Why do you want to study in the United States? Why do you want to study Linguistics?

One peculiar experience of being half-Javanese and half-Endenese in Indonesia is constantly witnessing gaps in developing great potentials between the two places. Aside from the infamous education and economic disparity that we are still struggling to overcome within the Indonesia archipelago, most rural areas are suffering from the hardship of building relationships with the outside world due to the language barrier. While not all people have the urgency to comprehend English, the lingua franca which connects citizens from across the globe, workers devoting themselves in the development of a region or even nation should find this language a mandatory tool to construct a strong network between countries. My relationship with the development sector initially was in fact unintentional. In 2015, my father organized an independent fundraising program for Nuabosi, my family’s village in Ende, East Nusa Tenggara. As the only English-speaker at that time, I volunteered as an Indonesian-English interpreter. Intending to get better water access and sanitation, I managed to undertake diplomatic conversation between the local inhabitants and a potential donor from Australia. Nonetheless, amid our project’s success, as the United Nations (UN) established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) shortly after the program, I realized that continuously depending on others to communicate with the world due to language barriers was not a sustainable way to develop the potentials in Indonesia. Unfortunately, while some people like me find it easy to access proper training and education, some areas are even at high risk of losing Primary Schools. This circumstance had influenced me to take part in sustainably advancing remote areas in Indonesia through English training for developmental purposes. With the establishment of SDGs, I understood that there is no one way to achieve these goals. Some people fight for them by composing policies while some by advocating human rights. We collectively develop the world around us by implementing our own expertise with the dream that one day 17 issues that we struggle today will disappear. With this in mind, I pursued a Bachelor’s degree in English Letters funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia to observe English as a communication tool to achieve SDGs through a wider lens. In my third semester, I got my foundation on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) through the Socio-linguistics course that I took. I managed to understand language teaching methods based on the natural way humans acquire languages. Aside from strengthening my analytical and scientific skills through courses and research projects, during 3. 5 years of my study, I complemented my education with Public Speaking, Business Writing, and Stylistics to gain a greater comprehension of English for communication specifically in development sectors. The skills that I obtained during my degree then implemented in an academic environment through my job as a Lecturer’s Assistant at my former university from 2018 to 2019. As I grew the fascination towards Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), I continued to challenge myself to train and teach more people. After graduating, my role as an English Instructor in the Language Institute of Sanata Dharma since 2019 introduced me to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) which is parallel to my interest for English as a tool to achieve SDGs. I have undertaken several teaching projects focusing on various Academic and Occupational Purposes, including Academic Writing and preparing congregants assigned for service abroad. Dealing with materials development for specific goals and occupations for students and workers and Indonesia and other countries, I have hands-on experience in ESP teaching and curriculum design that I intend to grow. Despite the abundant values and skills I gained through my volunteer work, education, and professional experiences, I continuously grow eager to expand my skills, particularly in ESP, by pursuing a Master’s degree in Linguistics specialized in SLA and Pedagogical Applications to SLA Theory. This will enable me to pursue a career in training people from a wide range of sectors with the intention of developing remote areas in Indonesia, such as civil servants, authorities, and public health workers. Combining my background and future learning, I wish to contribute to this global mission through my expertise in English.