reflection journal for humanistic studies 1

At the first I heard Humanistic Studies I think that it is about humans live, such as the environment, the regulation, culture, and so on. And then my lecturer told me that this course is about multiculturalism and religion around the humans live.

            My expectation in this course is I hope I can understand about humans live and I will get good score in all assignment. And also I hope I can apply my knowledge about human study in my real life because as a teacher I want to be a good model for my students. If I can understand about humans live and apply it in my real live I can be a good person for my country.

            Actually, I know from my lecturer that this course is about multiculturalism and religion. I think it will be very interesting course because it is related to our life; especially it is like a relationship in social human live.

            I have read for topic 1, and this is about identity and culture. In my opinion identity is related to culture. We can know someone’s background from her/his identity. Such as name, home town, and the family name or in Indonesia we called it ‘marga’. Sometimes we can guess someone’s culture from her family names, for example: there is a man named Yoga Tambunan, and there is a woman named Nining Heningtyas. From this case we can guess that the man is from batak people or manado people because his family name is showed that he is one of these culture. There are so many family names in batakness, such as tambunan, tobing, parjuangan and so on, that’s why we can guess that the man may be one of these cultures. While the woman, we can guess that she is from sundaness, because the characteristics of sundaness is has some repeated word in her/his name. But, as a result we cannot judge someone’s culture only from her/his name, we have to know her/his background also, because we only can guess, it’s mean that it can be right or wrong. Everyone has their own choice to make her name.

The other example is from my class. Actually I have so many friends from other culture. For example my friends from Java are very different with my friends from Palembang. They are showed different ways in accent. My friends from Java are more slowly and they have low voice in speaking, in contrast my friends from Palembang have loud voice in speaking and also they have their own accent. Not only from Java and Palembang but also I have some friends from Kalimantan, Lampung, and Jakarta.

            Talk about culture is very interesting for me. My culture is betawi because I come from Jakarta. Betawi has its own language. The characteristics of betawi language are they changed some letter become ‘e’. For example: the word “ iya, kemana, kenapa” are become “iye, kemane , kenape.” But I think it is more simple rather that other languages in Indonesia because it is similar with Indonesian language. In addition there are some other betawi languages, such as “nyo, bagen, kulon, wetan, obonk.” These kinds of words are including in betawi language, but it is different with the first one. This phenomenon showed us that Indonesia has so many culture and languages; even I just know from Semantic and Lexicology course that there are 700 languages in Indonesia. It is very awesome for me. 

            From the explanation above, as a result I’m very proud of Indonesia. Because as Indonesian people we are very rich of culture, and as a good Indonesia people, we have to care and save the culture of Indonesia. I love Indonesia, I will be a good person for you.