Hello everyone! My name is Alexandra Isabel Nugroho and you can call me Abel. I was born on 7th February 2003 in Yogyakarta. I am the only child in my family. My family and I enjoy going on vacation, and usually we already have a plan on where to go for the next three or even six months. But now, since the COVID-19 pandemic occurs, we have to postponed our holiday plan. I love trying foods from all over the world, and I specially enjoy eating Japanese cuisine. My passion for business runs in my blood since I was around six years old. Therefore, I already had my mind set to major Business in university. Nevertheless, I also enjoy music very much. I started to learn how to play the piano since I was three and I began loving it. I joined several regional and national piano competition since then. I also like to dance. I joined a dance crew when I was in junior high school. I joined another one on my high school and became the captain. I spent my high school practicing and joining dance competition. I am a dog lover, and I have a very lovely yellow Lab named Molly. She is a very friendly and active dog, and she likes to bite tennis ball. I think that's all about me. Nice to know you all!
“But now, since the COVID-19 pandemic occurs, we have to postponed our holiday plan.”
Do you mean “since” … [a] “in the intervening period between (the time mentioned) and the time under consideration, typically the present”, or do you mean “since” … [b] “for the reason that; because”. It affects how we write the sentence. Look:
“But now, since there is a COVID-19 pandemic, we have to postpone our holiday plan …”. Here “since” means “because”. Note that “postpone” is infinitive after “to” and not written as “postponed” which is an adjective or the past tense form.
“But now, since the COVID-19 pandemic started, we have had to postpone our holiday plan.” Here “since” means “sejak” (Indonesian) and it affects the tense you need to use for the rest of the sentence.
Rather than "since there is a COVID-19 pandemic", I think "since there is the COVID-19 pandemic". "The" is better. COVID-19 is the one and only pandemic with that name. If there is another one, it will be called COVID-? where ? = the year when it starts killing people.
Hi everyone, my name is Dwi Alan Budi Kusuma, but you guys can call me Alan. I am a student in Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), and I am taking the International Undergraduate Programme (IUP) for Management. Taking the IUP caused me to be enrolled in Mr. Adrian’s English Writing Skills class, sadly (just kidding sir, please don’t fail me). Anyways, I come from Sukoharjo, Jawa Tengah and I live with my parents and a younger brother who’s still in 9th grade. I actually have an older brother, but he’s married and has twin daughters, so he lives in his own house nearby where I live. Even though I live in Sukoharjo, I spent 2 of my high school years in Surabaya, Jawa Timur. My hobbies are playing basketball, playing games and sleeping. I do like to eat too, but right now I’m in the middle of my attempt on a diet, so I guess I can scratch eating from my list of hobbies. Since I love playing basketball, one of my goals every time I get enrolled into a new school is that to make it to the school’s or university’s basketball team roster, and I hope I will make it too this time in UGM. My journey to this university hasn’t been the smoothest, to say the least. My childhood dream was to become a doctor, to be exact a paediatrician. So, all my live from elementary until high school, I have always focused on the subjects that is related to science, and I even took a majority of science classes in my IB Diploma Programme in high school, hoping that it will help me achieve my dreams to become a doctor by enrolling in good universities. Unluckily, or rather, very unfortunately that dream was forced to an end. When I took the colour blindness test, which was one of the requirements to apply to the medical major, I discovered that I was partially colour blind, and that I wouldn’t be able to enrol myself into a medical major. Alas, I decided to move on and let that dream go, and chose the IUP in Management as my choice. I guess that’s all from me. Hope to see you guys real soon in campus. Thank you!
“Universitas Gadjah Mada” and “Jawa Tengah” and “Jawa Timur”.
It’s debatable, I know, but I would suggest you write things like this in their English version. So, it’s Central Java and East Java (and you should always use the official translation, so it’s not Eastern Java; it’s East Java). The official English (international) name of “Universitas Gadjah Mada”
When you put the acronym after it in a piece of writing so that you don’t have to write out the full name every time you want to mention it, you can use the Indonesian acronym “UGM”. Like this:
“Alan started his studies at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in 2020. His English Writing Skills teacher at UGM said that he was the worst student he had ever taught since his career started in 1983.”
Hello everyone, my name is Radif Khairy Shahab, you can call me Radif. I was born and raised in Jakarta, I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu. University of Gajah Mada was my first pick of university choices, because just like Mr. Adrian Im also in love with Jogja. I got in the International Undergraduate Program majoring in Economics. Im a somewhat nationalistic person, thats one the reason I chose to major in Economics because Indonesia have so many potentials in many economic sectors and rich in resources but as far as Im aware, the economy is not done completely decent today. Thats one of my ambition, I hope someday I will be able to be useful and give to the people, not just earn a lot of money and hoard it till I die. Im a pretty social person, I love to eat almost everything, I like many kinds of music, I do business and designs.
“Hello everyone, my name is Radif Khairy Shahab, you can call me Radif. I was born and raised in Jakarta, I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu.”
You are connecting independent clauses here which should be handled in a cerain way OR they should be separate sentences.
You wrote:
“Hello everyone, my name is Radif Khairy Shahab, you can call me Radif.”
You need to have a word like “and” or “but” after the comma (“but” is more appropriate). Alternativelt, you can put a full stop after “Shahib” and then start a new sentence with “You”.
You wrote:
“I was born and raised in Jakarta, I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu.”
Again, the comma after “Jakarta” is an error. “I was born and raised in Jakarta” is a complete sentence. And “I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu” is a complete sentence. If you want to join them together in one sentence, you need to do this:
“I was born and raised in Jakarta, and I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu.”
By the way, the comma after “Jakarta” is optional.
On a different point:
Gadjah Mada University should not be written as “University of Gadjah Mada” in English as that is not its official international name (in English). The official English name of Universitas Indonesia is “University Of Indonesia”.
Hello everyone! My name is Adzra Aurellya Firdhausya, you can call me Adzra. I was born in Jakarta, 3rd February 2002. I have no detailed hobbies, but I am really keen for searching for my passion through joining speech competitions and also social organizations. It was a bliss for me to enter Accounting IUP UGM, I was so happy meeting my new friends via online. It is a fun fact from me, I like failures so much. By failures, I learn new values and get higher motivation to do anything better than before. With my background from national schools since I was in Primary until Senior High School, I needed a time to get adapted to the IUP Class and also communicating with my foreign friends. Soon, I am planning to join the FEB's Student Union (BEM FEB UGM) so I could increase my softskills and hardskills in organization. Nice to meet you Mr Adrian and all of my amazing fellows!
“It was a bliss for me to enter Accounting IUP UGM”
“Bliss” is an uncountable noun, so you can’t say “a bliss”. Also, “Accounting IUP UGM” is not the official name of anything, so it is not a proper noun, so should not be all capitalized like that. “IUP UGM” is OK (although this is more accurate: “IUP FEB UGM”… there are other IUPs in other faculties), but accounting is a common noun. Compare your to mine:
“It was bliss for me to enter IUP at FEB to study accounting”
You wrote:
“With my background from national schools since I was in Primary until Senior High School, I needed a time to get adapted to the IUP Class and also communicating with my foreign friends.
These words should not be capitalized: Primary, Senior, High, School, and Class.
Finally, I don’t think “national” is the right word. You are thinking of “negeri”, right? I could be wrong, but I think the correct term is “state schools” or perhaps “public schools”. In the U.S., “state schools” and “public schools” mean the same thing. The difficulty in Britain with the term “public schools” is that it means a certain kind of “private school”, which is the complete opposite of a “state school”!
Hello everyone, my name is Muhammad Ilham Prasetyo. Feel free to call me Ilham. .I was born in Surabaya but had lived in Europe for a quarter of my life. At the age of 9, I was living in a small city in Scottland called Aberdeen. It was the first time where I learn English and found my passion for football. To this day, Chelsea is the team that gives me pleasure for football, though they have given me plenty of heart attacks in the past. Despite my love for football, I happen to enjoy various activities such as gaming, playing saxophones, and video editing. F1 is also on the table in terms of what I adore to watch. At the age of 12, I began to live in France for nearly four years. There, I started to develop in my 3rd language that is French. In the beginning, it was a painful process, however, looking back I did not regret making that decision. When I returned to Jakarta, I studied in Jakarta Nanyang School to finish high school. I managed to clutch my way into taking 3 A Levels which were Economics, Business, and Math. From there, I began to develop my eagerness to continue to study Economics at Universitas Gadjah Mada. In the beginning, I was sure to pick Universitas Indonesia, but, God has a different plan for me. In the end, I hope we can get over with this pandemic as soon as possible so that we can see each other soon.
“At the age of 9”, “At the age of 12”, “I managed to clutch my way into taking 3 A Level”, “my 3rd language”.
Numbers below ten should be written as words. So, “nine” is preferrable to “9”; “12” is OK; “three A Levels” is preferrable to saying “3” of them; and I would suggest “third” rather than “3rd”.
You wrote:
“I began to develop my eagerness to continue to study Economics at Universitas Gadjah Mada. In the beginning, I was sure to pick Universitas Indonesia.”
About “Universitas Gadjah Mada” and “Universitas Indonesia”, see my comment addressed to Alan and Radif (above).
Let’s not forget, UGM is, according to the recently announced QS World Rankings for 2021, the best university in Indonesia having been second and third, and of course first, at various different times over the last ten years.
Hello everyone, my name is Afif Haidar Endraswara but people usually call me Haidar, I was born in Jakarta but I currently live in Tangerang Selatan. I am 18 years old. Our family consists of four members. I am the youngest out of the family and I have an older sister. My hobbies are playing lots of music instruments. I learned the piano when I was 12 years old. Not only piano, I can also play the guitar, bass, and also drums. Also when I entered middle school I loved playing video games with my friends. But recently, when we need to be quarantined in our homes. I was bored doing those things. So I want to try something new. I decided to try cycling around Bintaro and I was intrigued. Not only cycling but for 6 years I usually play basketball in my recess. I was so happy that I was accepted into FEB Accounting UGM and also I was excited to meet you guys. Hope to see you soon at campus.
“I was born in Jakarta but I currently live in Tangerang Selatan.”
You should write the name of the city you live in in English: South Tangerang.
You wrote:
“Not only piano, I can also play the guitar, bass, and also drums.”
Compare yours to mine:
“Not only piano, I can also play the guitar, bass, and the drums too.”
I have avoided using “also” twice in the same sentence.
You wrote:
“FEB Accounting UGM”
I am pretty sure “FEB Accounting UGM” does not exist as the official title of something… which is only reason you would capitalize it ALL like that.
“FEB” is OK; “UGM” is OK. But it is not clear why you have capitalized “accounting”. The “Department of Accounting” can be capitalized (indeed, it must be) because it is the official name of that department at this faculty (Note how I did NOT capitalize department at this faculty in this sentence) but the word “accounting” is just an ordinary noun.
Compare yours to mine (two versions):
“I was so happy that I was accepted by the Department of Accounting at FEB UGM.”
Or…
“I was so happy that I was accepted by FEB UGM to study accounting.”
When Albert Einstein spoke about how he is passionately curious, I assure you that he didn’t mean for people to join activities that are clearly not meant for them. Hello, my name is Annisa and I am that person who likes to make things hard for myself simply because I’m bored.
Even though I was born in Samarinda, if you were to ask me things about my hometown, Google will be my replacement for answering your questions. When I was a child, I spent around half a decade in a country that has vomiting lion statues as one of its national symbols before I moved back to Indonesia; Singapore. I missed the transportation system there, it’s extremely efficient.
Regarding my daily activities, it depends on whether I prioritize isolating myself from the rest of the world by sleeping or anything else. Eating is almost always my second option. Other than that, I do dabble in many different fields such as coding, drawing, debating, learning, writing, and many more. I might have gotten money from doing those activities competitively. My interests are so diverse, even my close friends wonder why I was able to choose Business when I’m also interested in other majors like Computer Science. It’s simple really, I wanted to escape the mundane national exams so I tried out for the International Undergraduate Program offered by Gadjah Mada. I feel blessed since I was accepted into this program and so far, besides having to stay at home for one whole semester, I like it.
If you want to get to know me even better, feel free to send some food to Nan***. Okay I’m joking. Just hit me up and I’ll definitely answer you back :D !
When Albert Einstein spoke about how he is passionately curious, I assure you that he didn’t mean for people to join activities that are clearly not meant for them. Hello, my name is Annisa and I am that person who likes to make things hard for myself simply because I’m bored.
Even though I was born in Samarinda, if you were to ask me things about my hometown, Google will be my replacement for answering your questions. When I was a child, I spent around half a decade in a country that has vomiting lion statues as one of its national symbols before I moved back to Indonesia; Singapore. I missed the transportation system there, it’s extremely efficient.
Regarding my daily activities, it depends on whether I prioritize isolating myself from the rest of the world by sleeping or anything else. Eating is almost always my second option. Other than that, I do dabble in many different fields such as coding, drawing, debating, learning, writing, and many more. I might have gotten money from doing those activities competitively. My interests are so diverse, even my close friends wonder why I was able to choose Business when I’m also interested in other majors like Computer Science. It’s simple really, I wanted to escape the mundane national exams so I tried out for the International Undergraduate Program offered by Gadjah Mada. I feel blessed since I was accepted into this program and so far, besides having to stay at home for one whole semester, I like it.
If you want to get to know me even better, feel free to send some food to Nan***. Okay I’m joking. Just hit me up and I’ll definitely answer you back :D !
Annisa wrote:
“When Albert Einstein spoke about how he is passionately curious, I assure you that he didn’t mean for people to join activities that are clearly not meant for them. Hello, my name is Annisa and I am that person who likes to make things hard for myself simply because I’m bored.”
Great intro!
You wrote:
“Even though I was born in Samarinda, if you were to ask me things about my hometown, Google will be my replacement for answering your questions.”
Another striking sentence but there’s one small glitch. After “If you were to ask me things about my hometown…” the next thing you say must be “…Google would be my replacement for answering your questions.”
You can see what I changed and I think you know why.
You wrote:
“I do dabble in many different fields such as coding, drawing, debating, learning, writing, and many more. I might have gotten money from doing those activities competitively.”
You MIGHT have received money? Are you keeping the details secret?
Hello! My name is Hadin Humam Alkatiri but people call me Hadin, born and raised in the capital city of Jakarta, I am a little bit older than most people in my batch as I am born in the late 2001. I am 18 at the moment and I am the youngest out of three siblings, i have two older sisters, the oldest being 24 and the second one being 22. For most of my life I have went to an international school, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro, there I was taught using the IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum.
I applied here to the University of Gadjah Mada because I personally believe this is the best campus for me. As mentioned before I lived my whole life in the busy city of Jakarta, going to Yogyakarta for the next chapter of my life is me trying to grow and be a better person than I was before. Going away from a place I've known my whole life is quite scary at the start but now due to the global pandemic I can't go there, but this is utterly disappointing for me as I am really looking forward to it. Well I guess what they say was right "you don't want it until you can't have it". Anyways nice meeting you all!
“I applied here to the University of Gadjah Mada because I personally believe this is the best campus for me.”
See my comments addressed to to Alan and Radif (above).
You wrote:
“For most of my life I have went to an international school, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro, there I was taught using the IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum.”
“I have went to an international school”… ouch!
I go, I went, I have been! So, it should be either…
“For most of my life, I went to international schools, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro”.
Or…
“For most of my life, I have been to international schools, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro”.
Note that, in order for the sentence to make sense, I changed “an international school” to “international schools”.
Good evening everyone! Nice to meet you. My name is Christie Nathalie and you can call me Christie. I enjoy watching various TV Shows ranging from K-drama to Sitcoms. However, I could say that my favourite genre is sitcom. I enjoy the funny and entertaining content that sitcoms give. Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Big Bang Theory are some of my favourite sitcoms. Aside from watching TV shows, I really enjoy my time with my friends and families. At the same time, I also enjoy my time alone where I can be my true self. Spending time my friends, families or even by myself is a way for me to heal myself from the stress. Whether I want to heal by spending time with my family/friends or by myself really depends on how my day/week went. From this maybe I could say that I am indeed an ambivert, or not.
Other than that, over the past few years, I have changed my mind a lot of times about what majors I will be taking in university. It started when I decided to take Medicine as my major back in 2017 because I thought I enjoyed looking at videos that involved surgeries and things that actually involved some blood. However, a while later I changed my mind. I decided that I wanted to be a forensic because I enjoyed looking at videos of autopsies. You may think that I am a really weird and violent person for saying these things. Trust me, I also question myself sometimes. However, those dreams of mine went downhill when I did not get into the science streaming during high school but at the same time, I also realised that I didn’t enjoy biology at all. It was kind of weird because I wanted to be a doctor but I didn’t enjoy any bit of biology lessons. Mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni, there was no specific reason for this, I was just curious about how the human brain works. However, as you have expected, this dream of mine went downhill. Again. My parents didn’t really enjoy the idea of my taking psychology as my major and at that time I was really confused. Nevertheless, over time I came to realisation that psychology wasn’t my actual passion and overtime I eventually agreed with my parents. Now, I have figured out that my passion is Business and that is why I decided to major in Management. As from this, you can clearly see that I am a very indecisive and unstable person and there are still things that I will have to learn about myself in the later future. There are still many stories that involves me being indecisive but that would make my introduction too boring, so let’s save that for another time, maybe.
