Teatime: Internship While Introducing Batik and Playing Gobak Sodor
Trying various opportunities and joining several international institutions opens the door to international knowledge and excitement. Feel and experience directly associating with people with different cultures, as well as introducing Indonesian culture and wealth in the land of a hundred palaces.
The experience was passed by Jorgi Radivka. Jorgi is a 2014 student of Department of Communication at the Universitas Islam Indonesia, who had the opportunity to do an internship as a teacher at an elementary school in the middle of the blue continent of Europe, the Czech Republic. She shared this experience in one of the online casual chat programs made by UII’s International Program of Communication UII on Saturday, June 26, 2021. Annisa Putri Jiany led a discussion with Jorgi, exploring his various experiences with AIESEC in Czech.
Jorgi is a member of an international organization whose mission is to spread peace and humanity. His organization is by inviting young people to do international internships or activities as well as to develop youth leadership potential. The organization is (Association Internationale des Etuadiants Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (AIESEC).
In that school, Jorgi has to teach for approximately two months. Many of them do not know Indonesia. They don’t even know there is a country called Indonesia. Jorgi finally brought a map of the globe and showing where Indonesia is located. He also introduced Indonesian language and songs.
Not only that, he also introduced batik motifs by wearing batik every time he went to school and discussing batik with his friends.
At first there were several obstacles he faced when teaching at school . The language barrier is one of the obstacles because English is not the main language of the people in the Czech Republic. This language barrier makes the students not pay much attention during the learning process. But Jorgi has some tricks that he uses to win attention back. “I use the traditional game here. Gobak sodor for 10-15 minutes to let them be happy first. After that they want to pay attention to the lesson.”
He recounts the funniest and most memorable experiences. On several occasions Jorgi also cooks for his friends and the teachers there. He was so happy and satisfied because he managed to make his friends spicy. “They can’t really eat spicy food, but I cook bakwan and sambal matah. They can’t stand how spicy it is, but they’re done.”
