Language Learning

The Process of Learning Second or Foreign Language:

Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis, Performance Analysis, and Discourse Analysis

Introduction

In the process of learning a second or foreign language, L1 has complex roles which can lead to errors. Many researchers have tried to get better understanding of the errors made by the L2 learners by having different types of data analysis.  Over the past several decades there are 4 types of data analysis which were used to come to the conclusion of language acquisition process. They are contrastie analysis (CA), error analysis (EA), performance analysis, and discourse analysis. Their contribution to language learning theories is valuable. They give knowledge on how human acquire language and how second or foreign language learner process the language. In acquiring this second language the L1 of the learners give contribution to the language acquisition whether it is positive or negative. Besides, the error made by the language learners can be seen differently for each types of data analysis. It can be negative as in contrastive analysis or can be positif as in error analysis. In this analytical paper, there will be an elaboration in what ways each types of data analysis differ and in what ways they can be complementary to the others.

Contrastive Analysis

Contrastive analysis is the study about a pair of language which can be used to identify the similary and the differences structurally between the two languages. The focus of this analysis is on the surface form of the first and second language system. It tries to compare the forms of two languages and then describe them. By comparing and describing the surface form of first and second language system, it is expected that the area of difficulty encountered by the learners can be identified. After it is identified, the solution of this problem difficulty can be tackled.

The statement from Fries (1945) about the effective material that should be based on the scientific description of the language to be learned inspires a number of constrastive analysis. “the most efficient materials are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learners” cited in Larsen (1991, p.52). Because there is a belief that error in second language is an evil sign of deficiancy, the materials are designed to make sure that the learners will not perform an error. The concept of error in this contrastive analysis is different with the concept of error in error analysis. In error analysis, the error will be seen as necessary part of learning second or foreign language which then allow the learners to commit an error.

The errors which are commited by the learners related to language systems mostly are phonological error that reflect the nature of native language. According to Lanteigne (2006, p.1) the difficulty in learning English occur due to the fact that some of English sound do not exist in the mother tongue of the learners. For Indonesian language, the English sound of [ð], [Ɵ], [Ʒ], [dƷ], and [tʃ] do not exist in Indonesian. For the example it can be known from the example when Indonesian learners says Thursday. Instead of saying [Ɵɜ:rzdei] they will say [tɜ:rzdei].

Others error are from the syntactic and morphological levels. For the example the Indonesian learners who says “I not like it.” The English utterance contains the error, whose the souce of the error is from Indonesian language. There is no auxiliary verb ‘do’ in Indonesian language. The Indonesia language will be “Saya tidak suka dia.” So, once it is transfered to English  the learner will say “I not like it” instead of “I do not like it.” It is clear then that the difficulties in learning second or foreign language can be predicted by comparing the structure differences between two languages through constrastive analysis.

The examples of error as discussed previously bring to the idea that the first language of the language learners interfere the second language acquisition. The acquisition of second language habit is usually different from the habit of the first language which makes what we called as negative transfer. Negative transfer happens when the two languages are different which then rises language learning difficulty. It is in line with statement from Lado who says “individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture” (1957, in Larsen 1991, p.53). So, there is a belief in constranstive analysis second language learners will tend to transfer their first language feature to their second language utterances.

As there is prediction for the second language learners difficulty, the difficult pattern can be emphasized in the classroom drillings of Audio-lingual method. This method is based on Behaviorist theory of language learning that views second language acquisition as the formation of new habit acquired through association, repetition and reinforcement. The activities can be in the form of reading aloud dialogues, repetition of model sentences, and drilling. Based on Richard, Platt, and Weber (1985) there are three types of drilling; mechanical drill, meaningful drill, and communicative drill. All of them has control for the responses and they are only different in the portion of the control. The example of drilling that can be done in the classroom is the teacher shows the picture of dictionary while she/he is saying “This is a dictionary” and then shows another picture for the students to say what it is with the right structure. Another example of drilling that can be applied in the classroom is by letting the students to response based on the correct understanding. When the teacher says “It’s hot here” the students give response by saying “I will turn on the aircon.” So, in this case, there is a repetition and reinforcement of the correct response which place the language learners as imitator of the teacher’s model.

The formation of new habit through repetition and reinforcement can help the learners to make sentence pattern automatically but it also can make the language learners has limitation in the creativity since the responses are controlled. It also ignores the role of context and knowlege in learning language. It then falls to the assumption that second language acquisition is viewed as passive mechanical process rather than as active mental process. If it is the case, it can be compared to the training of animal where the animals can perform certain task by using appropriate conditioning technique. It means that the treatment of repetition and reinforcement to format new  habit can not offer the improvement in communicative ability that is essentially needed by the language learners.

