Developing English Skills to Compete in Worldwide Challenges

I will tell you a story about my organization, UKM Bahasa-FLAT (Foreign Languages Association). We were once invited by State Islamic University Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung to join the event they made. They wanted us to be the participants in a competition they have held in order to celebrate eleventh SAEED (Student Association of English Education Department) anniversary. The name of the event was 1^st Annual SAEED National Competition (ASNC), and the theme was Developing Peoples English Capability to Compete in Worldwide Challenges. The competitions they held were divided into some kinds of competitions. They were Writing Competition, News Reading Contest, Speech Contest, and English Debate Competition.

            FLAT, cooperate with some students from Faculty of Dirasat Islamiya, went there as a representative from State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Faculty of Dirasat Islamiya sent one team for the English Debate Competition. FLAT sent 2 people for Writing Competition, 4 people for News Reading Contest, 2 people for Speech Contest, and 1 team for English Debate Competition.

Firstly, FLAT sent Nesya and one of my senior for Writing Competition. But then, my senior was hard to contact so suddenly, when only a day left before the competition, FLAT decided to send me instead of my senior to be the participant. Thinking that I did not even know what topics to write, I directly refused it. I have no preparation at all. I really did not have any idea. But Ka Aqin, chief of FLAT that time, encouraged me. He told me to do it. It does not matter whether I won or not. For me, I would get new experiences. So, I said yes.

Then we went there, to Bandung, on Sunday. And my turn would come on Monday which means tomorrow. I have just a very short time to prepare myself to face it. I made my outline for each topic on the way there, in the car. Can you imagine that?

Well, it came. I was sitting in the room, write anything came to my mind on the paper. All representatives from my college came to support me and Nesya. We were the star of the day. I chose Social Culture as my writing theme that day. I cannot remember what I have written that time, but I think it was not that bad for me as beginner.

News Reading Contest was held the next day, Speech Contest was on Wednesday, and English Debate Competition was on Tuesday and Friday. The result was great, I think. Such a big satisfaction we got. Even though I and Nesya did not succeed to be the winner, but from about 20 participants on Writing Competition we were in the 6^th and the 8^th place. Meanwhile, we got the 1^st place for News Reading Contest, the 3^rd place for Speech Contest, and the team from Faculty of Dirasat Islamiya got the 3^rd place for English Debate Competition. What a very valuable experience I have ever got.