AFTER THE BATTLE

The soft silver moon  just arose over Ukiyoe town. Its light blended with some cool breezes kissed the sleepy small city and enveloped the azure night in peace. At the edge of the small town, a grand and ancient mansion bathed in merry  lights and music. Every one celebrated the homecoming of their young Sandaime, Nura Rikuo. Rikuo just got back in the morning from healing session at the hanyou village where Hagoromo  Gitsune brought him after the last battle with the Nue.

“More sake here, Nattou,” Hitotsume Nyudo, the one eyed daiyouki ordered more drinks,his face was already beet red of drunkenness.

“Haiii...,” small Nattou Kozou ran to the kitchen and almost hit Kubinashi at the corridor.

“Watch your step, Nattou!!,” Kubinashi yelled with his hands full of food and bottles.

“Gomen  ne....”

At the party room, Nura Rihyon, the Yondaime and Rikuo, in his youkai form, exchanged several bowls of finest sake, congratulating each other on their recent victory over Seimei.

“You have surpassed me and your father, kid.”

“Everyone helped me, Grandpa. I wouldn’t be able to do all by myself. You and these people here also the Keikain Onmyouji’s house have shares in tonight’s celebration,” Rikuo sipped some drinks from his wooden bowl.

“You’ve grown up, Rikuo.  Even in the demon world, you are totally awesome in this age.”

“Oiii... Sandaime. Since you are already  mature, why don’t you take a beautiful lady for a wife??!!!!,” Aotabo spoke to Rikuo and laughed.

“Or you will end up as wasted bachelor like this youkai here,” his index pointed to Kurotabou who sat in front of him.

“What!! I will kill you !,” Kurotabou jumped and wrestled Ao, much to the cheers of the crowd.

“Sure Rikuo, you can choose who you like in your situation as now,” Nura Rihyon teased his grandchild ,” Or you already had someone in mind, eh...eh??? Hahaha....”

Suddenly... the shoji door opened and...

“Here she is !!! Our Sandaime’s lady sama....!!!,” somebody yelled and quickly followed by others.

“Good choice !! We agree ...!!”, the room became hurly burly at once.

Nura Rihyon and Rikuo turned their heads and found a shocked and dumb looking Tsurara at the door. She stood there frozen and terribly red faced.

“Nani?? What do you say, people? Kyaaaa....”, she ran fast dropping the tray in her hands.

“Hahaha... such a weird reaction, “ Nura Rihyon chuckled and looked at his grandson. To his surprise, he saw that Rikuo’s face blushed deep and the youth was pretending to eat some onigiri while big drops of sweat  dripped on his cheek.

‘My...my.... and I think you are more cool and indifferent  in your night form, Grandson!!,” the old man slapped Rikuo’s shoulder and  laughed heartily.

“Nonsense...,” Rikuo grumbled and tried to look straight at the food he had picked. But he could not suppressed the hollow feeling in his stomach and he thought that his heart beating harder than previous.

“Wooooohooooo... watch our Sandaime!!!...He is blushing!!!...Hoorayyy for Tsurara!!!...”. The cheers were deafening and many small youkais started to dance wildly.

Rikuo stood up and reached the back door trying to escape this embarassing moment silently. He walked to the backyard of the mansion toward his favourite cherry tree. How he wanted to calm his racing heartbeat from the embarassment back there.

His steps halted abruptly then. At the corridor, leaning to the wooden wall, there was Tsurara Oikawa looking at the sakura tree. Stars seemed  floating in her eyes , reflecting the softly falling petals in their  bluest pupils. A longing expression could be seen on her pale white complexion. Rikuo heard she sighed deeply  as if  burdens had weighed down on her soul heavily.

“The moon and the sakura petals are such a match tonight, aren’t they, Tsurara?”.

“R-Rikuo sama...”, the ice girl startled being woken from her unseen fantasy. Rikuo’s wistful voice brought her back from her unfathomed thought.

“That white silvery moon and the pink flowers blown by gentle breezes... What a wonderful sight to see.” Rikuo walked closer to Tsurara until they were standing side by side on the quiet verandah.  The little snow maiden flinched and replied her dearest master  gently.

“Yes, Sir. They are very beautiful tonight. Why don’t you stay at the party, Rikuo sama? It is to celebrate your triumph. You shouldnot leave your company right now.”

“That noisy and busybody crowd!! I love quietness more. And what are you doing here? Sulking and daydreaming, very unusual for my cheerful and smiling Tsurara.”