Not only can not offer communicative ability in language learning with its habit formation view, constrastive analysis also can not explain the unpredictable types of error such as overgeneralization or simplification. The first language transfer alone is not able to explain about the errors made by second language learners. There is also one condition where the errors made by the language learners are also happened to the first language learner, especially the young learner. For the example the young language learners who their first language is English still make mistake in the use of irregular verb. Instead of saying “I made this cake” they will say “I maked this cake.” As there are many aspect of language errors that can not be explained by contrastive analysis itself, error analysis has different explanation of it.

Error Analysis

Error analysis is different from constrastive analysis because the focus is not in predicting the error but focus in discovering and describing the error made by second language learners. According to Hakuta (1977) “the goals of error analysis are twofold: to describe, through the evidence contained in errors, the nature of the interlanguage in its developmental stages and to infer from these descriptions the process of second-language acquisition.” For this goal, the errors that the language learners made will be classified to different types. After the errors are classified, the information then will be described to build up the pictures of language which can cause language learning problems.

There was a research about the errors made the learners by Dulay and Burt (1973) in Hakuta (1977) where the finding could against the argument from constrastive analysis. They classify error as interference, ibtralingual, and unique. It was found in this research that the contribution of interference to the learners’ error was only 5 percent, and the 87 percent of error was intralingual. It could mean that the interference of learner first language only had little influence on second language learning. Whereas the constrastive analysis relies on the belief that first language tends to interfere the second language. But still, the view of constrastive analysis can be incorporated to Error analysis approach for future studies in order to get complete picture of the learners performance.

From the study of the learners error, there will be information about the nature of language learners knowledge in the target language. By having this information, the area that still needs improvement can be tracked. The area of difficulty can be interlingual or intralingual. If interlingual is caused by the first language interferene, intralingual is caused by the overgeneralization or simplification of particular grammar rules. It can not be explained in constrastive analysis but it can be explained in error analysis. According to Richard (1971) overgeneralization can be caused by the learners’ failure to observe the boundaries of a rule. In this case the learners tend to extend the use of grammatical rules beyond its accepted uses. For the example the language learners say “I don’t have any idea why did he came to my house” instead of saying “I don’t have any idea why he came to my house.”  It is clear from the example that the learners has generalized the rule of subject-verb inversion in indirect question when it is not necessary. On the other hand, in simplification the language learners simplify the second language system so that the learning difficulties of the second langauge will be decreased. For the example the learners will say “This country has unique culture which is not same in other countirs” instead of saying “This country has unique culture which is not the same as those in other countries.” So in those two sentences there is simplification in relative clause.

Those errors made by second language learners suppose to not viewed as bad habit. It can be viewed as strategy of the second language learners to acquire the second language and to communicate a desired concept as a term of communication-based error from Selinker (1972) in Freeman (1991) where the errors resulted when the speakers invoked communicative strategy. So, in error analysis, the errors can be seen as positive sign that the learners engage in communication actively rather than be seen as something to be prevented.

According to Corder (1967) in Freeman (1991) the errors made by the second language learners are different from the mistake. Errors are considered to be systematic governed by rule. They appear because the knowledge of the language learners about the rule of the target language is incomplete. It then likely to occur repeatedly as they do not recognize it. That is why in solving this errors problem the language learners need teachers or resarchers to locae the errors made. Compared with errors, the mistakes are different. Mistakes are not related to any system. Mistakes are cause by non-linguistic factors such as memory limitation, fatigue, emotional strain, etc. Unlike the error that cannot be recognized by the learner themselves, the mistakes can be self corrected if they are brought to the language learners attention.

In the study of errors in language production error analysis has weakness as the learners attitude which avoid error in their language production can not be detected. There is possibility that the language learners will avoid to produce errors in their utterances by avoiding certain linguistic structures due to the differences between their native language and the target language or due to complexity of the stucture. For the learners with negative transfer who are predicted to produce more errors in their speech production may has possibility that they only produce less error in their production and vice versa. It can be caused by their avoidance in using complex and variety of sentence construction. This error analysis then has an effect to to the constrastive analysis because this avoidance, there is no evidence that first language interfere second language production. In the same position, error analysis also can not detect and describe this phenomenon since error analysis attempt not only to describe error but it describe the learners overall performance.