Anyways, I am really looking forward to spend this semester with you guys and I hope we can make a lot of fun memories over time. Have a good night!
“Aside from watching TV shows, I really enjoy my time with my friends and families.”
Whose “familes”? Do you mean your friends’ families? Or do you mean your own family? Perhaps you meant something like this…
“Aside from watching TV shows, I really enjoy my time with my family and friends.”
You wrote:
“Mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni, there was no specific reason for this, I was just curious about how the human brain works.”
I see three sentences here but you have presented them as one.
[1] “Mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni”.
[2] “There was no specific reason for this”.
[3] “I was just curious about how the human brain works”.
Here is my version of these three sentences ‘unified’…
“In mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni, although there was no specific reason for this; I was just curious about how the human brain works.”
I used a connecting word (“although”) and a semi colon.
Hello everyone! My name is Mohammad Razanhakiim Norman Razak (or just Hakiim) and I am a freshmen at the University of Gadjah Mada, majoring in economics. I was born and raised in Jakarta, and I have never planned to move out of my hometown until my UGM application test was announced last February. I was raised by quite a multicultural Indonesian family, my grandparents had roots from different Indonesian ethnicities varying from the islands of Sumatera and Java. The most dominant culture of ethnicity I experienced while growing up however was the North Sumatran ethnic named Batak and the South Sumatran Malay-Palembangese ethnicity. I graduated high school from High Scope T.B Simatupang and I could proudly say that I have spent my 3 years of high school with no regrets and full happiness. As a person, I would describe myself as an easy going person who is capable and will socialize with everyone with ease. One thing I do realize about myself however is the fact that I could be awkward sometimes but it isn’t that big of a deal I suppose. A couple of embarrassing facts about myself is that I am currently 18 years old and I still could not ride a bicycle, and I am also quite allergic to chocolate.
“I am a freshmen at the University of Gadjah Mada, majoring in economics.”
Regarding “University of Gadjah Mada”, see my comments addressed to to Alan and Radif (above).
You are just one freshman (or fresher) not (plural) “freshmen”!
You wrote:
“I was raised by quite a multicultural Indonesian family, my grandparents had roots from different Indonesian ethnicities varying from the islands of Sumatera and Java. The most dominant culture of ethnicity I experienced while growing up however was the North Sumatran ethnic named Batak and the South Sumatran Malay-Palembangese ethnicity.”
I like how you have explained this. It’s clear and has good word choice. The comma between “Indonesian family” and “my grandparents” needs to be a full stop, I think. Or you could do this…
“I was raised by quite a multicultural Indonesian family; for example, my grandparents had roots from different Indonesian ethnicities varying from the islands of Sumatera and Java.”
Note that it is SEMI COLON > “for example” > COMMA and then the continuation of the sentence. Other words that get used in this way (in order to join related ideas together instead of always making them separate sentences are: as a result, however, namely, therefore, that is, for instance. One example:
“By Wednesday, I have already taught this material twice and it’s not interesting anymore; as a result, I call them the ‘The Boredom Begins Class’.”
Hello everyone, my name is Aisyah Fatima A’zahrah, but you can call me Ara. I am the oldest of two siblings. I was born in Jakarta on 9 August 2002. I had lived in Jakarta my entire life, so getting accepted to Universitas Gadjah Mada is a breath of fresh air. I am accepted in International Undergraduate Program Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Gadjah Mada majoring in management. If it wasn't for the pandemic, I'd already travel around Yogyakarta. At first, people tend to assume that I am a quiet person. But, that is only the first impression, I actually tend to speak a lot if I am comfortable with that person. I hope that I can make a lot of friends in this new environment. In my free time, I like to watch Netflix and make a playlist. My friends said that I had a good recommendation for movies and songs. In the future, I want to be a housewife and businesswoman. It may sound impossible to combine those things, but I believe a woman is capable to do anything.
You can only have the biggEST, smallEST, funniEST, dumbEST, highEST, oldEST, fastEST (superlatives) when you compare THREE or more things. If it’s only TWO things being compared, then we use comparative adjectives like biggER, smallER, funniER, dumbER, highER, oldER, fastER.
You wrote:
“At first, people tend to assume that I am a quiet person. But, that is only the first impression, I actually tend to speak a lot if I am comfortable with that person.”
Between “the first impression” and “I actually tend to speak”, a comma is not the correct punctuation; what you really want is a semi colon.
Hello there, my name is Difha Aditama Putera, but my friends call me Difha. I graduated from Binus School Serpong through a zoom meeting. I would like to start this self introduction by pointing out my hobbies. When I'm bored, I like to play some video games and if there wasn't a pandemic right now, I would play basketball outside of the house for probably twice a week. I am a fun person to talk to, and I always try my best to do the things I have passion for. I don't like to be stressed or sad, and when I do, I find ways to create a different atmosphere. Usually, people that have never seen me think that I'm a girl due to the pronunciation of my name which is quite similar to diva. Aside from hobbies, I'm gonna talk a bit about my music taste. I like hip hop rap, and some of my favourite rappers include Lil Wayne, Mac Dre, Ski Mask the Slump God, Young Thug, Lil Tecca, and many more. I got two siblings, a small sister and a big brother. Moreover, my social skill isn't that bad as most of the time I can turn an awkward situation into a comfortable one. Last but not the least, I would like to thank you guys who have read my introduction and have reached the ending, that's all for now.
“I graduated from Binus School Serpong through a zoom meeting.”
I love this detail! It will forever be a “It was back in the year 2020” memory. Let’s hope it is many years before more young people have to graduate from their senior high schools in a virtual or online way.
You wrote:
“I'm gonna talk a bit about my music taste.”
Everyone (not just Difha), avoid words like “gonna”. Although I will be asking you to write about not very formal topics, generally speaking, I want EWS students to write in a fairly formal way (…it’s good practice).
Hello my name is Beatrice Faustina Teja you can call me Beatrice. I was born on the 26th of February 2003 in Pekanbaru, so I’m currently enjoying my sweet 17 year. I live in DI. Yogyakarta for about 3 years and I still can’t speak Javanese(pretty sad though). I love to eat nasi goreng, ayam penyet and kupat tahu. I like light drinks such as water, tea and so on. My hobbies are reading book and playing games like Mobile Legends and Cooking Mama. I like Jogja’s cuisine like bakmi jawa and gudeg. I’m a Potterhead and my house is Gryffindor (well if some of you are Gryffindor as well, contact me hehe). I want to have my own private business one day, and I hope my business will give many benefit for others.
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great day. I would like to introduce myself to all of you so we can better understand each other and hopefully become great friends. My name is Ronan Naji Maliki Pierce but you can just call me Ronan. I come from a mixed background but I was born and raised here in Indonesia. I spent my childhood in Bali but when I was in my early teens I moved to a dormitory in Depok City to study at a more prestigious secondary school in the hopes of being able to have better university options after I graduated. The latter part of my life has led me to where I am currently and I am very grateful for this opportunity. To tell more about myself, I am an avid listener of music, I always find myself listening to music every chance I get as it gives me much more energy and it always helps me get through the more challenging aspects of life. I mostly listen to all kinds of music from the late ‘60s up until the modern pop songs of today but I am always open to try new genres. My other hobbies include reading novels, watching films, and playing games albeit a bit too much lately due to current circumstances. Lastly, I would like to say it was very nice to meet all of you and Mr. Coen, I hope today will be one of many more fun lectures to come.
“Lastly, I would like to say it was very nice to meet all of you and Mr. Coen, I hope today will be one of many more fun lectures to come.”
(That should be a full stop after “Coen” and not a comma, by the way).
(Note that the full stop in the sentence above is after the parentheses and not inside them). This is how it should be when the WHOLE sentence is inside the parentheses.
Ronan referred to me as “Mr. Coen”. Good. This is an interesting point for you to think about.
So, it’s OK for you to call me Adrian (on the real campus – not this virtual one – I would always suggest to my students to refer to me as “Mr Coen” in front of other lecturers).
If you want to be more formal, the correct way to do it is to call me Mr Coen (or Mr. Coen, with a full stop after “Mr”, in American English).
“Mr” - which is short for “Mister” - goes with the family name: in this case, “Coen”.
No native English speaker (at least not from my own country) would connect “Mister/Mr” to my first name (“Adrian”).
And, whatever you do, you don’t address someone (by which I mean an English speaking “bule”) as just “Mister” in English because, while it is an understandable mistake, it does noy sound nice, and if I ever called another British person (just) “Mister” without their family name, it would sound unfriendly or even hostile.