“My... he said My?,” Tsurara was wondering and suddenly centered much attention to her tabied toes. “Why do I feel like thousands of butterflies flipping their wings in my chest? Rikuo sama, go away pleaseee, I can’t bear it much longer,”she turned to steal a look at the man beside her. Rikuo was staring at the azure sky and Tsurara swore to herself that there weren’t many men, both human beings and youkais  who was as handsome as her Sandaime.  His red orbs watched the moon with soft look in them. The smirks usually found in his lips were replaced by a small smile which rarely displayed openly.

Suddenly, Rikuo turned his head and caught Tsurara’s looking at him intensely. This unexpected movement made the girl’s face changed crimson furiously.

‘Were you scrutinizing  me, Tsurara? Have an ugly opinion about me?”.

“Kyaaa... I am very sorry, Rikuo sama. I didn’t mean to be rude....,” Tsurara started to run away because she was afraid that her master would be angry. A bigger and warmer hand caught her wrist halting her escape.

“Don’t go, Tsurara! Or I will never know what you’d like to say about me,” Rikuo’s right hand held Tsurara’s cold fingers very tight. In the dim light he could see Tsurara’s lips were trembling.

“Tell me now Tsurara. This is an order from your Master”.

Tsurara took a deep breath and started to speak though she was fidgeting here and there searching for  a way to release Rikuo’s grip.

“You’ve grown up, Master. I still remember the day when you were born and I carried you in my bosoms...”

“Geez... your bosoms? I wish I could remember that too, Tsurara,” Rikuo touched his chin and stared at the girl beside him again.

“Aaaa... please don’t talk about it like that, Rikuo sama! Everybody carries their babies in that way!”

“Okay...okay. Continue now”.

“You were so small, cute and chubby. Cutest baby in the youkai world. You rarely cried and how Rihan sama loved and praised you a lot. Then you grew older and turned into such a mischievous one. We often fell to your pranks and I was very worried one day when I couldnot find you everywhere while the sun was already set. It was very dark outside.What a relief when I found you alone at the city park.”

“I never forget that too, Tsurara. I was so scared and confused, but just when I began to cry, I saw a hand as white as snow gleaming in the darkness. Soft hand that had guided me home is the one I’m holding now, right?”

Tsurara gazed at her right hand which was in Rikuo’s palm and slowly she whispered, “You remember, Master? Thank you, it is a great honor for your humble servant. Now, would you kindly let my hand go?”. She tried to pull her hand but her effort was futile. The grip on her hand was from a daiyoukai, not so easily be shaken off.

“Not yet, Tsurara. I am the one who should say thank you. I never tell you how grateful I was at that time. I felt so lost and you came saving me from that frightful darkness. Have I told you about how lucky I am to have someone like you by my side, Tsurara? You have been taking care of me since the day I was brought into this world and then you are always beside me through the falls and triumphs.”

“Well... It is my duty to put your safety and well being above other priorities, Rikuo sama. I am such a burden for you at many countless times too. I often failed to protect you and ended up with the facts that you were the one who shielded me from dangers. I am really ashamed for being a useless attendant, Sir,” Tsurara choked and felt a mist of tears already formed at the corners of her eyes.

Rikuo was surprised when he heard  low sobs from his number one guardian. “It is okay, Tsurara.  Please, dont’ cry. You are always standing in front of me, supporting  me and my source of strength when I was feeling so down. I always  feel like home whenever you are near me.”

“Am I?...”

“So, let me hold your hand for a little  longer , Tsurara. And let us just enjoy this lovely night quietly  while everybody is having that crazy party.”

Tsurara looked at Rikuo happily, unbelieving every word she just heard. Rikuo smiled at her and tightened his hold on her hand. Together , under the moonlight and falling sakuras, there were two people looking up the sky hand in hand. Calm happiness flooded their hearts making them content and unconsciously they moved closer to each other. Tsurara’s head found a resting place on Rikuo’s shoulder and the handsome young man put his chin on the top of her silky white blue strands. Red and golden orbs were  shining with affection they neglected before. Secret smiles  decorated their peaceful silent conversations of the hearts.  Unheard by others, but strongly acknowleged by their souls.

About everybody is having that crazy party, naaahhhh...  Dozens of colourful bright eyes were watching the whole scenes between their young master and his snow girl all the time from the farthest corner of the great mansion, whispering and gigling to others about what they had seen.

“Yo, Yondaime. It is about time for you to prepare a big wedding for your grandson soon,” Aotabou muttered to a short balded man in front of him.

“Yes, that is right, Nurarihyon sama. We must make the most grandeur feast in Japan for Sandaime’s wedding!”

