and learn about other cultures. The further we get to know each other, the more we are eager to learn. Everytime we make mistake, there is no such a thing as blaming, complaining and making fun of. Also, in here I learned that Americans really appreciate people’s decision. As a result, people in America usually feel free to express their opinion and talents because no one will judge them and give destructive critic.
Living in the host country of the target language is very helpful to improve my language ability especially listening and speaking ability. While learning their language, naturally we also will learn their culture. I got involved in many activities both school activities and family events. For the school activities that I enjoyed the most in improving my language was the Conversation Club. In this activity, people talked while enjoying the cookies, tea, coffee in a beautiful evening at Arizona State University. In addition, we did not only talk with international students but also the real Americans which are ASU students. Besides that, there was an activity called Reading Theatre that enabled us to watch movie while learning the conversations of the actor and actress. Especially for family activities, I and my house mate had a blast living in a single lady’s house named Julie. She was a very nice and humorous woman that always involved us in her important events like celebrating Easter and Mother’s Day. Within our interaction, we learned some slanks in America like “slakers” which means “lazy person” and “chicks” (informal expression: the way she used to call us) which means “girls”. In addition, if we make mistakes in our spoken we may get the corrections right away by the native speakers.
This program has a lot of excitement and education which gives Indonesians the real experience of living in America. It is true that living in the host country to study language for two months is much more precious than just learn it theoritically in years. The pluses of this program are the management of the activity and the interaction between the grantees and the program officers which are really tight. The communication between both participants are applied really friendly.
This program is already great by itself. I hope the alumnus after this program and those that involved still can keep in touch until no time. As a program in improving English, IELSP is very appropriate for students who want to learn American English and culture.
