Kursus Bahasa Inggris #2

Materi pertemuan kedua (24 Mei 2014) adalah sebagai berikut :

1. Present continuous (is/am/are + Ving)
2. present simple (do/does + V1)
3. Gerund
4. Comparing & contrasting

1. Present Continuous

• Rumus : S + is/am/are + V-ing
• Sedang berlangsung saat dikatakan

Contoh kalimat jawaban dan kalimat pertanyaan menggunakan present continuous :

I am doing my homework.

What are you doing?

I am doing my homework with my friend.

Who are you doing your homework with?

They are playing badminton with their friends.

Who are they playing badminton with?

2. Present Simple

• Rumus : S + (adverbs of frequency) do/does + V1
• Adverbs of frequency : always, seldom, rarely, often, occasionally, regularly, dll
• Dalam academic writing, adverbs of frequency letaknya setelah S, sebelum do/does. Sedangkan dalam puisi/lagu/percakapan dan tulisan non formal, adverbs of frequency boleh diletakkan di belakang.
• Contoh pemakaian occasionally : I occasionally wears skirt –> misalnya hanya pakai rok saat pergi kondangan, maka adverbs of frequency yang tepat adalah occasionally.
• Untuk mengatakan aktivitas yang memiliki selang/jeda yang tetap, adverbs of frequency yang dipakai adalah “every other”. Misalnya : I go to the gym every other day (artinya pergi ke gym tiap dua hari sekali, misalnya tiap Senin, Rabu, Jumat); Please write on your note book every other line (artinya tolong tulis di buku dan beri jarak tiap 1 baris dikosongkan).

Contoh kalimat jawaban dan kalimat pertanyaan menggunakan present simple :

I always do my homework with my mother.

Who do you always do your homework with?

I go to the gym once a week.

How often do you go to the gym?

I usually get up at 4.30 a.m.

What time do you usually get up?

Catatan : “what time” lebih spesifik daripada “when”.

I usually pray after getting up.

What do you usually do after getting up?

Catatan : “after getting up” adalah contoh gerund

I usually go to the offfice by train.

How do you usually go to the office?

It usually takes an hour to go to my office from my home.

How long does it usually take to go to your office from your home?

3. Gerund

• Rumus :

1. Jika ada 2 kata kerja yang berurutan (double verb), maka kata keduanya menjadi V-ing.
2. Kata kerja setelah preposisi memakai imbuhan ing. (in/on/at/after,dll + V-ing). Contoh : after getting up.
3. Something to do with sense, maka verb sesudah kata yang terkait perasaan itu menjadi V-ing. Misalnya : She likes reading Jakarta Globe.

• Akan dipelajari lebih lanjut di pertemuan berikutnya.

4. Comparing and Contrasting

• Comparing : membandingkan 2 hal yang memang bisa dibandingkan. Misalnya : mana yang lebih murah antara koran Jakarta Globe dan Jakarta Post –>  Jakarta Globe is cheaper than Jakarta Post.
• Contrasting : membandingkan 2 hal yang tidak bisa dibandingkan. Misalnya : mana yang lebih enak antara Kopi Lampung dan Kopi Timor. Kata-kata yang dipakai dalam contrasting misalnya while, but, yet, in contrast.

Catatan 1 :

Awalnya saya ingin kursus ini fokus di grammar, tapi hal ini kemudian berkembang setelah kursus berjalan. Akhirnya saya jadi belajar macam-macam, termasuk melancarkan percakapan. Nah, khusus yang terakhir ini, guru saya gemas sekali dengan kepasifan saya dalam berbicara 😀

Menurut guru saya, saya bukan tipe yang suka membuka pembicaraan atau mengawali percakapan (So true! Hehehe 😀 ). Saya tipe yang lebih senang memberi jawaban daripada pertanyaan.

Apakah itu benar? Oh benar sekali. Tipe soliter seperti saya memang sering merasa nyaman dalam diam, tanpa banyak percakapan. Saya hanya akan mengajukan pertanyaan (banyak pertanyaan malah!) jika ada hal-hal yang menarik minat saya 😀

Berdasarkan hasil analisis ini, guru saya ingin membuat saya lebih banyak bertanya. Oleh karena itu, saat belajar tenses, guru saya memberi kalimat jawaban dan saya diminta membuat pertanyaan. Jadi jangan heran ya jika dalam catatan di atas contoh penggunaan tensesnya diawali dengan kalimat jawaban yang kemudian diikuti dengan pertanyaan 🙂

Catatan 2:

Setelah pertemuan ini, guru saya memberi PR membuat tulisan yang menunjukkan comparing & contrasting. Di bawah ini adalah PR saya. Selamat membaca 🙂

Australia’s Election System

In early September 2013, i was greeted by the cold weather of Perth when i was walking out the airport. Based on article in Kompas newspaper in August 2013, Perth was the most expensive city in Australia and the 10th most expensive city in the world. In Perth, the price of 500 ml water was 3 Australian dollar, equal to 30 thousand Rupiah. It was more than ten times price of water in Jakarta.

I spent almost a week in Perth to observe Australia’s federal election with some officials from Indonesia’s line ministries. The election itself was held on September 7th. We were invited by Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), the special commission in Australia who was in charge to hold the election. AEC was the one and only commission or agency in Australia who manage everything related with the election, while Indonesia had 3 agencies who shared responsibilities in doing it. Those 3 agencies were General Election Commission/ Komisi Pemilihan Umum, General Election Supervisory Body/ Badan Pengawas Pemilu, and General Election Organisers Ethics Council/ Dewan Kehormatan Penyelenggaraan Pemilu.

In Australia, the citizens could vote before the election day. They could go to the polling station or they could vote by post, while in Indonesia the citizens only could vote on the election day and in certain polling station. Australian citizens who were eligible to vote had the obligation to vote in the election. If they do not vote, they will be fined or brought to the court. In contrast, Indonesian citizens do not have to vote since voting in the election was part of citizens rights, that was why Indonesian citizens did not need to worry about the consequence of not voting. On the other hand, the number of citizens who did not vote in Indonesia were getting bigger in every election. Usually they identified themselves as Golongan Putih, or Golput. Some reasons why they did not vote were disappointment over the candidates’ lack of capabilities and the expensive or complicated travel arrangements for those who live far away from their hometown.

The last reason which mentioned above actually was not a problem in Australia because the citizens could vote by post or they could vote in selected polling stations all over Australia, yet they still could vote the legislative candidates from their hometown. But in Indonesia, the citizens only able to vote in certain polling station in the district where their national identification card were issued. So for those who didn not want to change their national identification card which issued in their hometown to their new place, they had to return to their hometown just to vote. Or, they could go to the district office of General Election Commission where they live to register as special voters. On the election day, these special voters had to wait until all the voters who listed in the polling station gave their vote. After that, the special voters could vote, but they could not vote the legislative candidates from their hometown since the polling station did not provide the ballots from their hometown.

The election management system in Australia and Indonesia were different indeed, but still it had some lessons that could be learned to make Indonesia’s election run better.