Triple Treat: Passport, Laptop, and Tea

Melanjutkan pendidikan di luar negeri adalah impian bagi banyak orang. Sebagai negara tetangga, Australia telah sejak lama menjadi alternatif negara lanjut studi bagi orang Indonesia. Selain dekat secara geografis dengan penerbangan langsung dari Bandara Internasional Soekarno-Hatta Cengkareng atau Ngurah Rai di Denpasar, banyak yang memilih berkuliah ke Australia dengan alasan kualitas pendidikan yang mumpuni. Selain alasan fasilitas pendidikan yang lengkap, banyaknya warga Indonesia yang tinggal disana juga menjadikan Australia seperti kampung halaman sendiri. So, siap melanjutkan studi di Negeri Kangguru? Berikut 8 universitas terbaik di Australia yang dapat kamu jadikan referensi. Australian National University (ANU), Canberra ANU Berada di peringkat 20 dunia berdasarkan QS University Ranking, ANU untuk kesekian kalinya menduduki tempat pertama untuk kampus terbaik di Australia. Lokasinya yang berada di ibukota Australia, Canberra, yang juga dikenal cukup sunyi dan gak s

Gagal itu ketika kamu berhenti berusaha. Ya, sesimpel itu! Sudah puluhan kali dalam beberapa tahun terakhir kamu mencoba peruntungan dengan mendaftar berbagai jenis beasiswa untuk bisa belajar ke luar negeri, baik yang sifatnya gelar maupun non-gelar, tapi si tamu yang bernama 'gagal' selalu datang menyapa setiap kali pengumuman kelulusan itu datang. Kerap kali sikap malas dan berputus asa kamu untuk mau mencoba mendaftar lagi kumat. Tapi ingat, saat pengumuman gagal itu muncul, ada ribuan orang yang juga bernasib sama kayak kamu. Kecewa, itu pasti. Percaya atau gak, momen inilah yang akan menjadi titik awal perjuangan kamu. Ujiannya simple; kamu mau terus mencoba atau gak. Definisi 'terus mencoba' disini adalah bukan asal coba saja melainkan persiapan kamu harus jauh lebih baik dari sebelumnya. Ini butuh semangat, waktu, konsistensi, kesabaran, dan percaya diri yang gak boleh sama seperti yang lalu. Lagi pula, meskipun kadang sangat sulit dicapai, kesemp

“[…] a refuge for the old days, till my eyes are closed.” Duly translated from the final verse of the Indonesian song "Indonesia Pusaka", I shake every time this song echoes through my mind. Not only does it resonate pride, it has also moulded my subconscious Indonesian ‘soul’ so that no matter where I am, I will always belong to it. There is this constant missing of literally anything about Indonesia whenever I am not there. Merantau can be straightforwardly defined as leaving one’s place of origin to a faraway place, a rantau , for certain purposes and a relatively long period of time, be it for studying, working, or simply to find a better life that can be anything other than the latter two.  I am currently 26, and have spent almost a decade away from my village in Southeast Sulawesi with, as far as I can recall, less than twenty times visiting home, or roughly twice a year, which also means I have mini chances of holding my mother’s hands, helping my brother’s work

Language cannot merely be defined as a tool to convey meaning as part of human communication. Its significance as the transferor of general knowledge is proof of its basic role in shaping our minds with regard to how we perceive the world.  It is also no surprise that in this 7-billion populated planet, hundreds of millions of people have confidently identified themselves as bilinguals as a result of globalized language learning. This phenomenon, as we all know, leaves some marks in which certain languages are ranked according to their use by the society in particular settings, for instance, in education, bureaucracy and professional work. Consequently, tendencies to learn only one or two languages that young people believe can give social and economic mobility for their future are increasing, leaving other languages, local languages in particular, marginalized and decayed. Living in such a diverse country as Indonesia has its own challenges when it comes to language use. With no

"Where would you like to start?" I asked. "From the beginning!" I answered. As weird as it may be, I've taken several times interviewing myself in front of mirrors, literally... and these include ones in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, restroom in Bangkok, the comfy small toilet in Etihad Airlines, and in my apartment back in Australia. Reason for this is nothing fancy. It's more fun because I can talk to the very person who's made one hell of a journey of impossibilities (which turned out to be possible after all). I woke up to make some dreams come true. 1.5-year insomniac struggle ends with sincere smile - One fine summer in Sydney, Australia - 

What would be the best thing that most people born in the beginning of the twenty first century Indonesia should actually be grateful for? Social media phenomenon? Popular low-cost flights? or, maybe, 3D movies? You name it. To better reflect how much the world we are living in now has given to us, we should travel back in time when none of those inventions exist . A classic night-time story was once delivered by my mother mentioning that grandma, her mother, needed to walk for miles to reach a traditional market complete with some peeled coconuts to sell which continued for decades before transportations were available and asphaltic roads were finally built in the village. Very often, my mother added another story but this time is not the one about grandma. It is about her, that studying without electricity was an utter nightmare. Interestingly, parents of my high school mates had apparently told similar stories to them that it was simply strenuous to access ‘easy’ life in

Diskusi saya setahun yang lalu di Sydney, Australia, dengan salah seorang sahabat masih sangat kuat dalam ingatan. “Untuk apa kamu meneliti soal itu? Bahasa itu mungkin saja terus berevolusi dan akhirnya berubah” komentarnya saat mendengar sedikit ringkasan penelitian mengenai isu terkini pelestarian bahasa Tolaki yang saya lakukan di akhir tahun 2015 silam di kampung halaman saya,   Desa Simbune, Kabupaten Kolaka Timur. Saya diam beberapa saat mencerna apa yang kawan ini ucapkan. Ia pun lanjut menjelaskan bahwa saya lebih baik membiarkan bahasa daerah saya mengikuti ‘arus evolusi’ yang mungkin saja sedang terjadi dalam bahasa Tolaki. Pernyataan ini membuat saya geram namun bingung harus membalasnya dengan argumentasi seperti apa. Jika mengikuti logika pernyataan kawan tersebut, maka tentu saja akan berujung pada kesimpulan bahwa melestarikan bahasa adalah hal yang sia-sia; bahasa terus berubah dan lahir layaknya makhluk hidup yang nantinya akan mati dan diganti dengan makhluk hidup