"Interpals", gates to see the world!

World Map

Dunia....selalu menjadi hal yang menarik untuk diketahui dan dipelajari oleh manusia. Aspek-aspek dalam hal "Dunia" itu adalah, bahasa, budaya, kehidupan sosial, makanan khas hingga menjalin persahabatan dengan penduduk lokal dari tiap negara di dunia ini. Maka, orang-orang berusaha dengan keras untuk mempelajari hal-hal tersebut dengan berbagai cara.

Begitu banyak cara yang ada untuk mempelajari suatu negara yang diminati, antara lain :

• Untuk mempelajari suatu Negara dengan baik dan efektif, mengunjungi Negara tersebut adalah cara yang paling disarankan. Mengunjungi Negara yang diminati tersebut, bisa dengan alasan pergi berlibur atau pergi mencari ilmu. Dengan mengunjungi Negara yang diminati secara langsung, maka kita dapat mempelajarai budaya, bahasa dan kehidupan sosial Negara tersebut. Kita juga memiliki kesempatan untuk melakukan gaya hidup orang-orang dari Negara tersebut. Kita juga memiliki kesempatan untuk berkomunikasi secara langsung dengan masyarakat lokal, yang secara langsung dapat mempraktekkan 3 aspek yang ingin dipelajari, yaitu Bahasa, Budaya dan Gaya Hidup. Cara yang bagus membutuhkan fasilitas yang bagus pula, maksudnya, dengan mengunjungi Negara yang diminati secara langsung adalah cara yang terbaik dan cara yang paling efektif, namun untuk dapat melakukanhal tersebut, dibutuhkan biaya yang cukup banyak, karena kita akan pergi ke belahan bumi yang lain, jauh dari tempat dimana kita berasal, yang tentu saja membutuhkan biaya yang banyak. Pergi berlibur ke Negara tersebut bisa melakukan persiapan dengan menabung sebelum hari keberangkatan tiba, namun jika dengan alasan mencari ilmu atau bersekolah, bisa mencari beasiswa, yang tentu saja tidak perlu membutuhkan biaya yang sangat banyak, karena sebagian besar biaya pendidikan dan akomodasi ditanggung oleh pihak penyelenggara beasiswa. 

Namun, jika belum memiliki kesempatan untuk melakukan poin yang pertama, masih ada cara lain, yakni :

• Mencari informasi tentang Negara yang diminati melalui jaringan internet, bisa mencari informasi melalui website-website yang relevan atau membaca buku tentang Negara yang diminati. Memang pengalaman yang didapat akan berbeda sama sekali jika dibanding dengan cara yang nomor 1. Namun cara ini juga dianggap efektif untuk mengetahui budaya, bahasa dan kehidupan sosial dari Negara lain, tergantung dari tingginya niat untuk belajar dan dilakukan berulang-ulang. Walaupun dianggap efektif, ada baiknya jika kita mempraktekkan atau berdiskusi tentang hal yang ingin kita ketahui mengenai Negara yang kita minati. Berdiskusi dengan native speaker adalah "bantuan" yang sempurna untuk membantu kita memantapkan pengetahuan kita tentang Negara yang kita minati. Sebagian besar dari kita pasti berpendapat jika berkomunikasi dengan native speaker adalah hal yang sulit, karena sulit berjumpa dengan native speaker di negara asal kita, kecuali kalau kita melakukan cara nomor 1. Lalu bagaimana cara kita untuk bisa berkomunikasi dengan native speaker tanpa perlu mengunjungi Negara asal native speaker tersebut? Salah satu caranya adalah dengan memperluas pertemanan di media sosial. Cukup perluas pertemanan media sosial yang bersifat mendunia, yakni Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, dan masih banyak lagi. Namun sesuai pengalaman pribadi penulis, biasanya pesan yang dikirim melalui media sosial yang disebut diatas, terkadang dianggap spam oleh sebagian besar orang. Itu berarti dalam menjalin pertemanan yang bersifat intersional, lebih baik menggunakan situs pertemanan luar negeri, situs yang murni untuk menjalin pertemanan lintas bangsa. Situs ini berbeda dengan situs kencan internasional yang marak di dunia internet. Situs pertemanan luar negeri ini khusus untuk menjalin persahabatan lintas bangsa.