“ Be silent, all of you!! Rikuo is only 14 years old. Wait for another 3 years till he comes of age in human world,” Nura Rihyon snapped at his underlings but he couldnt hide his smiles over his wrinkled face.

“Aaaawwww.... That’s too looong!!!!”

“Shut up and get yourself married, Kurotabou!!!”

THE END

www.zerochan.net

NEW CARD BOX DOLL STAGE

Actually  I had made this kind of media once, and some pretty wooden spoon dolls too. But, since it happened a couple of years ago, the card box stage was irrepairable and I lost most of the wooden dolls. So , I made a new stage and colourful dolls, still made of wooden spoons.

I constructed a large card box stage with much better decorations and paints, also the dolls are quite more cheerful. There are a nurse, a model, a member of boyband with shocking pink hair, a pilot, a princess and a ballerina. The stage took a week to complete because I had to wait untiul the paints were dry enough to put another colour on them. The dolls needed even longer to complete. From 12 wooden spoons that I bought, I still had to finish 6 more. They were going to be a pirate, a king and some school boys and girls.

The usage of card box stage and wooden spoon dolls in class was interesting especially if you have small class consisting of 20 -30 students at most. While at school, I have 35 - 40 students in every class. It is rather crowded, but gives teachers a sense of challenges on how to conquer those rooms full of teenagers with all their antics.

We can use the stage and the dolls for giving examples of conversations, role plays, descriptive  and narrative texts, also  story tellings. By using the stage and dolls,students are expected to be more creative and developing more of their imaginations. It can also improve students' competency in speaking.

CARD BOX STAGE

WOODEN SPOON DOLLS

STAGE AND DOLLS

KIKYO'S POEM

MY LAST GOODBYE

My time is over, dearest one

I can feel my soul fading within my bloodless vein

In this fake body I’ve been around

A false life I shouldn’t have known

You shed your tears for me

I am happy for the last time

Acknowledging at the edge of my life

You still care for me all the while

But I can feel it clearly, shiny sun

Your heart doesn’t beat for me as before

Another piece of new spirit has held it

In a way that I never did

Farewell, my dearest hair of silver

In your arms I will wither

I can leave this world in peace

Knowing someone will love you more

Darkness is falling over my eyes

But I can see a light so shiny and safe far above

Soon I will fly to its embrace

Nothing will I regret in my lonely pace

Kikyo to Inuyasha...

DISCLAIMER: The characters don't belong to me, they are Rumiko Takahashi's  :'(

TIPS FOR IMPROVING LISTENING COMPETENCY

Nowadays, English  teachers should be more creative in teaching. New methods, approaches, curriculum and textbooks would  yield nothing if teachers are not willing to change their  teaching habits. They should be able to adjust to the advancing technology and time. Students are getting more and more informations from the web. Often teachers know less than their students in some aspects such as how to use technology in improving competency. Still, students need a teacher to guide and give advices to them , in fact, teachers are irreplaceable. It has become a great challenge for eEnglish teachers to improve not only the students, but also themselves as well.

Young learners usually are keen of playful things. They do not like heavy or serious lesson materials that can make their forehead frowning and sweating. I have been experiencing the situation for more than 15 years. Whatever grade and wherever they are, when it comes to hard  exercises or practices such as listening, they would shrink deep into their tables and try to be invinsible. So, it depends on the teachers  to make their classes more alive and active with minimum burden to the students.

For many students  who are studying English, listening can be a little difficult especially if they are lack of exercises in or out the classroom. Actually, there are several interesting ways to be better in this competency. Unfortunately only a handful of teachers pay proper attention to the problem. And I could be belonging to this kind of neglectful  teacher. Here, I will share some tips of improving listening that could be working for both teachers and students.

TIPS NUMBER 1

First, find a not too long song with slow rhythm and  soft music. Listen and  write as many words as you can from the song. Don’t try to look at the lyric if you have one. Listen for 3 - 4 times and then after that you can check with the  correct  lyric. You can get the lyric from internet. Do this activity 2 – 3 times a week. Each time with different song

Example of songs that you can use for practice : Big Big Girl, Love Yourself, A Thousand Years etc. Many songs from 90’s are nice enough to be used for practicing.

TIPS NUMBER 2

Watch English news in your television or videos and take notes of important points that you can grasp from the news, such as names of places, people, date and time also  the main points. Do not make any conclusion by just watching the video or pictures being broadcasted. Or you can listen to radio broadcasting like VOA, BBC or ABC. Since you can only hear the news reader’s voice , it can be more effective.

