Clad in all-black two-piece sequined Dayak traditional attire, Rina Syarifah Salma looked confident on stage delivering a short story in fluent English on the adverse impacts of logging. She was one of the contestants in the W.O.R.D.S. National Competition organized by the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (Aminef) last weekend.
The 16-year-old high school student became a puppeteer when she animated paper figures to explain further the contribution of forest fires and illegal logging to global warming.
"The destruction of our forests is getting worse and worse. The damage not only affects its surrounding environs, but also the whole world," Rina told The Jakarta Post soon after she came off stage.
"Forest fires can also cause an imbalance in our ecosystem. I hope people start realizing that forests are important for all of us and start to take a good care of them." she said.
Her decision to don traditional Dayak garb was also part of her effort to drive her point home. It was her mother who made the costume for the occasion.
Rina, who learned English since she was in third grade, was selected to represent her school, YPK High School in Bontang, East Kalimantan, for her proficiency in the language.
This year's W.O.R.D.S. National Competition with the topic "The Changing World Outside My Window: Where Am I From and Where Am I Going?", was organized by Aminef, the public affairs section of the United States Embassy in Jakarta, and the 2009/2010 Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETA). Aminef is the administrator for all Fulbright programs in Indonesia.
Last weekend's W.O.R.D.S. contest was the third installment of the program.
The competition started at school level when students took part in an open competition in reading and writing poetry, monologues, song lyrics, speeches and short stories. For the speech writing contest, contenders were required to write no more than 500 words.
The contest was part of a drive to encourage students not only to use English in a creative and practical ways, but to serves as a conduit through which students could get to learn about each other's cultures throughout Indonesia.
And Rina was more than happy to show off her English proficiency.
"I like learning English. I often practice my English with friends or my mentor at school, who is a native *English speaker*. At home, I regularly listen to English-language songs or watch foreign movies to improve my English," she said.
"Someday I want to work in the field of public relations so I can use this language skill of mine," Rina said.
Rina was not the only contestant who caught the jury's attention. Eleventh-grader Septia Sastika Angelina, 16, also impressed the crowd. She one-upped Rina not only by wearing traditional South Sumatran attire, but went further by performing the traditional Gending Sriwijaya dance. This dance is customarily performed to welcome honorary guests.
"During the reign of the Sriwijaya Kingdom many centuries ago, the dance was usually performed to welcome guests," said Septia, who began dancing at the age of three.
"Although I've just lived in Palembang in the past two years, I like the city and its culture. It has so many traditional songs and dances, but I like Gending Sriwijaya best because it has an elegant vibe about it." She said.
However, English was not the reason Septia agreed to make an appearance at the contest. As a non-native she grew to have reservations for the foreign language.
"I just didn't like it. But I finally realized English was important so we could communicate with people around the world," Septi said.
And for the English skills she had recently developed, Septia only had her mentor to be thankful for, people like Aaron Daugherty, 23.
Daugherty, who teaches English at Urwatul Wutsqaa Islamic School in Sidrap, South Sulawesi, is one of 32 students with bachelor's or master's degrees sent by the Fulbright-Aminef English Teaching Assistantship program, who were sent to various parts of Indonesia to help teachers and students learn English. The Fulbright Foundation has fielded the program in 24 countries and its Indonesian program began in 2004.
The program is also aimed at bridging cultural differences among cultures around the world.
For the 2009-2010 program, Fulbright-Aminef dispatched tutors to a number of cities including Medan, Malang, Balikpapan, Gorontalo and Manado.
Daugherty, whose stint in Sidrap was his first teaching job, was motivated first by his interest to learn more about Indonesia.
"I was interested in joining the Fulbright program and one of the options is to teach English in Indonesia. I was interested in coming to Southeast Asia and looked into the possibility. Then I read about Indonesia and I found it interesting," he said.
He was also interested in learning about Islam in this country.
But, one thing that struck him most was the dedication and perseverance of Indonesian students to put up with so many subjects.
"They have, like, 19 subjects. To me it's just amazing. It is too many I think. I'm used to the US system. We have a maximum of eight subjects at one time per semester. To see their dedication is really impressive," Daugherty said.
As for the local students, having a native speaker at school is more than a respite in amid tiring school hours.
Rina said the presence of a native speaker helped boost her language skills and enriched her knowledge of US culture.
"The *English* teacher told us a lot about America and the information really broadened our perspectives," Rina said.