Performance Analysis

There are two types of performance analysis; morpheme studies and developmental sequence. Language learners’ performance can be described accurately by having quantitative analysis. Morpheme studies serve this analysis as grammatical morpheme include the article (a, the), the copula and auxiliary be, and the noun and the verb inflections.

Brown (1973) is the one who carried out the first study on grammatical morpheme with three children whose first language was english became the subject. He analyzed fourteen morphemes in data collected. They are  present progressive –ing, plural –s, irregular past tense, possessive –s, copula be, articles a/an and the, third person singular present tense –s, and auxiliary be. From the study there was conclusion that eventhough the children learned the morphemes at different rates and ages, the order in which they learned them was relatively the same.

Then, there was another study about morpheme acquisition. This time, it was conducted by Dulay and Burt (1974) with 300 Spanish speaker in the first study and 250 Spanish and Chinese speaker in the second study as subject of study. From the finding, there was indication that  the order of morpheme acquisition for second language learner was different from the order for the native speaker. Besides, the order was relatively the same between the group of Spanish speakers and the group of Spanish and Chinese speakers.

For the morpheme acquisition in a certain order there is tendency that it is determined by the frequency of occurence. So if for example the morpheme progressive –ing has high frequency in use, it will acquired early and vice versa. In addition the morpheme acquisition is also determine by the learners’ native language (Brown, 1973). So if Spanish learners are able to contrast in the use of artcle “a” and “the” due to their native language, the condition will be different with Chinese learners that have to learn about them before being able to discriminate the english article. In conclusion, the transfer from the native language and the frequency used have important factors in determining the acquisition of morpheme.

Discourse Analysis

If constrastive analysis focus on language system, error analysis focus on language construction, performance analysis focus on morpheme acquisition, discourse analysis will focus on language in social context. The theory of language will be different because in discourse analysis the sentence will be related to the socio-cultural context. Discourse analysis itself is based on the understanding that there is much more going on when people communicate than only about information transfer.

According to Stubbs (1983) discourse analysis refers to the study about the language use beyond the boundaries of a sentence/utterance. Besides, it concerns with the interrelationship between language and society, and concern with interactive properties of everyday communication. Another definition comes from Brown & Yule (1983) with the statement that discourse analysis is analysis of “language in use.” So it can be concluded that discourse anaysis is the study of the use of spoken or written language in a social context.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative method of analysis. In discourse analysis there might be questions about turn-taking in conversation, misunderstanding between speakers beacuse discourse analysis concern with the meaning produced by language use and communication. The aim of this discourse analysis is perceiving and categorizing various meaning-making processes, networks and practice from the data.

Conversational analysis is one sub-area of discourse analysis. Conversational analysis has an interest in talk-in-interaction. Specifically, conversational analysis focus on the spoken language.

Conclusion

There are several types of data analysis in second language acquisition; constrastive analysis, error analysis, performance analysis, and discourse analysis. Each of analysis has its strength and weaknesses. The weaknesses does not make the data analysis type can not be used for the future study. The weaknesses can be covered by other types analysis to form ccomplete description of future study. Constrastive analysis as the first types of data analysis which has behaviorist view proved to has weaknesses as it can not explain some errors made by the second language learners. Besides, many of the difficulties which is predicted by constrastive analysis do not show up in the performance of the learners. But until these days, this constrastive analysis still get attention as one of the component in language study. At the same point, another types of data analysis, error analysis can not just rely on its belief that by finding the error made by learners, the information about the area of language that need improvement can be discovered. It is because focusing only to the errors made can not give clear picture of language learners performance if there is no further studies about the sources of errors. In order to know how languge is process, performance analysis can be used. The use of this kind analysis data is also not enough to explain certain utterance related to the strategy of communication. Then, there is what is called as discourse analysis to study not only the language but also the context to get the meaning behind it. For the summary, the purpose of our study will determine types of data analysis used. The errors phenomenon in language can not be explain by only using one type of data analysis. One type of data analysis can also be complementary to the others.

REFERENCES

Brown, R. (1973). A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Dulay, H., & Burt, M. (1974). Errors and Strategies in Child Second Language Acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 24, 37-53.

Fries, Charles. (1945). Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language. In Larsen-Freeman, Diane and Michael H. Long. (1991). An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. New York: Longman.

Hakuta, Kenji and Herlinda Cancino. (1997). Trends in Second-Language Acquisition Research. Harvard Educational Review Vol.47 No.3 August, 294-315.