TIPS NUMBER 3

If you watch English speaking movies, try not to look at the subtitle. It is even more recommended if the movie you watch does not have subtitle at all. I suggest some cartoons for the early exercises because they are usually easier to understand since mostly are using daily expressions. You may choose any of your favourite cartoons, from Ben 10, Dora the Explorer or Sofia the First. Do not be ashamed if other people catch you watch cartoons because you are not only watching but also in effort to improve your listening  competency.

TIPS NUMBER 4

            In this tips, using dictations is also recommended. For teachers, you can do some dictations in your class once in a while. After giving new vocabularies or discussing new topics, you can give dictation to your students. This is to remind them about the words they have got and not only to exercise their listening but also their writing competency.

If you are a student, you may have dictation with your friends. Ask a friend to dictate several words and then you can do the same thing to your friend. After that, check the result together and the one who gets the most correct words can be the winner. Or you can have dictation exercise in group. It can also be used for games in class.

Those are 4 tips for improving listening competency that I know so far. If you have others, then you are very welcomed to share here or with wider audiences. I believe many people will thank you for your tips and there is nothing painful in spreading goodness, right?

Wuxia Movie

WATCHING  CROUCHING TIGER AND HIDDEN DRAGON 2

This film is a sequel the  2000 blockbuster and takes place about 15 years from the previous events. Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen still become the lead actress and actor. There are also Harry Shum, Jr as Wei Fang, Natasha Liu as Snow Vase and Jason Scott Lee as Hades Dai, the villain.
But I think without Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) there is something missing T.T.
If you like wuxia movies, this sequel can be one of your choice to spend your lonely times XD.
Okay, let's check the link guys,and the sub is in Indonesian.



LINK UNTUK NONTON FILMNYA DISINI YA 

Role play

Enjoy your meal !!!  

SPEAKING PRACTICE : IN A RESTAURANT

I love speaking practice and I often have fun in listening to my students way of speaking or pronouncing words. Most of them look so deadly serious when they are practicing with their partners or groups. Sometimes  they bicker with each other because their lack of memorizing sentences or on how they pronounce the difficult words. And one more thing, they all love food and drink. So I combine the seriousness of memorizing sentences and eating activities :) .

 When our lessons came to speaking activity at a restaurant, I divide them into groups of three. One student would play as a waiter and the others as customers. They composed the conversation and the menu they would present later. 

Welcoming customers 7 Room 6

Serving the customers 7 Room 4

Serving the customers 7 Room 6

DANCE FROM 3 COUNTRIES

FOREIGN TOUCH IN MY CLASS

Actually this article is not about how I teach English to my students. But, I will talk about how to introduce other countries' cultures to broaden their point of views and make them familiar with foreign traditions so they willnot be enclosed in a kind of shell that creates narrow minded people.

I love cultures and their traditional aspects, especially those from Asian countries. There are such a lot of beautiful and unique cultures found in almost every race and tribes all around the continent. From the vast desert of Saudi Arabia, intriguing temples of Hindu gods and the grandeurs of the Maharajas in India, nomadic Mongols with their tough horses and  round moving tents up to the delicate dances of the natives of Indonesia. Each culture and tradition has its own  attractiveness and beauty. 

Nowadays, there are several countries have exported their cultures, traditions and way of life that have influenced so many people in the world. I can mention, Korea, China and Japan. Korean has bombed almost every tiny part of Asia, Europe, America and even the continent down under with its fabulously gorgeous boybands, girlbands and dramas. They have spread the Kpop Wave in  the last decade that brought very large income for the tourism. 

Meanwhile, China is one of the oldest culture in the earth. Since thousand of years ago, Chines people had been roaming the continents and oceans imprinting influences on many other cultures. Philosophers, inventors, artists even martial arts had developed largely in China and then to Asia and contributed much to the world development.

Then Japan, with its islands and the Bushido spirit of the Samurai has been making deep impression to the romanticists. Their lack of natural resources only made them crave for more and this lead to the development of one of the most powerful military forces tens of years ago. the Japanese soldiers had ransacked any place they had landed and also left bitter memories to the natives the had slayed.

After  they lost the World War 2, Japan became very advanced in technology and once again rules the world, not by their weapons but  with their high tech inventions.

These three cultures inspired me to create a performance by my students for the 2015 graduation party. I chose fan dance from Korea, word dance from China and samurai dance from Japan. I also asked some assistance from on of the school dancers, Wais Al Karni, because he is very good in training newbies

We were training for several months before graduation party and the result was impressive. I could not say that I was satisfied with my students' performance. I believed they could be better, but Alhamdulillah, everything was running well. What more can I ask?