Hi proffessor! I am Atsmara Syifa, people mostly call me by Syifa or Fafa, I was given birth on May 21st of 2003. I have just turned 17 and I can proudly announce that I am legal and can drive by my own. Although I realized there will be a whole new burden ahead of me, I can still brush it aside, for now that is. My family consists of my mother, father, me, and my two other sisters. I am a middle child. My eldest sister is currently in her 3rd semester of BINUS film school. While my youngest sister is still making her way through kindergarten. I’ve been the youngest child for eleven years until my younger sister crawled into the world. Since then I have become a grumpy middle child. Frankly, I wasn’t prepared when it happened. I would like to introduce myself as a professional singer, but it would be a lie. I have a pretty good voice, but not jaw dropping great. Also, I am emotionally allergic to blood and goreness. I would totally freak out if fresh blood appears right in front of my face. And that is one of the many maannyy reasons why unlike most of the children in Indonesia, the thought of being a doctor has never ever crossed my mind. I think that would be all. i wouldn't want to accedentaly expose myself. Thank youu!
One. I am not a “proffessor”. And two. If I were, it would be spelt “professor”!
You wrote:
“I can proudly announce that I am legal and can drive by my own.”
Well, well. What does “I am legal” mean?
You wrote:
“My family consists of my mother, father, me, and my two other sisters.”
They are just your sisters; they are not your other sisters. Look at this:
“I have three sisters, one of which I am very close to. The other two sisters are in prison in Merauke.”
See what I mean?
You wrote:
“I would like to introduce myself as a professional singer, but it would be a lie. I have a pretty good voice, but not jaw-dropping great.” (Note that I have hyphenated “jaw-dropping”.)
IF we have an EWS karaoke night, we will find out if your boasting is justified! Ha ha.
You wrote:
“And that is one of the many maannyy reasons why unlike most of the children in Indonesia, the thought of being a doctor has never ever crossed my mind.”
“Maannyy”? No! Se what I said to Difha about then word “gonna”.
In the above two sentences, you need a comma between “why” and “unlike”.
Greetings all! I’m Alif Adiyat Pradana. Everyone else calls me Alif. I was born and raised in Semarang, Central java. I do still live in Semarang but I could not wait to go to Jogja. I come from a family of three and the first of two siblings. Life do not always go according to plan, hence the family of three. I’m 18 years old and like other 18 year olds out there, I’m still figuring out what I would to do in the future but I believe that I’m stepping onto the right direction, finger crossed!
I really enjoy watching informational videos on YouTube on various topic such as, “If monkeys evolved to human, why are there still monkeys left in the world?” or “ Henry VIII the womanizer” knowing that these facts would not come very handy in life but I enjoy it regardless. I’m a big fan of sports as well, especially football. I’ve been a fan of Manchester United for as long as I can remember. I watched them once when I was visiting Manchester, what an experience that is.
I really hope I could fit in with the new crowd of people and their diversity and make the most of my times here at UGM. IUP really brings a challenge to my speaking skills, even though I see myself having a quite good comprehension in English. You will find me stutter and grasping for words when I talk. For that I apologize in advance. I’m excited to begin this EWS class. I really hope we can work together for the better. My firs impression of the class is it is like watching a program called “Would I Lie to You” hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and I’m saying this in a good way. Thank you and have a good one!
I notice that i missed the word "like" in "...what i would to do in the future.." on the first paragraph. Also I typed "grasp" instead of "gasp", which is quite embarrassing.
“IUP really brings a challenge to my speaking skills, even though I see myself having a quite good comprehension in English. You will find me stutter and grasping for words when I talk. For that I apologize in advance. I’m excited to begin this EWS class. I really hope we can work together for the better.”
Good to hear your enthusiasm. However, unfortunately, “speaking” is the one skill that EWS does not really help with. Listening, yes. Comprehension, yes. Reading, yes. Writing, yes. Vocabulary building, yes. Grammar, yes. Confidence and experience, yes. But (students) speaking is not a focus of the course and it’s more difficult in the virtual learning situation than it is in the normal, face-to-face teaching and learning situation.
Hello everyone! my name is Laetisya Rafifa Ramadhani, and feel free to call me Laetisya. I've been living in Yogyakarta for my whole life. I have one younger sister and we used to go to the same school as well, Jogjakarta Community School. I'm choosing economics as my major. Long story short, I graduated after I completed my A Level course. I decided to choose economics because I always wanted to know how the world works, and it revolves around the tertiary sector right now. I believe that choosing this major would provide me lots of opportunities since economics can be applied to all aspects of life.
Art and music is my passion. It allows me to express my feelings freely as I have some troubles with expressing my true intentions to other people. I've been drawingsince I was little, and I can do almost all forms of drawing style since I'm quite dedicated. I also play the piano, and I've been playing the instrument since I was 4. I mostly learn classical pieces, which influenced my current music taste.
I also love to read and watch some movies in my spare time. I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter books and classical pieces. As for movies and tv shows, I basically watch everything. Starting from MCU and DCEU, Star Wars, Game Of Thrones, or even animes. I also listen to every music genre, so.. feel free to talk about it with me!
As for my self description, I'm an INTP. It's one of the 16 personalities. It is indeed a very good quiz to help you to understand yourself.
Let's be friends, Let’s get to know each other better! Hi everyone, I'm Adelisa Devita Ryani, you may call me Adel. I was born on 12th February 2003 in Karanganyar, Central Java. Did you guys ever heard about Mount Lawu? Mount Lawu is such a popular tourist destination in Karanganyar. I was raised in an environment where Javanese culture is still very appreciated. That is probably the reason why my accent is very ‘medok’ . I will try my best to improve my English and I’m sure with the help of my lecturer, Mr. Adrian Coen, I would be better.
I was graduated from SMA Negeri 3 Surakarta majoring Math and Science. During my leisure time, I like to play basketball. My team represents our school and win some competitions. I’m quite active in organizations as well. I was the president of Karanganyar Children Forum. It’s basically an organizatios bridging children and the government.
I have two little brothers. Our age gap is quite a lot. They are 13 and 5 years old.
I was introduced to business since I was still very young. That makes me actually passionate on business world. Both of my parents are successful businessman and I will be a more in the future.
That’s a very little description about myself, feel free to contact me at Instagram @adelsdv or e-mail adelisa.d.r@mail.ugm.ac.id !
We can’t have “a lot” of age gap. But the age gap can be big or wide. So…
“Our age gap is quite wide.”
You wrote:
“I was graduated from SMA Negeri 3 Surakarta majoring Math and Science.”
A few things:
“To graduate” is an intransitive verb and I can scarcely think of a situation where it would be used in a passive voice (like you have it above). If you just intended it to be in the past tense then it’s easy:
“I graduated from SMA Negeri 3 Surakarta”
Next point:
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure we never talk about “majors” and “majoring” as the secondary level of education; it’s a term we reserve for tertiary education. Furthermore, I don’t see why “math” (or “maths” as we British prefer to write/say it) and “science” are capitalized. If in doubt, don’t capitalize.
Alright, Sir. I won't repeat the same mistakes like writing 'math and science' in capital. In Indonesia, high school major is written in capital, for intance : MIPA. Thanks so much for your correction! -With Regards, Adelisa
Hello everyone! My name is Alexandra Isabel Nugroho and you can call me Abel. I was born on 7th February 2003 in Yogyakarta. I am the only child in my family.
ReplyDeleteMy family and I enjoy going on vacation, and usually we already have a plan on where to go for the next three or even six months. But now, since the COVID-19 pandemic occurs, we have to postponed our holiday plan.
I love trying foods from all over the world, and I specially enjoy eating Japanese cuisine.
My passion for business runs in my blood since I was around six years old. Therefore, I already had my mind set to major Business in university. Nevertheless, I also enjoy music very much. I started to learn how to play the piano since I was three and I began loving it. I joined several regional and national piano competition since then.
I also like to dance. I joined a dance crew when I was in junior high school. I joined another one on my high school and became the captain. I spent my high school practicing and joining dance competition.
I am a dog lover, and I have a very lovely yellow Lab named Molly. She is a very friendly and active dog, and she likes to bite tennis ball.
I think that's all about me.
Nice to know you all!
Abel wrote:
Delete“But now, since the COVID-19 pandemic occurs, we have to postponed our holiday plan.”
Do you mean “since” … [a] “in the intervening period between (the time mentioned) and the time under consideration, typically the present”, or do you mean “since” … [b] “for the reason that; because”. It affects how we write the sentence. Look:
“But now, since there is a COVID-19 pandemic, we have to postpone our holiday plan …”. Here “since” means “because”. Note that “postpone” is infinitive after “to” and not written as “postponed” which is an adjective or the past tense form.