Lanteigne, B. (2006). Common, persistent errors in English by Brazilian Portugese speakers. TEFL Web Journal, 4(1). Retrieved May 20, 2016, from http://www.teflweb-j.org/v4n1/Brazilians.pd.

Larsen-Freeman, Diane and Michael H. Long. (1991) An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. New York: Longman.

Richards, J. C. (1971). A Non-Constrastive Approach to Error Analysis. English Language Teaching Journal, 25, 204-219.

Stubbs, M. (1983). Discourse Analysis: The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Assessment (Advantages and Disadvantages)

Multiple Choice

The advantages and disadvantages

a. Advantages of Multiple Choice

Multiple choice has many advantages. One of them is its practicallity. It can be easily and quickly scored. “By far the most popular method of testing a reading knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is the multiple choice format, mainly for reasons of practicality. It is easy to administer and can be scored quickly. The most straightforward multiple-choice items may have little context, but might serve as a vocabulary or grammar check.” (Brown, 2003, hal. 194). In line with Brown (Steven J. Burton, 1991) says that Multiple-choice items can be used for many different areas of subject matter because they can adapt the various level of learning outcomes from the simple one to the complex one.

Furthermore, Osteroof stated others advantages of multiple choice items. “Multiple-choice items have four basic advantages over some of the other formats. First, they often provide a more adequate sampling of content. Second, these items tend to structure the problem to be addressed more effectively. Third, they can be quickly scored. Forth, responses to multiple choice items are objectively scored.” (Oosteroof, 2003, hal. 85)

For the detail of these advantages, it will be explained below.

1). Multiple-choice items allow a test to obtain a more adequate sampling of content.

There are two reason why multiple choice items are able to provide a more adequate sampling of content. Firstly, multiple choice can involve many more items than in essay. It is because of the time needed by the students for recording the response is lesser than in essay test. In addition, more content in multiple choice item can be sampled than content in essay. “Therefore, more content can be sampled by using the multiple-choice rather than the essay format” (Oosteroof, 2003, hal. 86).

Secondly, multiple choice item can measure procedural knowledge. Actually essay item is also able to measure procedural knowledge. So is short answer. But, if it is compared, multiple choice has more advantage than short answer test in the limitation of the concept knowledge. There are many things that students can do in multiple choice item such as identifyingan example of a particular concept by giving an options which include examples and non-examples of the concept, demonstarting the ability in classifying illustration related to the concept which is done by identifying the appropriate response, and applying the rule by including correct and common incorrect solutions resulting from the application of the rule. For those things, short answer test is not able to do it because of the restriction of the response which only consists of two words or a short sentence.

2). Multiple choice items tend to structure the problem to be addressed more effectively.

In multiple choice item, the responses help to define the problem being addressed. In this types of item, the items make the context clearer so that the problem is easier to be formated. “The context provided by the options makes it easier to structure a problem with a multiple-choice item than with other writen formats” ( (Oosteroof, 2003).

3). Multiple choice items can be quickly scored.

Scoring the multiple choice items is very fast since the respond of the students is in the single mark form. It is even easier when the machine score the test with the stipulation that the students responses are in separate answer sheet. “When responses are marked on a separate answer sheet, tests can be scored by machine” (Oosteroof, 2003).

4). Responses to multiple-choice items are objectively scored.

Multiple choice items have objective score. It is because multiple choice items are consistent in scoring. “Inconsistency in scoring is negligible with multiple-choice items” (Oosteroof, 2003). So, the test can be scored by different people such as students, teacher, aides, or machine as long as that the asnwer key is provided.

b. Disadvantages of Multiple Choice

“Multiple-choice items have three limitations we will address. First, these items are somewhat susceptible to guessing. Second, multiple-choice items usually must indirectly measure targetd behaviours. Third, multiple-choice items are time consuming to construct” (Oosteroof, 2003).

1). Multiple-choice items are somewhat susceptible to guessing.

In multiple choice items, there is possibility to get correct answer by guessing. The possibility of getting the correct answer by guessing will improve when the students are able to eliminate some of the distractors in a test. The result of this elimination is stated by Oosteroof (2003) that “the more distractors the students can eliminate in a test, the higher the test score.” So, the students who can avoid to choose the distractor will be able to get the higher score. This is what makes the negative effect of guessing in multiple choice items happened. Guessing in a test will affect the generalizability of performance in a negative way.

2). Multiple-choice items often must indirectly measure targeted behaviours.

