javaguk

[javaguk]

MOVED TO A NEW BLOG

I apologize for breaking my promise to update this blog diligently. I’ve just moved to a new blog. This old blog was a sideblog and I didn’t get so much comfort switching it over and over with my main blog. So I logged into my old account and started fresh!

Please check out my new blog: @javaseoul

Thank you!

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Informing my followers. Thank you so much for following me all this time! I’m sorry I didn’t make good contents. I will really try in my new blog! So I hope you follow my new blog too!

@workhardenjoylater @angelicastudyblr @se-milktea @studyacc @luthpitaaka @aqillafa @delanyhasissues @sweetaev @happy-campus-student @aqyasdininisa @lastyearstudy @studywithabby @natashahalol @tamtamtil @babyfishyyy @gaming-girls @amelaa-16 @stdyxblrx @evieisannoying

[javaguk]

make way for jeon jungkook

[javaguk]

2016.02.22 Monday (14/100)

Two weeks already? Whoa. And I’m starting the third week of second semester. Today there should be a pop quiz in the one and only class I have on Monday, but the teacher was ill so the first class of the week was cancelled. I yay-ed because I was nervous for the quiz. It was supposed to be a bunch of questions about Java--the people, the tradition--to test how well you know about your own traditional culture. I didn’t think I would answer smoothly, so I smiled widely when my friend told us the teacher couldn’t come due to unhealthy condition. It’s not like I’m happy my teacher got sick. He’s one of my faves fyi, I really hope he gets well soon.

I didn’t forget the appointment I made with myself; I went to the library and finally for the first time in my life I used my student card to borrow books! It was just my first time but I borrowed 3 books already with the thickness of about 500 pages each! I forgot there’s limitation time for borrowed books and just when I left the library I realized I couldn’t read all of them in only a week lol. Well it’s okay if I don’t read one of them. My priority is the book about Southeast Asian history. I was just too oblivious because it was my first time borrowing books and I didn’t even remember we must return every book after a week.

I have a homework from Korean course. It is to read handout papers given by my teacher until page 19. Surprisingly, I read the entire 24 pages in approximately 30 minutes before getting ready for school and even managed to highlight new vocabs as well as translating them when I was at the library. About time to say ughhh why is Korean so hard??!! But I’m lovin’ it.

[javaguk]

Months in Korean~

(3/5)

Our first month of the new year is finally drawing to an end. Now, it’s time for us to begin making plans not only for the upcoming week, but for the upcoming month(s) as well! Today lets learn some terms to describe the month!~

*Remember to try and sound out each word before peeking at the romanization!~

초 (cho) describes the beginning of the month

중순 (joong soon) describes middle of the month

*말 (mal) describes the end of the month

*달 (dal) month

*월 (wol) month

Daily Tip: Almost every language has homographs, or words that are spelled the same but have multiple meanings, and Korean is no different! For example, in the words above, 말 (mal) which describes the end of the month is also the word for the animal “horse”. 달 (dal) which means month, also means moon. You’ll also notice how 달 (dal) and 월 (wol) both mean “month”. 달 describes months as unit of time, and 월 is used to denote specific months by their names.

Ex:

한 달 (han dal) one month

일월 (il wol) January

Hope this helps, and happy studying!~

[javaguk]

On Asian Stereotypes

Someone once told me, “You’re lucky, you’re Asian. Your stereotypes are all positive, like all Asians are smart, or all Asians are good at math.”

Do you know the problem with Asian stereotypes? 

The problem is that when I get an A on a test, people say, “Oh, she’s Asian, of course she got an A”. 

The problem is that when our badminton team won state, people said, “Oh, they’re Asian, of course they’re good at badminton”. 

The problem is that when my sister got into MIT, I heard people saying, “Well, she’s Asian, so of course she got into MIT”. 

When my friend wins a piano competition, people said he won because “all Asians are good at piano.”

But that’s not right.

I got an A on that test because I did my homework every day and studied for hours.

Our badminton team won state because we train 9 hours a week, all year round.

My sister got into MIT because she spent hours agonizing over her essays, because she stayed up ridiculously late doing homework and studying for tests.