“But now, since the COVID-19 pandemic started, we have had to postpone our holiday plan.” Here “since” means “sejak” (Indonesian) and it affects the tense you need to use for the rest of the sentence.
Rather than "since there is a COVID-19 pandemic", I think "since there is the COVID-19 pandemic". "The" is better. COVID-19 is the one and only pandemic with that name. If there is another one, it will be called COVID-? where ? = the year when it starts killing people.
DeleteSorry sir, didn't notice that before! Thank you for the correction, I will surely try to be more careful later.
DeleteHi everyone, my name is Dwi Alan Budi Kusuma, but you guys can call me Alan. I am a student in Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), and I am taking the International Undergraduate Programme (IUP) for Management. Taking the IUP caused me to be enrolled in Mr. Adrian’s English Writing Skills class, sadly (just kidding sir, please don’t fail me). Anyways, I come from Sukoharjo, Jawa Tengah and I live with my parents and a younger brother who’s still in 9th grade. I actually have an older brother, but he’s married and has twin daughters, so he lives in his own house nearby where I live. Even though I live in Sukoharjo, I spent 2 of my high school years in Surabaya, Jawa Timur. My hobbies are playing basketball, playing games and sleeping. I do like to eat too, but right now I’m in the middle of my attempt on a diet, so I guess I can scratch eating from my list of hobbies. Since I love playing basketball, one of my goals every time I get enrolled into a new school is that to make it to the school’s or university’s basketball team roster, and I hope I will make it too this time in UGM. My journey to this university hasn’t been the smoothest, to say the least. My childhood dream was to become a doctor, to be exact a paediatrician. So, all my live from elementary until high school, I have always focused on the subjects that is related to science, and I even took a majority of science classes in my IB Diploma Programme in high school, hoping that it will help me achieve my dreams to become a doctor by enrolling in good universities. Unluckily, or rather, very unfortunately that dream was forced to an end. When I took the colour blindness test, which was one of the requirements to apply to the medical major, I discovered that I was partially colour blind, and that I wouldn’t be able to enrol myself into a medical major. Alas, I decided to move on and let that dream go, and chose the IUP in Management as my choice. I guess that’s all from me. Hope to see you guys real soon in campus. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAlan wrote:
Delete“Universitas Gadjah Mada” and “Jawa Tengah” and “Jawa Timur”.
It’s debatable, I know, but I would suggest you write things like this in their English version. So, it’s Central Java and East Java (and you should always use the official translation, so it’s not Eastern Java; it’s East Java). The official English (international) name of “Universitas Gadjah Mada”
When you put the acronym after it in a piece of writing so that you don’t have to write out the full name every time you want to mention it, you can use the Indonesian acronym “UGM”. Like this:
“Alan started his studies at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in 2020. His English Writing Skills teacher at UGM said that he was the worst student he had ever taught since his career started in 1983.”
Thank you for the feedback sir. I will try to not repeat the same mistakes next time. "Worst student".
DeleteHello everyone, my name is Radif Khairy Shahab, you can call me Radif. I was born and raised in Jakarta, I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu. University of Gajah Mada was my first pick of university choices, because just like Mr. Adrian Im also in love with Jogja. I got in the International Undergraduate Program majoring in Economics. Im a somewhat nationalistic person, thats one the reason I chose to major in Economics because Indonesia have so many potentials in many economic sectors and rich in resources but as far as Im aware, the economy is not done completely decent today. Thats one of my ambition, I hope someday I will be able to be useful and give to the people, not just earn a lot of money and hoard it till I die. Im a pretty social person, I love to eat almost everything, I like many kinds of music, I do business and designs.
ReplyDeleteRadif wrote:
Delete“Hello everyone, my name is Radif Khairy Shahab, you can call me Radif. I was born and raised in Jakarta, I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu.”
You are connecting independent clauses here which should be handled in a cerain way OR they should be separate sentences.
You wrote:
“Hello everyone, my name is Radif Khairy Shahab, you can call me Radif.”
You need to have a word like “and” or “but” after the comma (“but” is more appropriate). Alternativelt, you can put a full stop after “Shahib” and then start a new sentence with “You”.
You wrote:
“I was born and raised in Jakarta, I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu.”
Again, the comma after “Jakarta” is an error. “I was born and raised in Jakarta” is a complete sentence. And “I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu” is a complete sentence. If you want to join them together in one sentence, you need to do this:
“I was born and raised in Jakarta, and I just recently graduated from Highschool at Al-Izhar Pondok Labu.”
By the way, the comma after “Jakarta” is optional.
On a different point:
Gadjah Mada University should not be written as “University of Gadjah Mada” in English as that is not its official international name (in English). The official English name of Universitas Indonesia is “University Of Indonesia”.
Hello everyone! My name is Adzra Aurellya Firdhausya, you can call me Adzra. I was born in Jakarta, 3rd February 2002. I have no detailed hobbies, but I am really keen for searching for my passion through joining speech competitions and also social organizations. It was a bliss for me to enter Accounting IUP UGM, I was so happy meeting my new friends via online. It is a fun fact from me, I like failures so much. By failures, I learn new values and get higher motivation to do anything better than before. With my background from national schools since I was in Primary until Senior High School, I needed a time to get adapted to the IUP Class and also communicating with my foreign friends. Soon, I am planning to join the FEB's Student Union (BEM FEB UGM) so I could increase my softskills and hardskills in organization. Nice to meet you Mr Adrian and all of my amazing fellows!
ReplyDeleteAdzra wrote:
Delete“It was a bliss for me to enter Accounting IUP UGM”
“Bliss” is an uncountable noun, so you can’t say “a bliss”. Also, “Accounting IUP UGM” is not the official name of anything, so it is not a proper noun, so should not be all capitalized like that. “IUP UGM” is OK (although this is more accurate: “IUP FEB UGM”… there are other IUPs in other faculties), but accounting is a common noun. Compare your to mine:
“It was bliss for me to enter IUP at FEB to study accounting”
You wrote:
“With my background from national schools since I was in Primary until Senior High School, I needed a time to get adapted to the IUP Class and also communicating with my foreign friends.
These words should not be capitalized: Primary, Senior, High, School, and Class.
Finally, I don’t think “national” is the right word. You are thinking of “negeri”, right? I could be wrong, but I think the correct term is “state schools” or perhaps “public schools”. In the U.S., “state schools” and “public schools” mean the same thing. The difficulty in Britain with the term “public schools” is that it means a certain kind of “private school”, which is the complete opposite of a “state school”!
Hello everyone, my name is Muhammad Ilham Prasetyo. Feel free to call me Ilham. .I was born in Surabaya but had lived in Europe for a quarter of my life. At the age of 9, I was living in a small city in Scottland called Aberdeen. It was the first time where I learn English and found my passion for football. To this day, Chelsea is the team that gives me pleasure for football, though they have given me plenty of heart attacks in the past. Despite my love for football, I happen to enjoy various activities such as gaming, playing saxophones, and video editing. F1 is also on the table in terms of what I adore to watch. At the age of 12, I began to live in France for nearly four years. There, I started to develop in my 3rd language that is French. In the beginning, it was a painful process, however, looking back I did not regret making that decision. When I returned to Jakarta, I studied in Jakarta Nanyang School to finish high school. I managed to clutch my way into taking 3 A Levels which were Economics, Business, and Math. From there, I began to develop my eagerness to continue to study Economics at Universitas Gadjah Mada. In the beginning, I was sure to pick Universitas Indonesia, but, God has a different plan for me. In the end, I hope we can get over with this pandemic as soon as possible so that we can see each other soon.
ReplyDeleteIlham wrote:
Delete“At the age of 9”, “At the age of 12”, “I managed to clutch my way into taking 3 A Level”, “my 3rd language”.
Numbers below ten should be written as words. So, “nine” is preferrable to “9”; “12” is OK; “three A Levels” is preferrable to saying “3” of them; and I would suggest “third” rather than “3rd”.
You wrote:
“I began to develop my eagerness to continue to study Economics at Universitas Gadjah Mada. In the beginning, I was sure to pick Universitas Indonesia.”
About “Universitas Gadjah Mada” and “Universitas Indonesia”, see my comment addressed to Alan and Radif (above).
Let’s not forget, UGM is, according to the recently announced QS World Rankings for 2021, the best university in Indonesia having been second and third, and of course first, at various different times over the last ten years.