Di artikel kali ini, penulis akan mereview tentang situs pertemanan luar negeri tersebut. Sekitar setahun yang lalu, penulis menemukan dan bergabung dengan situs tersebut. Nama dari situs tersebut adalah www.interpals.net. Melalui situs tersebut kita dapat berkomunikasi dengan orang-orang dari berbagai belahan dunia, yang mungkin kita belum bisa menjangkaunya. Berikut akan direview apa dan bagaimana cara kerja dari situs pertemanan lintas bangsa tersebut. 

• Apa Itu Interpals?

Interpals adalah sebuah organisasi nirlaba yang memberikan akses kepada pengguna internet untuk dapat berkomunikasi dengan orang-orang lintas negara. Situs ini sudah ada sejak tahun 1998, dan masih populer hingga sekarang (2018). Interpals merupakan akronim dari International PenPals. Interpals merupakan situs pertemanan lintas bangsa yang memberikan kesempatan kepada para penggunanya untuk dapat bertukar budaya dan bahasa. Situs ini dapat diakses dimana saja dan kapan saja serta yang paling penting adalah, situs ini benar-benar gratis 100%, yang berarti dalam mengirim dan menerima pesan, tidak dipungut biaya apapun. Untuk lebih jelasnya, dapat membuka link ini https://www.interpals.net/app/about .

• Bagaimana Cara Kerja dari Interpals?

Seperti yang penulis telah paparkan pada artikel sebelumnya (http://dinarkautsharramadhona.blogspot.co.id/2018/01/asia-not-only-east-asia.html) bahwa mendaftar di situs tersebut sangatlah mudah dan cepat. Langkah-langkahnya akan dipaparkan dibawah ini :

1.     Buka situs www.interpals.net, sebagai langkah awal untuk menjelajahi dunia.

2.     Lalu akan terlihat halaman seperti dibawah ini :

Halaman Awal Interpals

Halaman tersebut menjelaskan tujuan dari Interpals dan cara untuk mendaftar di situs tersebut, ada 2 cara untuk sign up, pertama sign up dengan akun facebook dan kedua sign up dengan mengisi data diri seperti yang ada di gambar di atas.

3.     Setelah sign up, supaya akun bisa digunakan registrasi ulang dengan link yang dikirim ke e-mail yang digunakan untuk sign up. Dan setelah itu, Voila! akun dapat digunakan!

• Tampilan Halaman Interpals

Halaman Beranda Akun

Halaman Profil

Halaman Profil

Halaman Untuk Pencarian

Gambar-gambar yang telah dilampirkan diatas, dirasa cukup untuk memberi gambaran tentang Interpals, jika ingin merasakan pengalaman berbicara dengan orang-orang lintas negara, disarankan untuk membuat akun di situs tersebut dan mulai berdiskusi dengan orang-orang tersebut. Banyak hal positif akan didapat selama memiliki akun di situs tersebut, karena kita akan mendapat teman baru, dan kita merasa keren mempunyai teman dari Negara asing, dan yang paling penting adalah kita bisa saling melatih bahasa asing yang kita pelajari, dan saling mendapatkan pengetahuan baru yang sangat bermanfaat bagi kita. 

Selain hal-hal positif yang bisa kita dapatkan seperti yang dipaparkan di atas, ada juga kerugian yang mungkin kita dapatkan dan kita alami. Begitu banyak akun palsu di situs tersebut, yang memasang foto palsu dan memalsukan identitas. Begitu banyak pula perampok yang meminta sejumlah uang kepada kita.  

