I am a graduate of English language teaching program in the

University of Mataram. At first I thought that my Education in English

department was as not important as those of my friend who studied
science, business and law. It made me feel despair when my parents
enrolled me into English department. However, the competition
outside had realized me that English is a necessary for those who
want to survive in a borderless world like today. I focused on my
study until I graduated from English Department in The University of
Mataram. No sooner before the graduation I taught English as a
volunteer teacher in Ar – Raisiyah boarding school in 2009. However,
in 2010 my lecturer suggested me to enroll in American studies
department in Universitas Gadjah Mada because West Nusa
Tenggar a government would provide on going scholarship for the
students from that province. Graduate from reputable university in
Indonesia did not directly provide me with a lucrative chance to get a
better job. I asked my lecture back home about the possibility of
teaching in the University of Mataram but there was no vacancy at
that time. However, I went home from Jogjakarta at that time.
Suddenly there was a friction among the youths in my village in
Pohgading Timur. I needed to help my fellow villagers to get out from
this perennial problem, thus we initiated Karang Taruna Gerbang
Mulia in which the youth meet and dissolve their problems among
others.
Notwithstanding the newly erected youth organization was engaged
me with the actual program to help the youth, the people at home still
look down upon a university graduate who merely give benefit for the
community. It made them look down upon education until they regard
that education was no longer important for their children. It is better
for them to send their children to Malaysia as migrant workers rather
than send their children into university. At that time they considered
education in university was useless because as an example I couldn’t
do many things to be a good example for them.
In 2015 Indonesian government signed ASEAN economic society
with other ASEAN countries. This newly built regional economic
society focuses on four areas to increase competitiveness i.e. uniting
the regional market which based on goods and services production,
developing ASEAN countries into a highly competitive economic
area, developing ASEAN countries into an equal economic growth,
and integrating ASEAN economic society into global economic
society. Based on these focus of ASEAN economic society has both
positive and negative impact on Indonesia. The positive side will be
the investment in Indonesia will positively grow to increase
Indonesian national economy and the negative impact will be
Indonesian manpower are less competitive with their counterparts
from other ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,
and Vietnam.
Workforce is highly considered competitive if they have good
education and skills. It is a commonsense that education level of
other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are better
than Indonesia. Their workforce is also skilled with good English that
make them easiness to access manpower market. Indonesia, on the
other hand, has a lot of unskilled workers. Based on data of
Indonesian Statistical Bureau, in 2017 65 % of Indonesian workforce
is dominated with elementary and junior high school graduates.
Moreover Indonesian workforces are bad in English, though English
is highly required in an open market society to increase our
competitiveness. Based on World Bank report in 2017 says that 44%
of Indonesian workforce’s shortcoming is English. This report is also
strengthened by Indonesian English proficiency index position issued
by English First (EF) which put Indonesia in ranks 32 of 70 countries
under Singapore and Malaysia with their advance level of English.
This condition certainly will pose a serious threat to Indonesian
workforce in the future.
Based on this fact I realized that I have to share my knowledge on
English with others. Therefore at this time, besides working in an
international non-government organization, I actively support some
English language program both in a formal and informal level. In a
formal level, I am a part time lecture in a newly built private university
in Jakarta. Teaching English in university has been considered as a
lucrative job, but it is different when we teach in a small private
university that provide formal education for those who cannot afford
the cost of high education. In this university where most of the
students comes from low-level workers who want to increase their
capacity to compete in a very competitive place like in greater
Jakarta area, teaching is a part of social devotion to help others in
order to achieve their dream in the future. It is an amusement when I
see my students can speak English well and sometimes we
communicate in English on everyday conversation. Furthermore in
informal level, I support an English program held by my fellow from
Lombok in Jakarta. I am really happy to help them increasing their
English competency to help them become competitive students in
Jakarta.
In the future I just want my fellow Indonesian youth will be well
educated and equipped with advance level of English so they can
compete in very competitive situation. Furthermore for my fellow
Lombok I am eager to see them to have a better education and also
competitive in a tight competition. I am pretty sure that in the future
we are able to be more competitive and able to compete with people
from other countries. Eventually, for me the real happiness is to
contribute for the development of our nations, share knowledge with
others. Therefore being rich does not mean how much we have but
how much we have shared with others. I hope I always give my best
contribution to my country and also my fellow Indonesians.