It is impossible to know what the students are thinking whether they really get the answer or only guess the possible answer. “As with all test formats, multiple-choice items do not allow teachers to observe directly what the students was thinking or why students selected particular wrong answers” (Oosteroof, 2003, hal. 88). So, the result of the test sometimes does not really reflect the students ability.

3). Multiple-choice items are time-consuming.

Multiple choice items can be time-consuming  in order to have effective alternatives within each item. For other formats it will need lesser time than multiple choice items. “More time is required to build a test with multiple-choice items than is required with any other written format” (Oosteroof, 2003).

Thailand in Memory

Why should we travel to Bangkok. I didn't know the reason until I went there. There were so many places could be visited. I had Bangkok and Pattaya as the top places on my list to explore. I started from Supadio airport in Pontianak to KLIA Airport in Kuala Lumpur. Then I continued to  Don Mueang Airport (DMK) in Bangkok.

Khaosan Road

It was such a tiring day. I could say that because I came to Supadio Airport at 10 a.m and finally arrived to the hotel at 10 p.m. I stayed at D & D Inn. It’s located at Khaosan Road, Phranakrn, Bangkok.  The room was comfortable enough. I was tired but I just couldn’t ignore the music from the road near the hotel. There were so many western people walking around here. The local people also still sold many food, clothes, souvenirs, etc. There were also several places to make tattoo. The bars had many visitors. The music came from them. It just looked like night wouldn’t over. Some people sold food. If you want to try extreme food, you could find it here. There were fried caterpillar, scorpion, etc. Personally, I would never tried that kind of food because as far as I know if we eat something we feel disgusting it won't b halal anymore. I prefer to bought tat pai and fruit. Tat pai was halal food. It was a stir-fried noodles. It was cooked with shrimps and eggs. The price was THB40. The watermelon and mangoes from fruit seller was THB30 and THB40. After my stomach was full, I went back to the hotel room for taking a bath and sleeping.

In the next day, I remembered that I got voucher for breakfast. On the other hand, at that time I did not use it because it was still 6 o’clock in the morning and the restaurant opens at 7. As I was hungry and I couldn’t wait any longer. I and my roommate, Bu Ahun, decided to find street food. But the athmospher was different from what I saw last night. No street food, no shops or bar opened, no music. It was just like common road.

Wat Saket (Golden Mount)

In front of the hotel, there was a man offer to take me to go around hotel by using tuk tuk. It cost THB400. The driver said it’s not expensive because he would drive us for about 2 hours. At first I and Bu Ahun felt hesitate to follow because we have to leave the hotel at 8. But the driver could convince us that we would go back to the hotel before 8 o’clock. Then,... wuuuzzzzzzzzzzz we were riding tuk tuk while enjoying the sightseing in Bangkok in the morning. The driver dropped us to Wat Pho and Wat Saket (Golden Mount). We just took a look and took some pictures for a while around them. At least, we knew what was it like.
Actually, the temple was on the hill. We had to step on the stairs and go up to see it. I really wanted to see it, but because the time was so limited and it was so tiring, I did not continue it. could see some people, wearing t-shirts and short pants, some are old men, they had spirit to climb up the hill. Maybe someday I can do it. If I have a chance to visit Bangkok again, of course.
You have to know that climbing the stair can make you feel hungry. So, if you feel hungry and you can not find halal food around you, you should go to seven eleven. It sells halal food. Don't forget to choose the rice box with 'halal' label on it. The rice is little bit longer than rice in Indonesia. The side dish was delicious enough as it was cooked with spices. So, don't feel afraid that you will not find halal food there. 
I almost forget to say that you can also find halal food near the mosque. Yes, there is Chakrabongse mosque which is hidden among bars and hotels at Khaosan Road. Specifically it is located at Trok Surao alley. Hopefully you can pass by to this mosque for praying and finding halal food while enjoying your vacation in Thailand.

Pattaya Floating Market

My friends and I went to Pattaya floating Market. It took about 3 hours to get there by bus. There were two big elephant statues in front of the market. Maybe they put them there because elephant is the symbol of Thailand. In addition, there were many foreigner went there. From what I saw, they were Korean and Hong Kong people. The way they talk was just like Korean drama that I usually watched. But of course they looked different from the drama I saw and I barely knew what they are talking about :-P .Before we get in, they would stick the ticket to our clothes and give the red stamp to our hand. 
It was mid-day and it was so hot. Even though the sun shone so bright make me sweating, I still feel excited for finding something new as it was my first time to get there. This floating market was made on artificial lake. We could take a boat trip around the waterways of the market by using small boat. Even though the water was not clear, it was not smelly.