Yes, I agree, a lot of the Asians I know are very smart, and many Asians excel in music and extracurriculars. Do you know why? It’s because of their parents, who yell at them when their grades drop, when they don’t practice enough. It’s the hours spent crying, the times you consider cheating because you don’t have time to study. It’s your bleeding fingers and aching shoulders, but you haven’t practiced enough. 

Because when we don’t succeed, all we hear is countless people telling us, “You’re Asian, aren’t Asians supposed to be smart?” “Aren’t Asians supposed to be good at piano?” “Aren’t Asians supposed to succeed at everything without trying?”

Do not invalidate our hard work by saying our achievements are a result of our ethnicity.

[javaguk]

Kim Taehyung ✧

[javaguk]

[javaguk]

bangtan high school host club

[javaguk]

Sunday Log #3

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Minggu ini... saya kebanyakan tidur. Semangat studyblr semakin kendor dan rasa-rasanya saya kembali menjadi pemalas dan penunda, sungguh menyedihkan. Bukan berarti saya akan membiarkan keadaan ini berlangsung. Saya sedang mengumpulkan motivasi dan semangat untuk kembali ke mode rajin.

Ah.

Bahkan untuk menulis sunday log, saya tidak bersemangat.

Minggu ini paling cocok digambarkan dengan gif Min Suga.

Sekian dan terima kasih.

[javaguk]

2016.02.21 Sunday (13/100)

Revised some notes! After procrastinating disguised as brainstorming, I’ve started to collect facts and information about Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. Got to be as serious as Robert Joe in I Wouldn’t Go In There. I’m going to go to the library tomorrow to borrow a book about Southeast Asian. Please let me drown in this field and find muses for my research.

2016.02.20 Saturday (12/100)

Exciting Saturday because it’s the day of my Korean course! I stopped by a book bazaar and purchased 4 local books for IDR 45k which is insane! Usually, it costs me 200k for 4 local books. Can you tell how insane it is then?

I made a lot of mistakes in the course, I got mad at myself. I’ve got to study harder because I hate the competition between me and my ambition and winning is the only thing I must get no matter what.

[javaguk]

[javaguk]

jungkook x puma

[javaguk]

6 Days Without Decent Updates

I’m really sorry for abandoning this blog in these past 6 days. I didn’t really have the time for that because I was too busy and too tired and too lazy to even write the shortest blog post. It wasn’t just updating my blogs, I didn’t listen to any Bangtan songs either! Almost a week without Bangtan songs! I couldn’t believe I’m still alive. But I won’t do it again--I mean, I will try to update this blog even if I have to stay awake 10 minutes longer when I have a morning class the next day. No, I won’t just try. I will struggle. I promise.

To summarize the passed 6 days:

2016.02.15 Monday (7/100): A good day.

2016.02.16 Tuesday (8/100): Another good day. I met a Chinese exchange student but didn’t really be a friend with her. Too bad!

2016.02.17 Wednesday (9/100): Had lunch with my Korean teacher! Physically super productive because I walked 1 km from the Faculty of Forestry to Masjid Kampus! Class went well too! And after class, I had my first journalism club meeting. I’ve really started to make bigger steps, and it gives me so many mixed feelings. It’s frightening, but I have to hold on tight and stay strong.

2016.02.18 Thursday (10/100): Just another good day.

2016.02.19 Friday (11/10): Not really a productive day. I laughed a lot at campus, hung out with some classmates in karawitan room until I decided to go home. Made a new friend with a senior from Indonesian Literature in Macapat class! I managed to finish the article assessment for my journalism club, also studied a little Korean new words with a friend. I slept in earlier because I was super sleepy.

Well, it wasn’t a really productive 6-days, right. I think I slept in too much.

[javaguk]

too humble for this world…

[javaguk]

끝날때까지 끝난게 아니다.

