I didn’t like English.
Wait... No, I hated English.
Since elementary school,
where English was first introduced to this plain little 3rd grader girl,
I hated it already. Unimportant, I insisted. In addition, my English teacher
was sooo unbelievably annoying; an old man, lame, and like a fairytale bed
story, always made me sleepy. I almost always slept in that English class. Homeworks
were done on the morning by looking at the others’ works. Don’t ask about my
textbook.. sleek, clean-cut, and stay still; a forever new book. I made jokes
when studying the English vocabularies and phrases, never took it seriously. About
studying at home... Ugh, ain’t nobody got time for that?! Dictionary? That most
boring thing ever exists in the world? No, thank you. I still had my conan and
doraemon comics to be read interestedly. Just being honest, it deeply didn’t
make any sense for me, why do we have to learn the others’ language? It’s not
like I’d be living in that country, well I even didn’t think I’d really use and
need to talk in English for real.
That was what I thought on my white-red age.
One day, I saw that girl with curly brown hair and
smart gaze on her eyes. Hermione, that’s how her close friends —Harry and Ron— call
her. A Gryffindor, and a half-blood. Hermione Jean Granger, that’s how the
professors called on the attendance list checking. Listening to her when sharply
answers the professor’s question in classes, had word-fight with the blonde pure-blood
Draco, or just casually converse with Potter and Weasley, managed to wake me
up! Her way of speaking so confidently and her reasonably strong long talks, unconsciously
hypnotized me. Along with her full-of-spirit voice tone, ambitious gaze, and tireless
active moves, her British accent was hanging and kept popping up on my mind. It
was undeniably confusing at first. I mostly didn’t even know what was she
talking about, I just knew that it felt lovely to my ears.
But hey.. the next days I surprisingly found myself enjoying and being attracted
to it.
Ever since knowing her, I
got motivated out of nowhere. Highly-motivated. My competitive spirit said that
I had to at least be exactly like her, then beat her. Yes, I’m just as
ambitious as her. I didn’t think of anything and just decided to make it truly happen.
I started learning English seriously, and magically, with pleasure. I anticipated
and looked forward to every English classes. I read the bold and heavy dictionaries
routinely, exactly everyday on 6.30pm. I finished all the tasks assigned, and
studied for real every night. On the 4th grade, I was personally
taught by my English teacher (who’s different with the first one above) some
song lyrics, and even told me to sing them on my seniors’ graduation ceremony. On
that annual big event, I also did a speech and read a poetry, all in English.
“I’m so glad seeing you this diligent, darling. What’s
up with the miracle, anyway?” – Mom
“What happened with this magic, dear? Did the
school finally force you to study?” – Brother
“Are you alright? What’s the matter? Are you
cursed by the English God?” – Friend
“You did quite well in my subject lately. You didn’t
cheat, did you?” – Teacher
Yep. Everybody was THAT
astonished. Countless wonderings, amazements and praises were thrown and blown
towards me regarding this ‘change’. It must be the magic, they wondered.
Growing up, I joined the
English speech and debate club on middle and high school. Winning various
English speech, news-anchor, and debate competition was not a rare phenomenon. Now
that I’m on university, there are barely any Indonesian textbooks used, almost
all is full-English books. Currently I’m doing an international research and
working on a book-translation project. I also have gone abroad with (mostly) my
English skills influence; writing essays, or confidently facing the verbal
interview... the art of convincing people. And by that, further opportunities are surely within
reaches, because I know ‘When the language is in our tongue, the world is in
our grasp’.
I was only seeing her through
a monitor, indeed. Time flies relatively, and now, she isn’t a Hogwarts student
anymore (neither do I, since the beginning...)
I’ve always wanted to
meet her in person, and express my gratefulness that can't be phrased in any words. Over a decade has passed since
first time spotting her, I have to go to England —yes I need to! She should
know that she holds one important role, made such a huge impact in my life.
I used to hate English
Now it’s my inseparable company
And, no. There’s no single magic involved
Thank you for burning and
blowing my spirit up, and be the initiator to boost my skills, Em.
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