Pattaya Floating Market

The local people sold many things such as clothes, accessories, souvenirs, street food, etc. I walked around to see what this market offer to the tourist. Honestly I couldn't compare it to the others market as this was the first floating market I have ever visited.  But overall, it was nice place. There was live music from teenagers' band. I could also see the artist draw and color his painting. At that time the man directly use red paints on his brush to draw elephant. He did it quickly. There were some paintings around him. I though he sold it but I did not ask the price as I did not have intention to buy it.
The food sold around looked so yummy. There were so many choice but not for me. I think it was not easy to find halal food. So, I just bought fruits, souvenirs, and noodles. There was one man sold halal food. I forget the name of the food, but it was made from noodles.  In addition, in this market I saw many products made from mango such as mango ice cream, mango rice, mango pancake,etc. I could say that the taste of the mango was sweet and fresh. So, I think mango lovers could stay longer here.

The accessories and the souvenirs here could be bargained. But some sellers put the fix price for them. For the example, the key chains that I bought was fix price. THB200 for 5 key chain. Because it was already written I did not bargain it. But an old lady near me was able to bargain the bag that she wanted. So, If you have ability to bargain, I think it is better for you to try to bargain regard to the things you want to buy first.

The biggest mosque in Pattaya

Darul Ibadah Mosque in Pattaya

Travelling does not means that you can leave your  duty to pray. You need to know that there is big mosque in Pattaya. It is Darul Ibadah Mosque. It is located on Sukhmvit  53 Pattaya, Na Kluea Chonbury. It can be said that it is located in the Muslim area. 
The mosque was big. There was place for the ritual ablution on the right side of the mosque. In Indonesia usually we bow to take the water for ritual ablution, but in Bangkok there are seat provided to sit while taking the water for ritual ablution.

Teddy Bear Museum

I stayed at A-One hotel. It is located right on Pattaya beach road. Near the hotel there is a teddy bear museum. I was so curious to know what was inside. It took about five minutes for walking from the hotel to Teddy Bear Museum. The ticket price was a little bit expensive. It cost THB500 for adult and THB300 for kid. It opens at 9 a.m to 6 p.m.
As it was named of, in this museum there were hundreds teddy bears with several zones. There were Inca tribe zone, dinosaur zone, Africa zone, forest zone, ocean zone, pole zone, Christmas zone, Oriental zone and many other more. Those teddy bears were not kept inside the glass box. They could be touch and even could be hugged. I just needed one hour  look at all zones.
In the last room, there were many souvenirs of teddy bear that we could buy such as glass, doll, key chain, etc. Because I was not a fan of teddy bear, I decided for not buying anything. I just took a look for awhile and then went to the ground floor using lift.
I can say that this museum offered family's experience. It could evoke the memories of childhood. If you are teddy bear lover, you should visit this museum.

Pattaya Beach

Pattaya Beach in the late of afternoon

After from Teddy bear museum, I was going to enjoy Pattaya beach. It was famous beach but I did not know what what it special. Personally I thought that it was just common beach. It was long beach which was divided into three zones; north zone, central zone, and south zone. There were many tourist here. There were also big umbrella alongside of the beach which were for rent. For me, I prefered the beaches in Indonesia where I could enjoy the sunset, the sand on my feet, and the sound of the wave.

Shahi Indian Resaurant

As I could not enjoy the situation on the beach, I decided to just take a walk and see the atmosphere around. It was very refreshing. Then, I found India restaurant accross the beach. The restaurant's name is Shahi Indian Restaurant. It was next to Thai Massage. I ordered zeera rice and ice tea. When it came, I realized that it was fried rice with spices but without soy sauce. My stomach just could not hold it. I like Indonesian food more as the taste fitted my tongue and my belly :-P

 

Walking Street

At night, my friends and I wanted to go to see night market. From the map, I could see that it was located in south Pattaya, Pattaya beach road. It was said that this place was closed for any vehicle from 6 p.m to 2 p.m. We went there by using songtaew. Songtaew was like tuk tuk but it is bigger. It cost THB20 for each person. On the other hand, it only cost THB10 for the local people.
This place was very crowded with tourists. At first I though that this is a common night market which sells food, clothes, souvenirs, etc. Then, I realize that this place was not as I thought. It was red-light district which are full with bars. All along the way I could only see bars, live music, and several restaurants. Right in front of the bar there were girls who were wearing sexy clothes (*which I thought was almost naked). They were standing while holding something which was written HAPPY HOUR. They were guarded by some men which I assumed they were body guard.

