Semantics and Pragmatics: How does everyone have different interpretation and perception?

Seminar kegiatan yang rutin dilaksanakan oleh STIBA Nusa Mandiri Prodi Sastra Inggris kali ini [Selasa, 22 November 2016] bertempat di Aula kampus BSI salemba 22 dengan tema: “Semantics and Pragmatics: How does everyone have different interpretation and perception?”

Salah satu cabang dari ilmu linguistik yang mempelajari tentang makna adalah Semantics dan Pragmatics. Pada seminar kali ini, STIBA menghadirkan Ibu Yanti, Ph,D sebagai keynote speaker. Beliau yang mengenyam pendidikan doctoral di Dellaware University, Amerika Serikat, juga seorang dosen di Universitas Atmajaya, mengutarakan bahwa setiap orang bisa mempunyai persepsi serta interpretasi yang berbeda-beda mengenai suatu hal tergantung sampai sejauh mana kemampuan atau tingkat ilmu pengetahuan orang tersebut. Beliau memberikan contoh kasus yang baru-baru ini terjadi di  Jakarta ketika gubernur DKI, Basuki Tjahaya Purnama, melontarkan statement yang kontroversial. Menurut beliau, apa yang dikatakan oleh Ahok merupakan suatu hal yang menarik jika ditelisik menggunakan ilmu Semantics serta Pragmatics. Lebih lanjut lagi, beliau juga menyampaikan bahwa perbedaan kebudayaan juga menjadi salah satu faktor penentu seseorang memiliki interpretasi yang berbeda-beda. Hal ini sekaligus membuktikan bagaimana pentingnya bagi seseorang untuk mempunyai pandangan serta pola pikir yang luas.

Meskipun tergolong sulit, namun ilmu linguistik bukan tidak mungkin untuk dikuasai. Menurut mahasiswa ketika ditanya oleh Ibu Yanti mengenai apa pendapatnya tentang linguistik. Hal yang perlu ditekankan adalah bagaimana kita mampu mempelajarinya dengan serius serta mengaplikasikannya ke dalam kehidupan sehari-hari karena kita hidup bersama dengan linguistik. Menurut beliau, hal tersebut mampu membuat ilmu linguistik lebih mudah untuk dipahami.

Seminar yang disampaikan dengan menggunakan Bahasa Inggris ini sangat membuat mahasiswa STIBA antusias. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari antusiasme dan pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang dilontarkan oleh peserta selama berlangsungnya acara. Jumlah mahasiswa yang mengikuti seminar linguistik ini mencapai 163 mahasiswa, menunjukan bahwa tema yang diusung termasuk menarik minat peserta. Selain temanya yang menarik, pembicara yang kompeten karena juga memberikan contoh-contoh yang ada dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, menjadi faktor pendukung suksesnya acara ini.

Peserta yang mengikuti workshop ini adalah mahasiswa sastra Inggris semester 3 yang juga mendapat mata kuliah Introduction to Linguistics, sehingga seminar ini diharapkan mampu menambah dimensi cakrawala pikiran mereka terhadap mata kuliah tersebut. 

[Sayyid-STIBA]

Conversation of Love and Marriage

Once upon a time, a student asks a teacher, “Why often people marry a different person then they fell in love with?”

The teacher said, “In order to answer your question, go to the wheat field and choose the best wheat and come back. But the rule is that you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick.”

The sudent went to the field, went through the first row, he saw one big wheat which he instantly liked, but he wonders that maybe there is a bigger one further. Then he saw another bigger one, but again he thought that maybe there is an even bigger one waiting for him. Later, when he finished more than half of the wheat field, he started to realize that the wheat is not as big as the ones he let go off, he started to realize that he had missed the best one in the search of a bigger. So, he ended up going back to the teacher with an empty hand just because he just wasn’t able to forgive himself for letting go of the best wheat and described what happened.

The teacher told him, “You kept looking for a better one while letting go of the best one and later when you realize that you have missed that, you can’t go back. This is the mistake often made by people who fell in love and lost the best person they could have in their life.”

So, the student said, “Does that mean, one should never fall in love?”

The teacher replied, “No Dear, Anyone can fall in love if they find a suitable person. But, once you truly fall in love, you must never let go of that person due to your anger, ego or comparisons with others.”

“How do they end up marrying someone other than they loved?” the student asked curiously.

The teacher said, “In order to answer your question, now go to the corn field and choose the biggest corn and come back. But the rule is still the same as before, you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick.”

The student went to the corn field, this time he was careful to not to repeat the previous mistake. When he reached to the middle of the field, he picked one medium corn that he felt satisfied with and rushed back to the teacher. He described how he made a choice. The teacher told him, “Well, this time you didn’t come empty handed. You looked for one that is just nice, and  you had put your faith that this is the best one you can get. This is how one makes a choice for marriage.”

The student stood confusedly. The teacher asked, “What is bothering you now?”

The student then replied, “I’m wondering which would’ve been better, marrying the person you love or loving the person you marry.”

The teacher replied, “It’s very easy to answer that. Only if you are willing to admit it to yourself. Life is like a basket of fruits, Kid. Either you have to make a choice of eating the fruit you love or be content with something that is healthy! Choose wisely, else you may have to spend your life wondering…. What if.

As long as you stay true to yourself and honest, you can’t go wrong with any of these two choices.” the teacher closes the class.

Adapted from Reader's Digest