Hello everyone, my name is Afif Haidar Endraswara but people usually call me Haidar, I was born in Jakarta but I currently live in Tangerang Selatan. I am 18 years old. Our family consists of four members. I am the youngest out of the family and I have an older sister. My hobbies are playing lots of music instruments. I learned the piano when I was 12 years old. Not only piano, I can also play the guitar, bass, and also drums. Also when I entered middle school I loved playing video games with my friends. But recently, when we need to be quarantined in our homes. I was bored doing those things. So I want to try something new. I decided to try cycling around Bintaro and I was intrigued. Not only cycling but for 6 years I usually play basketball in my recess. I was so happy that I was accepted into FEB Accounting UGM and also I was excited to meet you guys. Hope to see you soon at campus.
ReplyDeleteHaider wrote:
Delete“I was born in Jakarta but I currently live in Tangerang Selatan.”
You should write the name of the city you live in in English: South Tangerang.
You wrote:
“Not only piano, I can also play the guitar, bass, and also drums.”
Compare yours to mine:
“Not only piano, I can also play the guitar, bass, and the drums too.”
I have avoided using “also” twice in the same sentence.
You wrote:
“FEB Accounting UGM”
I am pretty sure “FEB Accounting UGM” does not exist as the official title of something… which is only reason you would capitalize it ALL like that.
“FEB” is OK; “UGM” is OK. But it is not clear why you have capitalized “accounting”. The “Department of Accounting” can be capitalized (indeed, it must be) because it is the official name of that department at this faculty (Note how I did NOT capitalize department at this faculty in this sentence) but the word “accounting” is just an ordinary noun.
Compare yours to mine (two versions):
“I was so happy that I was accepted by the Department of Accounting at FEB UGM.”
Or…
“I was so happy that I was accepted by FEB UGM to study accounting.”
When Albert Einstein spoke about how he is passionately curious, I assure you that he didn’t mean for people to join activities that are clearly not meant for them. Hello, my name is Annisa and I am that person who likes to make things hard for myself simply because I’m bored.
ReplyDeleteEven though I was born in Samarinda, if you were to ask me things about my hometown, Google will be my replacement for answering your questions. When I was a child, I spent around half a decade in a country that has vomiting lion statues as one of its national symbols before I moved back to Indonesia; Singapore. I missed the transportation system there, it’s extremely efficient.
Regarding my daily activities, it depends on whether I prioritize isolating myself from the rest of the world by sleeping or anything else. Eating is almost always my second option. Other than that, I do dabble in many different fields such as coding, drawing, debating, learning, writing, and many more. I might have gotten money from doing those activities competitively. My interests are so diverse, even my close friends wonder why I was able to choose Business when I’m also interested in other majors like Computer Science. It’s simple really, I wanted to escape the mundane national exams so I tried out for the International Undergraduate Program offered by Gadjah Mada. I feel blessed since I was accepted into this program and so far, besides having to stay at home for one whole semester, I like it.
If you want to get to know me even better, feel free to send some food to Nan***. Okay I’m joking. Just hit me up and I’ll definitely answer you back :D !
When Albert Einstein spoke about how he is passionately curious, I assure you that he didn’t mean for people to join activities that are clearly not meant for them. Hello, my name is Annisa and I am that person who likes to make things hard for myself simply because I’m bored.
DeleteEven though I was born in Samarinda, if you were to ask me things about my hometown, Google will be my replacement for answering your questions. When I was a child, I spent around half a decade in a country that has vomiting lion statues as one of its national symbols before I moved back to Indonesia; Singapore. I missed the transportation system there, it’s extremely efficient.
Regarding my daily activities, it depends on whether I prioritize isolating myself from the rest of the world by sleeping or anything else. Eating is almost always my second option. Other than that, I do dabble in many different fields such as coding, drawing, debating, learning, writing, and many more. I might have gotten money from doing those activities competitively. My interests are so diverse, even my close friends wonder why I was able to choose Business when I’m also interested in other majors like Computer Science. It’s simple really, I wanted to escape the mundane national exams so I tried out for the International Undergraduate Program offered by Gadjah Mada. I feel blessed since I was accepted into this program and so far, besides having to stay at home for one whole semester, I like it.
If you want to get to know me even better, feel free to send some food to Nan***. Okay I’m joking. Just hit me up and I’ll definitely answer you back :D !
Annisa wrote:
“When Albert Einstein spoke about how he is passionately curious, I assure you that he didn’t mean for people to join activities that are clearly not meant for them. Hello, my name is Annisa and I am that person who likes to make things hard for myself simply because I’m bored.”
Great intro!
You wrote:
“Even though I was born in Samarinda, if you were to ask me things about my hometown, Google will be my replacement for answering your questions.”
Another striking sentence but there’s one small glitch. After “If you were to ask me things about my hometown…” the next thing you say must be “…Google would be my replacement for answering your questions.”
You can see what I changed and I think you know why.
You wrote:
“I do dabble in many different fields such as coding, drawing, debating, learning, writing, and many more. I might have gotten money from doing those activities competitively.”
You MIGHT have received money? Are you keeping the details secret?
I just noticed this one too.
Delete“I spent around half a decade in a country that has vomiting lion statues as one of its national symbols before I moved back to Indonesia; Singapore.”
[1] Vomiting lion statues?? I need an emoticon here but they are not allowed (and not possible).
[2] The semi colon you inserted between Indonesia and Singapore should, in fact, be a colon.
Hello! My name is Hadin Humam Alkatiri but people call me Hadin, born and raised in the capital city of Jakarta, I am a little bit older than most people in my batch as I am born in the late 2001. I am 18 at the moment and I am the youngest out of three siblings, i have two older sisters, the oldest being 24 and the second one being 22. For most of my life I have went to an international school, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro, there I was taught using the IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI applied here to the University of Gadjah Mada because I personally believe this is the best campus for me. As mentioned before I lived my whole life in the busy city of Jakarta, going to Yogyakarta for the next chapter of my life is me trying to grow and be a better person than I was before. Going away from a place I've known my whole life is quite scary at the start but now due to the global pandemic I can't go there, but this is utterly disappointing for me as I am really looking forward to it. Well I guess what they say was right "you don't want it until you can't have it". Anyways nice meeting you all!
Hadin wrote:
Delete“I applied here to the University of Gadjah Mada because I personally believe this is the best campus for me.”
See my comments addressed to to Alan and Radif (above).
You wrote:
“For most of my life I have went to an international school, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro, there I was taught using the IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum.”
“I have went to an international school”… ouch!
I go, I went, I have been! So, it should be either…
“For most of my life, I went to international schools, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro”.
Or…
“For most of my life, I have been to international schools, the latest one being Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro”.
Note that, in order for the sentence to make sense, I changed “an international school” to “international schools”.
Good evening everyone! Nice to meet you. My name is Christie Nathalie and you can call me Christie. I enjoy watching various TV Shows ranging from K-drama to Sitcoms. However, I could say that my favourite genre is sitcom. I enjoy the funny and entertaining content that sitcoms give. Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Big Bang Theory are some of my favourite sitcoms. Aside from watching TV shows, I really enjoy my time with my friends and families. At the same time, I also enjoy my time alone where I can be my true self. Spending time my friends, families or even by myself is a way for me to heal myself from the stress. Whether I want to heal by spending time with my family/friends or by myself really depends on how my day/week went. From this maybe I could say that I am indeed an ambivert, or not.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, over the past few years, I have changed my mind a lot of times about what majors I will be taking in university. It started when I decided to take Medicine as my major back in 2017 because I thought I enjoyed looking at videos that involved surgeries and things that actually involved some blood. However, a while later I changed my mind. I decided that I wanted to be a forensic because I enjoyed looking at videos of autopsies. You may think that I am a really weird and violent person for saying these things. Trust me, I also question myself sometimes. However, those dreams of mine went downhill when I did not get into the science streaming during high school but at the same time, I also realised that I didn’t enjoy biology at all. It was kind of weird because I wanted to be a doctor but I didn’t enjoy any bit of biology lessons. Mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni, there was no specific reason for this, I was just curious about how the human brain works. However, as you have expected, this dream of mine went downhill. Again. My parents didn’t really enjoy the idea of my taking psychology as my major and at that time I was really confused. Nevertheless, over time I came to realisation that psychology wasn’t my actual passion and overtime I eventually agreed with my parents. Now, I have figured out that my passion is Business and that is why I decided to major in Management. As from this, you can clearly see that I am a very indecisive and unstable person and there are still things that I will have to learn about myself in the later future. There are still many stories that involves me being indecisive but that would make my introduction too boring, so let’s save that for another time, maybe.
Anyways, I am really looking forward to spend this semester with you guys and I hope we can make a lot of fun memories over time. Have a good night!
Christie wrote:
Delete“Aside from watching TV shows, I really enjoy my time with my friends and families.”
Whose “familes”? Do you mean your friends’ families? Or do you mean your own family? Perhaps you meant something like this…
“Aside from watching TV shows, I really enjoy my time with my family and friends.”