“It ain’t over until it’s over” is what I want to believe right now. A few days ago I went through an LPDP scholarship interview for my Master’s Degree. I won’t elaborate how it went, all I can say is that it did not go as smooth as I want it to be. All the way home after the interview I kept thinking, what went wrong? Why did it turn out this way, I was so confident just right before it began, I prepared my answers carefully, I managed my breathing well, I even gave mental support to others. The more I thought about the interview, the more I thought about the mistakes I made. Then those thoughts led me to think “I should have answered this question better”, “I should have answered that question another way”, “Why didn’t I…” and so on and so on. All these thoughts filled my head and I couldn’t help but ended up thinking, “Ah, I messed this up. I am doomed. There is no way I would get the scholarship with an interview that went really bad,” And then as soon as I came home I cried, and cried, and cried.

Seeing me crying that much, my parents approached me and asked me what happened. I told them my feelings of the interview, how I think it would be hard for me to get the scholarship, and I cried even more. But my dad was not affected by what I said, and he calmly told me, “Do not be like this. Thinking that you will fail now, when the interview just ended and the results is not even announced yet, is being way ahead of God.”

The whole situation where I cried in front of my parents and my dad lectured me not to jump into conclusion stopped me from crying as it was so similar to what I experienced after my university entrance exam. At that time, I really believed that I would not get into University of Indonesia because the passing grade was really high, and I couldn’t even get many answers right. For math, I only answered 5 out of 15 questions and I had one answer wrong. For geography, I got 6 right answers but 7 wrongs. In short, mathematically, with my grades alone it was impossible for me to pass. This did not happen to me only, four years before it happened to my oldest sister as well. She sent her answers to a radio that helped test takers to calculate their grade then predict their possibility of getting in the university they applied to, and through the radio she was announced to pass her second choice but her possibility of getting into her first choice university was really small. But somehow, miraculously we both passed the test and got into our first choices.

To think of it, there were many other times I thought I did not do well but the results said otherwise. In fact, the two scholarship selection process I went through before were not that smooth either. For instance, during the first selection process of AFS student exchange program that I went through in 2008 for going to the USA, I legitimately thought that I was doomed right from the moment I stepped into the test location. Everybody except me seemed to be reading newspaper or a book titled “A Complete Summary of Common Knowledge” (RPUL in Indonesian) because for the very first stage of selection there would a written test about English and common knowledge. I did not even bother to study for it, consequently I could not answer many of the common knowledge questions. The worse thing was, after the written test there were an essay test which was said to be the main part of the first selection stage and… I did not even finish the essay! I only wrote one introduction paragraph plus one and a half body paragraphs because I was too focused on writing the essay framework (?), when a complete essay should have at least introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I was extremely shocked when I was notified I passed and need to go through the second stage of selection.

The second stage of selection which consists of an English interview and a “Personality Interview” conducted in Indonesian did not go smooth as well. I distinctly remember that I was asked how do I plan to make friends in the US and foolishly I answered that I would make friends by keep smiling and greet my classmates warmly. The interviewer laughed at my answers and I was driven to change my mind about somethings, which worried me because they might think I was inconsistent. Again, I did pass but on the third stage there was this problem-solving group discussion and the people in my group was really smart and opinionated while I was…just going with the flow, responding and simply adding points to already presented ideas. Even until now, it feels surreal that I passed all stages and eventually received the scholarship.

The process I went through to get a Global Korea Scholarship for going on a student exchange program to Seoul National University in 2013 was rocky as well. I vividly remember that I passed the documents selection rather smoothly, but the interview was a problem. The thing is, candidates were not informed ahead of time when their interview would be so one day, I was far away from campus attending an event and suddenly I got called by the International Office to come for an interview in less than 2 hours. I rushed to the interview location, only to find out I was the first to arrive. I registered for the interview right away, and before I finished catching my breath another candidate came. While waiting for our turns, we introduced ourselves and I became panicked because I found out that he is really smart and moreover, active in Model United Nation. Based on qualifications alone, it seemed impossible to beat him to get the scholarship, which is provided for one person only of all applicants from all faculties in my university. My doubts in getting the scholarship worsened during the interview. When asked about my motivation for going, I answered honestly which seemed to be too simple judging from the interviewer’s unsatisfied expression. I didn’t know what else to add to make my answer satisfies him so I blabbered and blabbered (I don’t even remember anymore what I said at that time ha ha). Again, miraculously I was picked for the one year exchange program. It was quiet unbelievable.

