My Live TV Debut in Indonesia-- Fame and Fortune will surely follow...

Live TV Debut About a week ago, my lecturer friend Bu Susi told me that an Indonesian television station, TVRI, had invited some students from the English department to participate in a debate for one of their English language programs. The program is called "Relax," and it gives an opportunity for university students to have a friendly and somewhat informal debate about a given topic...on live TV! She told me that it would be great if I could come to the debate team practice this week, because for the actual program they would have a native speaker as a commentator. This way I could give them some comments to help prepare them and improve their arguments. I joined the first couple practices and heard the students voice their arguments on the topic, Colonial Compensation-- basically a debate on whether or not former colonies, like Indoneisa, should receive compensation from their former colonizers to aid in development. I was also asked to join the students on the day of their actual debate along with Bu Susi and Pak Giri, a couple of younger lecturers in the department. I already know many of the students from my classes or from other English activities, and I was excited to join all of them for their debate, and perhaps most excited to be only a member of the audience. The debate was set to take place at the TV station in Semarang, the capital of the Central Java province, which is over 3 hours away.

The morning of the big day, I chose my outfit for comfort, thinking of the many hours I would be spending on a bus that day. Of course I still had to look modest and presentable as a lecturer and representative of the university...but it definitely wasn't my number one priority. We gathered at the university, the students looking snazzy in their bright blue UMS blazers to represent the school. We took off at 11 AM, and after taking a break on the road for lunch and mid-day prayer, and running into a lot of traffic just as the afternoon rain started...we arrived at the TV station at 3 PM, just in time for briefing and a quick practice before the show would air live at 4 PM. As I stepped off the bus in my crumpled and sweaty clothes, I heard the producers shout "Thank God!" as they started to approach me.

As it turns out, their original native speaker guest became ill and could not come to the show, and the backup wasn't going to make it in time. They had been calling people all day trying to find a bule to be a commentator on their show, when I just walked right off the bus into the TV station. The producers explained the situation to me and asked if I would be willing to be on the show, more or less begging for me to help them out. Of course, I had to say yes to help out the students and the show. But at that point I was vainly focusing on how ridiculously awful I was going to look for my live TV debut. I was actually wishing that I could wear a head scarf to cover my dissheveled mop...and I was definitely wishing that I had brought some makeup with me. To boost my confidence I just kept remembering that if I spoke English just fast enough and used just enough complex words that the audience could almost understand me, it would be perfect. The hosts of the show said that they really just wanted me to set an example for how to speak English well....not so difficult for me, right? As I was thinking about the comments I could make, one of the workers in the station approached me and said to me (in indonesian) " You are very beautiful. Your face is not boring." I didn't have time to try to understand what he meant by that, because the show was already starting.

Here are my lovely students on the set, (the affirmative team)

And the negative team, from a university in Semarang:

As the debate began, I became really nervous. I had been given very little direction. I wasn't sure if I had to introduce or myself, didn't know where to look when I was speaking, and kept picturing myself blanking out during one of my comments.

Here's me as a commentator with one of the professors from the other university:

As for my students, they did a great job of debating. The debating style/format was kind of strange, but they did the best they could with the circumstances given. They took it seriously and I knew they had practiced a lot because they were so much better than the first time I saw them practice. I think I also handled the situation well enough--I had to speak 4 times, for about a minute each time. I couldn't really tell you what I said, but I can't imagine it was anything too terrible. The relieving part was that it all went by so fast---the first time I had a chance to look at the clock, 45 minutes had already passed, which meant that only 15 minutes were left. At the end, time was running out, so I thought they would cut out my last comment-- but of course, they suddenly asked me to give one last quick comment. Determined not to let my fear come true, I said something about the students' English ability, paused slightly (trying to think of a good closing), and ended up with "let's keep talking about it, even when the cameras are off!" Cheesy, but at least it was something.

A team photo on the set, after the show was over:

Another group photo outside the station:

We must have done pretty well, because we were informally promised an invitation to come back, and it was specifically mentioned that they should bring me again. Maybe I've found a new career calling? Haha, just kidding. This new experience is just another reminder that every day can quickly turn into an adventure...whether I'm prepared for it or not.

Keynote speech

I mentioned in my last post about my keynote speech that I was asked to give for a short course at a local middle school run by some students at UMS. It was pretty uneventful, so I won't go into too much detail about it. It was a much smaller audience than I was expecting (no complaints there), and it wasn't near as formal as I thought. I made a short speech about how to succeed in studying English, and had a friend help translate parts of it for me to keep the students interested. It was interesting speaking with a younger group of students, and a couple of them were even brave enough to try to ask me questions in English.

As a way of saying thank you, the UMS students in charge of the short course invited me to dinner that night. We had such a great time! Bu Susi (wearing the light blue veil), one of my lecturer friends, also joined us. I hope we will all hang out again soon--they want to teach me Javanese!

I'm currently reading: Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer