My first encounter with English, or at least my first intense study of English happened when I was 10 years old.
As the youngest of five, I kept being exposed to many songs from people around me, especially and very especially my siblings.
My sisters love ballads, tho my brother loves alternative, metal and any kind of emo screamo kinda rock songs. Dad loves traditional Javanese 'langgam', while Mom, really she just likes everything as long as it sounds good to her. But hey she mastered second voice naturally, by instinct.
That year was 1998, a year when 'Titanic,' a romance movie about a sinking literally titanic vessel came to prominence in local cinema. My oldest sister and the third oldest, mbak Tutik and mbak Santi are in love with the soundtrack of this song.
They kept singing that song, while my friends at school also mumble the exact same tone, although they don't know what exactly they're saying.
And that day, i realized my sisters have written that song in a notebook, mbak Santi, if I'm not mistaken.
That night I was bound to go to bed when I asked mbak Tutik to accompany me to bed. She sang me a song, that song.
The title is 'My Heart Will Go On,' a legendary song by Celine Dion.
While laying in my mom and dad's bed (Yes, I still sleep with my parents till I turned 11 or so), she sang me that song and translate the entire song word by word from the start.
"Every night in my dream," she sang it softly. "Every means 'setiap', night means 'malam', and then in means 'di dalam,' and my dream means 'mimpiku'" she explained each word till I understand the meaning clearly. And it continued to the last sentence of that song.
It's only now that I realized that that was my first time studying English, and she's the one who taught me my first English words.
Yet now, I'm sitting in a desk working at thousands of words of essays that seems endless to me, crafting academic journals that I hope would turn into a profound and influential knowledge some day in the future.
That time was the first time I got fascinated with other language, since I consider both Javanese and Indonesian as my mother tongue. That song is my bedtime lullaby. That was the time that I got so interested into studying English, a step that enabled me to be here right now in Sydney, Australia, studying at world's 50th best university.
I could never thank you enough for teaching me that song, Mbak. I hope you're getting better, live your life cheerfully like you used to.
Love, your youngest brother.
No comments:
Post a Comment