Mika

Sarah

The boys : Adi and Bayu

Shofie

MEMORIZING PARTS OF THE BODY BY USING RAP SONG AND  DANCE

I love having fun when I am teaching English in class. It is because I usually get bored easily and lose my patience in facing those rebellious yet cute looking teenagers. How should I feel when I have to be in a not so large class with almost 40 noisy pupilsin the hot noon with only 2 old fans hanging on the ceiling trying to wipe the sweat in vain? So I usually make some easy games or tasks to make my students quite active and keep them busy with their books , discussions or nerves. Why nerves? Because they have to pay attention seriously  in order to be able to answer my quizzes and get some small gifts or prizes. A one thousand rupiah snack or even a piece of star card is already make them happy and often they have to push one another to be the first in accomplishing the task and get a bar of snack. J

Then we came to a topic about parts of the body. After some explanations, quizzes and exercises,, I thought  about how to make them easier in memorizing parts of the body. When I was browsing  Youtube, I happened to find a simple rap song about this body parts topic. So, I played the song in the classes (I believe many teachers are actually annoyed by this), showed some example of simple dance steps videos and then I divided them into groups with 6-7 members each. Each group must present a dance based on the song and have to perform suitable  gestures with the body parts mentioned in the song lyric. I gave a week for them to practise and not only promised some prize for the best one but also assignments for  group with lowest score. I hoped they would make their best efforts because many students like songs and dances.

When it was the time for performances, I became so glad and I admitted that I was having so much fun. Watching them dancing and sometimes singing too had made me laugh a lot. My students were energetic and quite creative in making  dance moves. So I decided to make  dance battles betwen the groups to choose 5 best dancers. The results were awesome!!! A handful of boys could dance well like those B-Boys and real dancers. They turned around and around and  also made plucky acrobatic task. And the most important, all of the groups were adjusting their dances to the body parts song. I really appreciated their performances and seriousness. I wish that they would remember the lesson about parts of the body and had fun too.

7 ROOM 1

INUYASHA FANFICTION

I JUST WANT TO MAKE SOME DRABBLES J

Rendezvous

INUYASHA POV

It seemed like my heart stop beating and the world stopped turning when I felt  warm soft fingers catch mine. There she was, out of the darkness of the well with her midnight strands blown by the gentle breeze. I knew she was always beautiful but after three years I thought that she was lovelier than the picture etched on  my memory.

Her smell, her sweet flowery fragrance wafted filling the air with joy tinted by salty tears. How I missed her. Her face, her smell, her tears, her gentle voice, her recklessness, her anger, even her subduing mantras and horrifying curry.

I know, I still remembered them all. So I said, ”Welcome home, Kagome. Don’t you ever dare to leave me again.”

KAGOME POV

My heart was floating as I fell to the well. I thought I would burst from happiness when I saw the glimpse of the blue sky at the other side. I freed my thought from any burdens I had been carrying all these three years. I got my mother’s blessings and I jumped to reach my desires and faced any hard reality at the old world.

Goodbye Mama, I would be born again in the future as your fussy daughter

Goodbye Grandpa, I would meet you and bother you again with all my antics and you still had to make up lies for me.

Bye Sota, you would always be my cute little brother and I would care for you more than five hundred years from now.

As  I felt a firm and calloused hand caught my fingers and a glint of sunrays touched silvery hair blinding my eyes, I said, “I am home, Inuyasha,  I am so glad to see you again”.

Kagome and Inuyasha


DISCLAIMER : I don't own the characters 

MTSN SAMPIT TEACHERS AND KOREAN TRADITIONAL CLOTHES

In the last several years, Korean Wave has swept Indonesia like floods and still spreads its influence on Indonesia people especially teens and young woman. They are mostly crazy about those dazzling handsome boybands and fascinating  breathtakingly beautiful singers of girlbands. People become interested and curious about Korea, its language and culture. Even in Sampit, our very small city in Central Borneo. Many teenagers and youths love KPOP and some make it as a part of  their life style. We can see them wearing modern Korean style clothes and have their hair cut as their KPOP idols. Some turns to the traditional aspect of Korean culture. They like the graceful Korean traditional costume, Hanbok.

In our school, Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri Sampit, this Korean fever started about 2 years ago when we were preparing a show for graduation party . We thought about  making interesting show that would attract students attentions and we came to an idea of making a drama with ancient Korean background. After that we began to make  script, creating the costumes, arrange the music , choreographing the fan dance and fighting scene. Those were completed in about six months. The result was satisfying , we were happy about that.

Me and Ms. Sri Windarti

Gang of three ^^