Satya Wacana and the Writing Workshop

            The two-day conference this week – I had a plenary on Wednesday, and spoke about the zeal to correct error and the fear of writing (on the part of both teachers and students) – was attended primarily by students in the Language and Literature department of Satya Wacana – the English Department and my old home here. I had forgotten how charming the students here are, how open and enthusiastic and funny and, really, the best word is sweet. I generally like my students anywhere I meet them, and I certainly like my students in Montana – the difference here is that students aren’t so weighed down by self-consciousness and irony, perhaps. They have annual competitions between classes from year-to-year that are a two day festival of games – physical and mental – performances, parties, and students get so excited. I probably had 150 pictures of me taken during the conference by students lined up to get in on the act, and they were inexplicably excited and smiling. When I sat next to a student in one of the smaller conference sessions (short report: PowerPoint is still a problem here), they would get super giggly and turn away from me, which always made me laugh. But they always wanted to talk, loved when I spoke Indonesian, and were polite and funny and curious. They are like I remember them. They support each other when they take risks (like reading their brand new writing in English in front of a large group that includes 2 of the 3 plenary speakers) by cheering and hooting and laughing and clapping, and they are fun, especially.

I had forgotten that every day, in the tiny little courtyard outside my old building, students are gathered in groups with guitars and drums and sometimes a violin or two, playing music, singing.  And the students in the English department all speak at least three languages (including English) and most of them more – they come from all over Indonesia, and the ones who come from outside Java master Javanese in about six months to a year, they tell me – they know how to learn languages. They have all sorts of the same student characteristics as my students in the United States too, of course – don’t want to over-romanticize them. They procrastinate, some don’t care and don’t do any of the work, etc. etc. But they are so much fun to be around, with a contagious energy that I has been a pleasure to remember.

Okay – I am writing this from a tea plantation on the Dieng Plateau this morning, with the Asian Creative Writing Group that I have been invited to join (my third meeting with them). This group has two Indonesians, a woman from Myanmar, two Nepalis, a Vietnamese woman, a Brazilian, a Malaysian, a Brit (Alan Maley, a pretty prominent TESOL guy) and me – plus we’re joined by several folks from Satya Wacana, so it’s a wonderful international group. We had a poetry reading last night on the porch, and it was fun.  Some wonderful writers here, and the project of including creative writing in English language teaching seems to be taking off.

Everyone is coming to eat where I am writing, and I am hungry. Up to the ruins this morning. Bye.