You wrote:
“Mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni, there was no specific reason for this, I was just curious about how the human brain works.”
I see three sentences here but you have presented them as one.
[1] “Mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni”.
[2] “There was no specific reason for this”.
[3] “I was just curious about how the human brain works”.
Here is my version of these three sentences ‘unified’…
“In mid-2018, I decided that I want to take psychology as my major in uni, although there was no specific reason for this; I was just curious about how the human brain works.”
I used a connecting word (“although”) and a semi colon.
Hello everyone! My name is Mohammad Razanhakiim Norman Razak (or just Hakiim) and I am a freshmen at the University of Gadjah Mada, majoring in economics. I was born and raised in Jakarta, and I have never planned to move out of my hometown until my UGM application test was announced last February. I was raised by quite a multicultural Indonesian family, my grandparents had roots from different Indonesian ethnicities varying from the islands of Sumatera and Java. The most dominant culture of ethnicity I experienced while growing up however was the North Sumatran ethnic named Batak and the South Sumatran Malay-Palembangese ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteI graduated high school from High Scope T.B Simatupang and I could proudly say that I have spent my 3 years of high school with no regrets and full happiness. As a person, I would describe myself as an easy going person who is capable and will socialize with everyone with ease. One thing I do realize about myself however is the fact that I could be awkward sometimes but it isn’t that big of a deal I suppose.
A couple of embarrassing facts about myself is that I am currently 18 years old and I still could not ride a bicycle, and I am also quite allergic to chocolate.
Hakiim wrote:
Delete“I am a freshmen at the University of Gadjah Mada, majoring in economics.”
Regarding “University of Gadjah Mada”, see my comments addressed to to Alan and Radif (above).
You are just one freshman (or fresher) not (plural) “freshmen”!
You wrote:
“I was raised by quite a multicultural Indonesian family, my grandparents had roots from different Indonesian ethnicities varying from the islands of Sumatera and Java. The most dominant culture of ethnicity I experienced while growing up however was the North Sumatran ethnic named Batak and the South Sumatran Malay-Palembangese ethnicity.”
I like how you have explained this. It’s clear and has good word choice. The comma between “Indonesian family” and “my grandparents” needs to be a full stop, I think. Or you could do this…
“I was raised by quite a multicultural Indonesian family; for example, my grandparents had roots from different Indonesian ethnicities varying from the islands of Sumatera and Java.”
Note that it is SEMI COLON > “for example” > COMMA and then the continuation of the sentence. Other words that get used in this way (in order to join related ideas together instead of always making them separate sentences are: as a result, however, namely, therefore, that is, for instance. One example:
“By Wednesday, I have already taught this material twice and it’s not interesting anymore; as a result, I call them the ‘The Boredom Begins Class’.”
Hello everyone, my name is Aisyah Fatima A’zahrah, but you can call me Ara. I am the oldest of two siblings. I was born in Jakarta on 9 August 2002. I had lived in Jakarta my entire life, so getting accepted to Universitas Gadjah Mada is a breath of fresh air. I am accepted in International Undergraduate Program Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Gadjah Mada majoring in management. If it wasn't for the pandemic, I'd already travel around Yogyakarta. At first, people tend to assume that I am a quiet person. But, that is only the first impression, I actually tend to speak a lot if I am comfortable with that person. I hope that I can make a lot of friends in this new environment. In my free time, I like to watch Netflix and make a playlist. My friends said that I had a good recommendation for movies and songs. In the future, I want to be a housewife and businesswoman. It may sound impossible to combine those things, but I believe a woman is capable to do anything.
ReplyDeleteAra wrote:
Delete“I am the oldest of two siblings.”
You can only have the biggEST, smallEST, funniEST, dumbEST, highEST, oldEST, fastEST (superlatives) when you compare THREE or more things. If it’s only TWO things being compared, then we use comparative adjectives like biggER, smallER, funniER, dumbER, highER, oldER, fastER.
You wrote:
“At first, people tend to assume that I am a quiet person. But, that is only the first impression, I actually tend to speak a lot if I am comfortable with that person.”
Between “the first impression” and “I actually tend to speak”, a comma is not the correct punctuation; what you really want is a semi colon.
You wrote:
“I believe a woman is capable to do anything.”
The expression you were looking for here is…
“I believe a woman is capable of doing anything.”
Hello there, my name is Difha Aditama Putera, but my friends call me Difha. I graduated from Binus School Serpong through a zoom meeting. I would like to start this self introduction by pointing out my hobbies. When I'm bored, I like to play some video games and if there wasn't a pandemic right now, I would play basketball outside of the house for probably twice a week. I am a fun person to talk to, and I always try my best to do the things I have passion for. I don't like to be stressed or sad, and when I do, I find ways to create a different atmosphere. Usually, people that have never seen me think that I'm a girl due to the pronunciation of my name which is quite similar to diva. Aside from hobbies, I'm gonna talk a bit about my music taste. I like hip hop rap, and some of my favourite rappers include Lil Wayne, Mac Dre, Ski Mask the Slump God, Young Thug, Lil Tecca, and many more. I got two siblings, a small sister and a big brother. Moreover, my social skill isn't that bad as most of the time I can turn an awkward situation into a comfortable one. Last but not the least, I would like to thank you guys who have read my introduction and have reached the ending, that's all for now.
ReplyDeleteDifha wrote:
Delete“I graduated from Binus School Serpong through a zoom meeting.”
I love this detail! It will forever be a “It was back in the year 2020” memory. Let’s hope it is many years before more young people have to graduate from their senior high schools in a virtual or online way.
You wrote:
“I'm gonna talk a bit about my music taste.”
Everyone (not just Difha), avoid words like “gonna”. Although I will be asking you to write about not very formal topics, generally speaking, I want EWS students to write in a fairly formal way (…it’s good practice).
Hello my name is Beatrice Faustina Teja you can call me Beatrice. I was born on the 26th of February 2003 in Pekanbaru, so I’m currently enjoying my sweet 17 year. I live in DI. Yogyakarta for about 3 years and I still can’t speak Javanese(pretty sad though). I love to eat nasi goreng, ayam penyet and kupat tahu. I like light drinks such as water, tea and so on. My hobbies are reading book and playing games like Mobile Legends and Cooking Mama. I like Jogja’s cuisine like bakmi jawa and gudeg. I’m a Potterhead and my house is Gryffindor (well if some of you are Gryffindor as well, contact me hehe). I want to have my own private business one day, and I hope my business will give many benefit for others.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice wrote:
Delete“I live in DI. Yogyakarta for about 3 years and I still can’t speak Javanese”.
As you will know (from comments above), “3” and all numbers up to “9” or “10” should be written as words.
When you are talking about something that has been happening FOR A PERIOD OF TIME up until now, you should use the present perfect tense. Like this:
“I have lived in Yogyakarta for about 3 years and I still can’t speak Javanese”.
Note that I omitted “D.I.” It’s not really necessary. It’s a case of ‘too much information’. Ha ha.
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great day. I would like to introduce myself to all of you so we can better understand each other and hopefully become great friends. My name is Ronan Naji Maliki Pierce but you can just call me Ronan. I come from a mixed background but I was born and raised here in Indonesia. I spent my childhood in Bali but when I was in my early teens I moved to a dormitory in Depok City to study at a more prestigious secondary school in the hopes of being able to have better university options after I graduated. The latter part of my life has led me to where I am currently and I am very grateful for this opportunity. To tell more about myself, I am an avid listener of music, I always find myself listening to music every chance I get as it gives me much more energy and it always helps me get through the more challenging aspects of life. I mostly listen to all kinds of music from the late ‘60s up until the modern pop songs of today but I am always open to try new genres. My other hobbies include reading novels, watching films, and playing games albeit a bit too much lately due to current circumstances. Lastly, I would like to say it was very nice to meet all of you and Mr. Coen, I hope today will be one of many more fun lectures to come.
ReplyDeleteAnd no my name is Ronan not Ronin.
Ronan (a popular Irish name) wrote:
Delete“Lastly, I would like to say it was very nice to meet all of you and Mr. Coen, I hope today will be one of many more fun lectures to come.”
(That should be a full stop after “Coen” and not a comma, by the way).
(Note that the full stop in the sentence above is after the parentheses and not inside them). This is how it should be when the WHOLE sentence is inside the parentheses.
Ronan referred to me as “Mr. Coen”. Good. This is an interesting point for you to think about.
So, it’s OK for you to call me Adrian (on the real campus – not this virtual one – I would always suggest to my students to refer to me as “Mr Coen” in front of other lecturers).
If you want to be more formal, the correct way to do it is to call me Mr Coen (or Mr. Coen, with a full stop after “Mr”, in American English).
“Mr” - which is short for “Mister” - goes with the family name: in this case, “Coen”.
No native English speaker (at least not from my own country) would connect “Mister/Mr” to my first name (“Adrian”).
And, whatever you do, you don’t address someone (by which I mean an English speaking “bule”) as just “Mister” in English because, while it is an understandable mistake, it does noy sound nice, and if I ever called another British person (just) “Mister” without their family name, it would sound unfriendly or even hostile.
Hi proffessor! I am Atsmara Syifa, people mostly call me by Syifa or Fafa, I was given birth on May 21st of 2003. I have just turned 17 and I can proudly announce that I am legal and can drive by my own. Although I realized there will be a whole new burden ahead of me, I can still brush it aside, for now that is. My family consists of my mother, father, me, and my two other sisters. I am a middle child. My eldest sister is currently in her 3rd semester of BINUS film school. While my youngest sister is still making her way through kindergarten. I’ve been the youngest child for eleven years until my younger sister crawled into the world. Since then I have become a grumpy middle child. Frankly, I wasn’t prepared when it happened. I would like to introduce myself as a professional singer, but it would be a lie. I have a pretty good voice, but not jaw dropping great. Also, I am emotionally allergic to blood and goreness. I would totally freak out if fresh blood appears right in front of my face. And that is one of the many maannyy reasons why unlike most of the children in Indonesia, the thought of being a doctor has never ever crossed my mind. I think that would be all. i wouldn't want to accedentaly expose myself. Thank youu!
ReplyDeleteSyifa wrote:
Delete“Hi proffessor!”
One. I am not a “proffessor”. And two. If I were, it would be spelt “professor”!
You wrote:
“I can proudly announce that I am legal and can drive by my own.”
Well, well. What does “I am legal” mean?
You wrote:
“My family consists of my mother, father, me, and my two other sisters.”
They are just your sisters; they are not your other sisters. Look at this:
“I have three sisters, one of which I am very close to. The other two sisters are in prison in Merauke.”
See what I mean?
You wrote:
“I would like to introduce myself as a professional singer, but it would be a lie. I have a pretty good voice, but not jaw-dropping great.” (Note that I have hyphenated “jaw-dropping”.)
IF we have an EWS karaoke night, we will find out if your boasting is justified! Ha ha.
You wrote:
“And that is one of the many maannyy reasons why unlike most of the children in Indonesia, the thought of being a doctor has never ever crossed my mind.”
“Maannyy”? No! Se what I said to Difha about then word “gonna”.
In the above two sentences, you need a comma between “why” and “unlike”.
Thanks for your spirited self-introduction.
Greetings all! I’m Alif Adiyat Pradana. Everyone else calls me Alif. I was born and raised in Semarang, Central java. I do still live in Semarang but I could not wait to go to Jogja. I come from a family of three and the first of two siblings. Life do not always go according to plan, hence the family of three. I’m 18 years old and like other 18 year olds out there, I’m still figuring out what I would to do in the future but I believe that I’m stepping onto the right direction, finger crossed!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy watching informational videos on YouTube on various topic such as, “If monkeys evolved to human, why are there still monkeys left in the world?” or “ Henry VIII the womanizer” knowing that these facts would not come very handy in life but I enjoy it regardless. I’m a big fan of sports as well, especially football. I’ve been a fan of Manchester United for as long as I can remember. I watched them once when I was visiting Manchester, what an experience that is.
I really hope I could fit in with the new crowd of people and their diversity and make the most of my times here at UGM. IUP really brings a challenge to my speaking skills, even though I see myself having a quite good comprehension in English. You will find me stutter and grasping for words when I talk. For that I apologize in advance. I’m excited to begin this EWS class. I really hope we can work together for the better. My firs impression of the class is it is like watching a program called “Would I Lie to You” hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and I’m saying this in a good way. Thank you and have a good one!
I notice that i missed the word "like" in "...what i would to do in the future.." on the first paragraph. Also I typed "grasp" instead of "gasp", which is quite embarrassing.
DeleteAlif wrote:
Delete“IUP really brings a challenge to my speaking skills, even though I see myself having a quite good comprehension in English. You will find me stutter and grasping for words when I talk. For that I apologize in advance. I’m excited to begin this EWS class. I really hope we can work together for the better.”
Good to hear your enthusiasm. However, unfortunately, “speaking” is the one skill that EWS does not really help with. Listening, yes. Comprehension, yes. Reading, yes. Writing, yes. Vocabulary building, yes. Grammar, yes. Confidence and experience, yes. But (students) speaking is not a focus of the course and it’s more difficult in the virtual learning situation than it is in the normal, face-to-face teaching and learning situation.
Hello everyone! my name is Laetisya Rafifa Ramadhani, and feel free to call me Laetisya. I've been living in Yogyakarta for my whole life. I have one younger sister and we used to go to the same school as well, Jogjakarta Community School. I'm choosing economics as my major. Long story short, I graduated after I completed my A Level course. I decided to choose economics because I always wanted to know how the world works, and it revolves around the tertiary sector right now. I believe that choosing this major would provide me lots of opportunities since economics can be applied to all aspects of life.
ReplyDeleteArt and music is my passion. It allows me to express my feelings freely as I have some troubles with expressing my true intentions to other people. I've been drawingsince I was little, and I can do almost all forms of drawing style since I'm quite dedicated. I also play the piano, and I've been playing the instrument since I was 4. I mostly learn classical pieces, which influenced my current music taste.
I also love to read and watch some movies in my spare time. I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter books and classical pieces. As for movies and tv shows, I basically watch everything. Starting from MCU and DCEU, Star Wars, Game Of Thrones, or even animes. I also listen to every music genre, so.. feel free to talk about it with me!
As for my self description, I'm an INTP. It's one of the 16 personalities. It is indeed a very good quiz to help you to understand yourself.
Laetisya wrote:
Delete“I believe that choosing this major would provide me lots of opportunities since economics can be applied to all aspects of life.”
This is not exactly right. Compare my two versions with yours:
“I believed that choosing this major would provide me with lots of opportunities since economics can be applied to all aspects of life.”
Or…
“I believe that choosing this major will provide me with lots of opportunities since economics can be applied to all aspects of life.?
On a different point:
This is the sentence pattern you need to use with the verb “to provide”:
To provide [SOMEONE] with [SOMETHING]
You have to have that preposition “with” in there!
Here’s a different sentence pattern with the verb “to provide”:
To provide [SOMETHING] to [SOMEONE]
e.g. “The faculty provided free coffees to all the students from Yogya but not to those from other cities”.
Let's be friends, Let’s get to know each other better! Hi everyone, I'm Adelisa Devita Ryani, you may call me Adel. I was born on 12th February 2003 in Karanganyar, Central Java. Did you guys ever heard about Mount Lawu? Mount Lawu is such a popular tourist destination in Karanganyar. I was raised in an environment where Javanese culture is still very appreciated. That is probably the reason why my accent is very ‘medok’ . I will try my best to improve my English and I’m sure with the help of my lecturer, Mr. Adrian Coen, I would be better.
ReplyDeleteI was graduated from SMA Negeri 3 Surakarta majoring Math and Science. During my leisure time, I like to play basketball. My team represents our school and win some competitions. I’m quite active in organizations as well. I was the president of Karanganyar Children Forum. It’s basically an organizatios bridging children and the government.
I have two little brothers. Our age gap is quite a lot. They are 13 and 5 years old.
I was introduced to business since I was still very young. That makes me actually passionate on business world. Both of my parents are successful businessman and I will be a more in the future.
That’s a very little description about myself, feel free to contact me at Instagram @adelsdv or e-mail adelisa.d.r@mail.ugm.ac.id !
Adel wrote:
Delete“Our age gap is quite a lot.”
We can’t have “a lot” of age gap. But the age gap can be big or wide. So…
“Our age gap is quite wide.”
You wrote:
“I was graduated from SMA Negeri 3 Surakarta majoring Math and Science.”
A few things:
“To graduate” is an intransitive verb and I can scarcely think of a situation where it would be used in a passive voice (like you have it above). If you just intended it to be in the past tense then it’s easy:
“I graduated from SMA Negeri 3 Surakarta”
Next point:
Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure we never talk about “majors” and “majoring” as the secondary level of education; it’s a term we reserve for tertiary education. Furthermore, I don’t see why “math” (or “maths” as we British prefer to write/say it) and “science” are capitalized. If in doubt, don’t capitalize.
Alright, Sir. I won't repeat the same mistakes like writing 'math and science' in capital. In Indonesia, high school major is written in capital, for intance : MIPA. Thanks so much for your correction!
Delete-With Regards,
Adelisa