From all these experiences, I learned that no matter how hard a test or a trial in life is, how much it seems that we failed to reach our expectations and overcome the obstacles we had to face during them, and how impossible it seems to pass it although we put so much effort into it, we should never ever overthink about the result and ending up looking down on yourself and kill our self-esteem by deciding that you have failed when the results are not even out yet. It is not over until it’s over, because at least based on my experience, besides efforts, there always seems to be an X factor that takes part in deciding the final result. For me who believes in God, this X factor may be a fate decided earlier by God, or may be God’s help as an answer to our and our friends or families’ prayers. For others, it might be their tremendous luck. Or this X factor might be aspects of the test that we actually succeeded in but they were not obvious to us because we are too focused on the parts of the test that didn’t go well. This negativity can cloud our minds and make us think we failed.  For example, although not all parts of the interview satisfy the interviewers, there might be some parts that we answered well enough to convince the interviewers that we deserve to pass. It might be part that shows your intelligence, it might be about your personality, it might be about your passion, there are endless possibilities.

Sure, when there is no guarantee that we fail, there is no guarantee that we succeed as well. But that’s not the point. The point is, no matter what the result will be, we should not worry ahead of time and pointlessly finding our faults. Because until the result is out, it is not the end yet. Instead of thinking only the reasons why we could fail, we should consider thinking the possibilities of passing too. Or we can just not think about it, and do good deeds for the society while waiting so we don’t waste our time. We can volunteer, plant trees, clean the streets around us, help those in need, or at least help your parents and friends out when they need us. Instead of spending money on shopping or entertaining ourselves to relieve us from stress, donate or spend your money for good causes. All the good deeds you do might contribute to your passing the test. Even if we failed at least before that we did something meaningful instead of drowning in sorrow waiting for us to fail.

[javaguk]

How to Hermione the Shit out of Your Studying.

(Some Hermione inspired study tips.)

Want to study.

Hermione studies as hard as she does because she wants to. So try to think about WHY you want to study, is it because you are interested in the subject? Is it because you want a certain grade? Is it because you want to pass the subject to go on to something else? Once you figure that out, then you can go from feeling like you “have” to study to feeling like you want to study. Remember that you don’t have to study if you don’t want to, but usually you will want to, because you would rather study than face the consequences of not studying.

Read EVERYTHING.

While it may not be necessary to read every word of every textbook before your classes even start, it will be extremely helpful to read any chapters, articles, websites or extra information your lecturers give you. Do any extra questions as well. Usually your lecture would have gone out of his/her way to get this information to you, this is because they think it will help you, and it probably will.

Answer questions in class.

Trying to answer questions in class will help to keep you concentrated on the topic at hand, you can’t answer questions if you haven’t been paying attention. This will not only show your lecturer that you are interested in learning (and they may be more lenient on you if you are ever after an extension or miss a class) it will also help you to identify when you don’t understand something, and gives you the chance to clarify.

Help others.

“Its leviooosar, not leviosaarr.” … Okay, so maybe try help others in a more understanding way. But when you see someone struggling with something in class or an assignment, help them. This is something that pretty much everyone will appreciate, and it can also help you to solidify your own knowledge. There have been heaps of studies that show that you are much more likely to retain information once you have taught someone else about it.

Get things done early.

This is one that pretty much everyone knows, but very few ever do. Try to be one of those few, if you get assignments or readings done early, then you can always ask questions if you get stuck on something, have more time to work on other things, not feel stressed about it, you’ll have the chance to polish up anything you aren’t super happy with and more. Trust me, it is worth it.

Find a nice environment to study in.

Some people like their desk while others like their bed and some people fall asleep if they study in bed. Find something that works for you. I find that if I take a trip to my local café or library I am much more motivated because I have gone there for the purpose of studying.. Whereas at home I sometimes I find it too distracting.

Don’t forget to take time to have fun.

While Hermione does study a lot, she also has fun and enjoys herself. Studying and learning is awesome, but give yourself some time to unwind. Don’t let yourself get burnt out, take regular brakes during long study sessions, and try to set bigger chunks of time aside some days to relax, play games or see friends. You might feel fine after the first 2 hours, but after an 8 hour study session with no breaks.. You may not feel so motivated…

[javaguk]

never mind // bts