-My Articles-

Is English more important than local languages?

Language is the key to understanding how the world works. As English is the most used language today, it is essential for schools to facilitate students in learning this language. Although English is important, we should not forget our local languages.

Local languages allow us to show our identity as a citizen or as a person with a culture. Many of us are more confident and comfortable using the English language. However, we should be proud and preserve our local languages. There are many ways we could do to keep local languages. One thing that we can do is to speak these local languages with our family members. By doing so, we could practice this language everyday. Thus, we could be fluent. After understanding and being able to speak the local languages fluently, we should be able to pass it to the future generations or might as well foreigners.

As mentioned before, English is the most used language. In order to pass local languages to the next generations, which they would be more likely to understand English more due to globalisation, we ourselves have to be fluent in English too. In this way, communication will be much easier and cause the language to be delivered and understood well.

To sum up, English is not the factor that causes local languages to fade. English should not be an obstacle to learning local languages. In fact, both languages are as important. We should learn to balance the usage of both English and local languages in our daily lives.

UN Day Celebration

          Every 24th of October, the world celebrates United Nations Day. This celebration reminded us of the official creation of the UN in 1945. Sekolah Mutiara Harapan finally held this event for the first time and was hosted by junior high school students on Monday, 24 October 2022. This activity’s purpose is just like its theme, "End Racism Build Peace”. In this activity, students are divided into groups of countries and are asked to exhibit various information about the country that is assigned to them.

          There are 7 countries involved in this event. There’s Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Europe, Korea, and India. Each of these countries has its booth. They provide many interesting facts such as the country’s history, traditional food, and traditional clothing. I tried one of the traditional food which is lapet from Indonesia. This dessert is made with glutinous rice flour and filled with shredded coconut and peanut chunks. Bot only foods, I also tried using a traditional clothing which is a hat from Mexico called a sombrero. The ginormous size of this hat makes it very unique and the floral pattern makes this hat look super pretty. Not only that some booth provides fun games that we can play such as Korea’s booth. They provide lists of hangul (Korean alphabet) that we can use to make our Korean name. Besides having booths, they also give some performances such as bands and fashion shows. Unfortunately, I can’t watch the versions as I was there only for a very short time.

          Through this programme I learn a lot. By having a diverse community, we can be stronger therefore we should stop treating people differently. Just like a young boy named Azka from 9th grade said, “We should start being inclusive and stop negative stereotypes of other countries.” I hope this programme will be an annual event in our school. I also hope that next time there will be more countries so that we can learn even more.  

Do teenagers need to study all subjects?

Some people think that the teenagers should concentrate on all subjects at school. Others believe that teenagers should focus on the subject they are best at or they are most interested in. To what extent do you agree?

School is a very important place for students to learn because it offers many subjects that are beneficial to them. This can help them increase their knowledge and most importantly, help them face the future. However, some people argue whether students should concentrate on all subjects or only on the ones they are interested in.

Having to concentrate on all subjects and achieve outstanding marks can benefit them in many ways, such as in preparing them for their further studies. Learning all subjects, especially basic knowledge, will benefit students in their daily lives. This might as well cause the student to discover new things and open up their perspectives on various learning fields. As a result, they will have no difficulty deciding on a major at university.

On the other hand, I believe that school should offer more than two or three subjects. Some schools offer up to 9 to 10 subjects. I believe that no student can excel in all of these subjects. Teenagers should always enjoy the learning process in school. However, having to learn so many subjects may be a burden for them. Students should be able to choose the field of study that interests them. In this way, they could hone their skills in a specific area.

I think it is important for teenagers to concentrate on all subjects. But they should be able to control themselves because learning should not be something to stress about. It is fine for teenagers to only focus on the subjects they enjoy the most. In this way, they could develop their abilities to their maximum potential.

FAMILY DAY

There are numerous holidays that has filled the days in our calendar. But if I am given a chance to create another holiday it would be “Family Day”. Many countries might have already celebrated this even however, I do believe that by having this holiday globally would benefit many families all around the world.

First of all, the main purpose of this holiday is to strengthen the bond between family members and enjoy a quality time together. This of course means adults will be excused from their work as well as children from their school as this holiday enables workers and children to take a break from their hectic schedules and spend time with their loved ones.

To celebrate this holiday, families will go to places they love most such as parks. There, families could have a picnic and enjoy meals together while listening to live music concert of their favorite artists to brighten up the day. Not only that, there will be many game booths specially provided for families to play together and have fun. Not to forget the photobooth so that every family could capture the beautiful moments they have created in this day.

To sum up, “Family Day” is important to celebrate as many families does not have time to spend together due to tight schedules from work. Through this holiday, family members can learn to enjoy every moment with each other as well as appreciate the presence of each member.  In addition, I hope that in the future there will be healthier and happier families from all over the world.

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