IDEAS? EVERYONE?

The following discussion was taken from my CV2 class on Saturday morning, January 9, 2010. We discussed lesson 1 activity 4, asking opinions about three-in-one vehicle in Jakarta. As an additional material, I gave 4 topics for my students to discuss and to practice asking opinion from different groups. The four topics are applying for a city walk in Pandanaran street, not giving money to street children, giving death penalty for corruptors and biking to work for all employees at least once in a week.

The following is the result of the discussion in the class

The first topic is applying city walk in Semarang. Let me give you an overview about why there is the idea of applying city walk in Pandanaran. Pandanaran is the street where many people can find many traditional foods from Semarang. During holidays, the street is mostly overcrowded by tourists. As the result, the street is always densely populated by public transportation, such as buses and private vehicles that cause traffic jam.

From 4 groups, there were two groups that disagree with the opinion. The reason for not agreeing the idea is because they think that the distance from Tugu Muda to Pandanaran is quite far, so it will be tiring if they have to walk. The distance is about 700 meters. The other 2 groups agree on the grounds on supporting the local economy, especially people who earn their living by selling food there. The other argument is to reduce the level of pollution in the street. Besides, recently the government promotes go green by holdig car-free-day in some areas in Semarang. And the last argument is making the strollers feel comfortable while they enjoy the view.

The second topic is not giving the street children money. The four groups stated that they agree with the statement. Some reasons given on the topic are giving money to street children can make them lazy. Making them lazy means that we don’t educate them to be independent and even make them dependent on others. Besides, giving them money will give them bad impact for their physical development, especially if it becomes their habit, asking sympathy from others. Moreover, roaming street children on the street can make traffic more terrible.

The fourth topic is giving death penalty for corruptors. Judging from the rate of corruption in Indonesia that is getting higher, the idea of giving death sentence for corruptors is accepted by all groups. The reasons are various. Death penalty for corruptors will make people think many times to do corruption. From the students’ point of view, death sentence is equal with what they do in manipulating the country’s economy.

The last topic discussed was about biking to work at least once in a week for all employees, regardless the distance. Employees who have motorcycles or cars have to take bike or public transportation to go to the office. From the background, I was sure that most groups would agree with the statement. And it’s true. Pollutions is their main consideration to apply the idea since Semarang is getting more crowded with the private vehicles. Therefore, the government should implement the once-a-week-biking-to-work. Besides, the world’s issue about global warming can’t be prevented by applying the idea.

Well, the discussion was noted by each group and then reported as a class discussion.