walking street

One of my friends tried to ask the price. He just did it for the hell of it, actually. It cost about THB1000. He then tried to bargain for THB200 and unbelievable that it was accepted. Frankly speaking, we did not know what kind of service given for it because in this place you could find local woman and even beautiful shemale. 
Because nothing was interesting, my friends and I decided to go back to the hotel. We used songtaew again. But at this time the songtaew did not drive in the main road. The driver passed the alley and go to the near hotel. So, it's better for yu if you want to use songtaew at night to know your way. You can bring the map with you so you will not get lost or you can stop the songtaew if you think that it does not go to the destination you want. 

When I was Sick in Pattaya

After went back to the a-One hotel, I did not directly go to the room for sleeping. I bought fruit which was sold near the hotel. Actually I wanted to find rice but because I did not know the place near hotel which sold halal food then fruit was the only choice.

kind and friendly people around me (Bu Ahun, me, Ririz, Bu Nik)

As usual I washed my face and brushed my teeth before going to bed. I was not feeling well. So I just lay on my bed. At midnight I felt that I got temperature and my head was really hurt that I had to struggle when  had to walk just to take the mineral water in the freezer.
Actually it was the basic thing that you have to bring medicine wit you while travelling. I forgot it. I did not bring any medicine with me at that time. Fortunately, my roommate, Bu Ahun, had many medicine. When I asked for any medicine for fever, she gave me parasetamol. I ate my fruit before I took the medicine. After that, I slept well.
Fortunately after I woke up, I was feeling better that I could continue my trip to go to Bangkok again. And thanks to God that I had people who took care of me when I was sick even though I had just known them. That was a lesson for me to always bring the medicine with me when having a trip to anywhere. 

Masjid Darul Aman

In Bangkok there was Masjid Darul Aman. In front of the mosque many people sold halal food such as sausage, curry rice, bread, etc. They were Muslim. Some of them even understood Malay language for a little even though they were originally from Bangkok. Maybe it was because many Malay people came to that place.
This mosque has wide yard. The people here was very nice and friendly. They even did not hesitate to ask and talk to people that they have just seen. It was Friday at that time. Many of the Muslims around this mosque came to have Friday prayer. Woman could also follow Friday prayer. Their place was on the second floor.  So after took ritual ablution on the first floor, the woman should go to the second floor. The room was clean and cold. There were air-conditioners. There were also 'mukena' (women's praying veil) provided in the wardrobe. The mukenas were clean and fragrance. Most of the color of the mukena was black.

borrowing mukena from Masjid Darul Aman

As usual, there was preaching. The preaching was in Thai language. Honestly, I did not understand what was that about. I just heard that sometimes he mention "Allah" and "Rasul". For me, it did not reduce the solemnity of this religious prayer. After the preaching, all Muslims did Friday prayer.
 

Dusit Palace

When I visited Dusit place, my body was still no really feeling well. On the other hand, I still wanted to see the famous dusit palace. You should know that the spirit can beat any illness. That's why I visited this place while struggling my body to cooperate with me. It was sad that Dusit palace was built by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), the first King who ever visited Europe, in the late of 19 century. He made the palace in European style after he had got inspiration from his journey to Europe.

At that time, there were sooooo many tourists from Korea, Hong Kong, etc but there were no western people there. Perhaps it was because there were a lot of places like that in Europe so it became common for them. Looking at those people who did not stop coming and those very loooooonngggggg queue to buy the ticket and go inside the palace, I  changed my mind to get inside. Besides, it was forbidden to take the picture inside the palace. I then just took the picture from outside. While taking the picture around Dusit place, I saw the security barked away the tourist because the tourist stepped on the grass. I had just known at that time that stepped on grass was forbidden there.

Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall

MBK Mall

It was said that MBK Mall was the most visited mall in Bangkok. Maybe it was because people could find everything here such as clothing, souvenirs, stationery, electronics, cosmetics, food, fruit, etc. Bargaining was also allowed here. When I went there, there were seven floors. It was so tiring if I want walk around on every floor. I was just curious about what could be find here. So after the seventh floor I just wanted to go directly to the ground floor, to the MBK Market garden.It was nice and arranged beautifully. There was halal food, thai fruit, souvenirs, etc.

