Here I Am, Therefore I Speak

Voicing one matter is very important especially it’s related with justice, science, and truth. To achieve the capability of voicing, a skill of effective communication is the main requirement especially for students. Effective communication makes listeners understand the given information easily through visual, oral, written, or non-verbal means. Effective communication also facilitates ones to convey message, debate, defend their opinion, lead discussion, or express their idea to public. Students are expected to have effective communication skill despite of many factors that influence it, such as cultural background, accent, or other psychological factors.

To answer the students’ need, Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta organized a communication skill training program. It began from presenting data with graphic, optimizing power point, until a three-day training with verbal communication practitioner.

This three days training with a theme of “Here I am, therefore I Speak” was held in Omah Jawi, Kaliurang guesthouse at 19-21 May 2017. This training was attended by 30 participants from multiple campuses in Yogyakarta. Stube-HEMAT team and Magdalena Betty, a radio broadcaster and also a practitioner of public speaking became the facilitators in this training. Magdalena delivered material, such as, what verbal graffiti is and how to get rid of it. Verbal graffiti is a repeated speaking habit with useless words in the middle of speaking like ‘ehmm’, ‘eee’, ‘maybe, ‘mmmm’, etc. Other materials delivered were verbal and non-verbal communication and the proper way to express opinion. Participants were also trained to analyze assumption and fact sentences to help objectivity thinking and conclusion making.

The training method didn’t use one way model or teacher-centered learning, but it involved all participants in every session and immediate rehearsal such as debate simulation. The last activity was making a video challenge that required all participants to make 1-5 minute videos with positive invitation as its content. The participants were very creative in making their contents, starting from persuasion to wear helmet when riding, to throw trash in the right place, to be discipline to study, to be aware of HOAX, to avoid smoking, etc. From all videos, 6 top best were chosen.

One participant, Seprianus said, “Stube HEMAT training is different with other training that I’ve ever attended. Usually the training is very serious and boring, but this one gives the nuance of solidarity that makes participants passionate and foster ideas.“  Having the received material from the training, participants are expected to have a better communication skill and to be able to give positive effect for the people and nation. Changes never happen instantly, it needs struggle and hard work, like an Indonesian proverb saying, berguru kepalang ajar, bagai bunga kembang tak jadi which means studying should be done well with passion and not half-hearted to achieve good results. (ITM).