ETA Sabrina Verleysen, from MAN Demak, had the opportunity to get to know her co-teacher Pak Jam a little better one Sunday in October. Pak Jam had invited Sabrina to join him and his family for a meal on Sunday morning and to motivate the children in his family and neighborhood to study English. On Sunday, Pak Jam came to pick up Sabrina early in the morning and they enjoyed a wonderful breakfast together of traditional Javanese cuisine, cooked by his loving wife for Sabrina’s visit.

For the next several hours, different family members of Pak Jam and neighbors joined Sabrina to practice their conversational English, chat about American culture, exchange tricks for learning English, and explore scholarships to study abroad with some of the older students. The youngest child was six years old and the oldest was 23 years old, but that didn’t stop Sabrina from having engaging and lively conversations with her new friends about the peculiarities of American culture for Indonesians and her initial impressions of Indonesian food, traditions, and daily customs. Sabrina was happy to share with them some tricks to learn English including learning five new words every day and watching YouTube videos with the subtitles in English. Pak Jam was very content to have Sabrina join him in his home to spread English language learning and teach about American culture. They both agreed they should do this again soon.

Sabrina Verleysen is currently teaching at MAN Demak, Central Java