Asiatique River Front

Bangkok Night Market

Visiting Thailand would not complete without going to Asiatique Riverfront. It was an outdoor shopping center with river views. It was on Chaeroen Krung Road. Fortunately, the location was near the hotel where I stayed, Sunreno Hotel. From the hotel, I just need to walk across the street to get to Asiatique Rivver Front. If you were tired or sick you would forget it all because it was nice spot for many things. You could eat local food, western food, or japanese food at the riverside restaurants. You could also buy handicraft, jewelry, clothing and souvenirs at the shops, boutiques, and stalls. Besides, you would be able to to try free shuttle boat and see chaopraya river at night, but you have to queue for this. Moreover, you were able to watch Calypso Cabaret show here. At last, you could also try the tallest Ferris wheel in Bangkok. All you can do in one place. It was amazing.

Ferris Wheel

The first thing I did when I get here is trying the Ferris wheel. It was 60 metres (200ft) with 42 gondolas. It cost THB200 for child and THB300 for adult. The sightseeing of Bangkok at night from the gondola was wonderful. Time flied so fast up there. Next time if I go to Bangkok again, I have to do it again. After trying the ferris wheel actually I would like to try free shuttle boat. I was queuing. But then I thought that it will be long, so I gave up. But then suddenly, another empty boat came. But I would not change my mind again. Maybe next time.

love lock

As this was the last place to visit in Bangkok, I decided to buy the souvenirs for my family here. Here I could bargain with the seller. I admitted that was not good in bargaining. But at least, it could be cheaper. I could say that the things sold here cheaper than floating market or MBK mall. I got bag for THB275, shirt for THB250, Dress for THB250, baby dress for THB200, shirt for THB140, souvenirs for THB200, etc. I did not know whether they were expensive or not. I just wanted to spend all my Thai bath before I went home. By the way, I ever passed the place for the lock love inside the building. I don't know where to buy the lock, so I just took a look for a while.

Nice Travelling Companion
It is really important for having nice travelling companion. To be honest until this time I haven't had any bravery for travelling alone. On the other hand, sometimes it is difficult to find family or friends who have free time as we have or have the same destination as we want to. For this kind of problem, one of the ways to solve it is by following open trip. Then, I got the information that one of the famous writers in west Kalimantan, bang Pay Jarot Sujarwo, open the trip to Thailand. At first, I hesitated to follow because none of my friends or family want to follow. Usually, someone would go together with best friend or close family for having a trip. But then, then he was able to convince me that I was not alone because I could find friends during the trip.
He was right. Event though most of the members of the trip went with friend, wife, husband, niece (*it was a fact that it was only me who just follow this trip without companion), I could find good companion here. Since I was in the airport in Pontianak, I always remembered how friendly and nice Bu Nik and his niece, Ririz, were. They greeted me and told me for not to be worried because they were there and I could be together with them. At first, I did not know about how many people would go, who were they, were they nice, would it e comfortable to be with them, and many other questions came across my mind. Then, it was proven that I should not have been worried as during the trip we became united and it felt ike having new family. When I got sick, they gave me medicine, even Bu Nik bought me a rice so that I could take my medicine. Bu Ahun did not mind to be in one room with me even though my fever left me with cough which maybe could disturb her. Bang Pay also always asked whether I was in good condition or not. He also helped Bu Ahun by buying her rice in the morning as he knew that Bu Ahun could not leave the room without eating rice in the morning.

Pay Jarot Sujarwo (opentripto.com)

For this trip, Bang Pay became the tour leader and Habibie was his assistant. Personally I really like the services given. They had schedule with them but they gave us time for enjoying and taking the air for ever places we visited. They also did not shout whenever there were two or three participants who were late to gather because of still eating or doing the shopping. He also let us going to everywhere we wanted and he did not force us to always follow everywhere he went. So, if we wanted to go to different spot as long as we could get back to the hotel safely, we could.  I like it because trip was not only about taking pictures but also having interaction the situation there and having communication with local people. Moreover, I agreed with the destination he put in his itinerary for visiting mosque because travel was for reminding us to Allah, not to forget him. 

new family during the trip

Finding, seeing, and feeling something new will always turn you to be someone who has new knowledge, new experience, and new perspective. Travel to different places can make you think about how powerful Allah S.W.T is in creating heaven and earth. We are only small dot in this mortal life. So we should not be arrogant for everything we have had and should always thanks to God for everything happen to us.
I hope that every year I can go at least to one new place to learn and to understand something new. It can also make my life be balance between working and refreshing mind. Work harder and you will travel easier :-)