Selama kita mempunyai niat baik dan tidak berubah selama bergabung di situs ini, maka kita akan mendapat apa yang kita rencanakan. Tips dari saya, jangan bagikan nomor, alamat atau akun media sosial pada seseorang yang baru dikenal, kecuali kalau sudah chatting dalam jangka waktu yang cukup lama. 

Sekian dari saya mengenai artikel yang membahas Interpals, semoga kalian dapat memanfaatkan sebaik-baiknya dan dapat memeperluas pertemanan secara Internasional.

_DinarRamadhona

Referensi :

http://besttabletfor.me/printable-maps-of-the-world.html/printable-world-map-for-kids-maps-inside-of-the

https://assets.hongkiat.com/uploads/creative-world-maps/37-creative-world-map-remake.jpg

https://Interpals.net

Asia? Not Only East Asia!

The author chose the title above because the writer feels that there is a "complicated" problem, and it will be a big problem if left uninterrupted and if nobody can correct this problem.
Why the author calls this a "problem", because it is a global problem, a worldwide problem, involving the existence of a country. This "problem" is experienced by the author after the author tries to communicate with people from other countries through foreign friendship sites. The author found a foreign friendship site that can be accessed easily on the internet page, the way to sign up on this site is very easy, only sign up with e-mail address Voila! account is already accessible. In accessing the site, the author only aims to broaden the association of the International and want to know the culture and language of other nations residing in the other hemisphere, which may be currently the author has not been able to reach it.

Based on the author's experience while on the site, the author tries to communicate with people from Asia (other than Indonesia, as the author is from Indonesia), Europe, Africa, Oceania, and America (North and South America). From the observations made over a year, the authors conclude that Asia is a very popular country by other nations, most of them Europeans and Americans. This is evidenced by several accounts from Europe and America who wrote their interest in Asia.

That friendship site offers users to write a description of themselves, interests, needs and the purpose of joining users on the site (for more details will be explained in the next article, about the site). For example, the site offers users to write interest in learning a foreign language on their account. In this section or part for the interest of learning a foreign language, most people from Europe or the Americas write their interest in languages ​​from the East Asian region, such as Japanese, Chinese, to Korean. Not only in this section, the account users write interest in the language in the East Asia region, but in the interest column of the users also write their interest in the culture of the countries in East Asia, Japan, China and Korea (South Korea) . Nearly 85% of things related to East Asia, are in great demand by those people. And 15% interest for other Asian regions (Central Asia, West Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia). So, they know the term "asian or asian people" which means people from Asia, only for the Japanese, China and Korea.

In fact, according to wikipedia, the term "asian or asian people" is to describe people from the Asian continent, covering the whole of Asia, not just East Asia. This is where the problem arises, because of their "misunderstanding" or mistakes (those who call "asian or asian people" only for the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans) to "catch" an information about Asia.
The author has often communicated with people from Europe and America, and asked the meaning of "asian or asian people", and the answers they give, based on his understanding, that "asian or asian people" are people from Japan, China and Korea (East Asia), and they always describe that "asian or asian people" are always white skin, black-haired, black-eyed and slanted-eyed (just like the image of the East Asian nation). With the "problem", the author who is also an "asian" trying to straighten it out with this article. The author, with various sources explaining about "Asia" and the term "asian or asian people".

On this earth there are 7 continents that almost the entire surface is inhabited by humans. The continents are Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa, Antarctica, North America and South America. Among the 7 continents, the Asian continent is the largest and most densely populated continent. The continent of Asia is a unique continent, inhabited by humans who come from various ethnic, racial, religious background and also experience different seasons of each region.
Asia is a continent that covers almost 9% of the territory on earth, and with a population density of 44,579,000 km2. Asia is divided into various regions according to its geographic position. Asia is divided into 5 regions, namely: West Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia.

Central Asia is an area with countries that are predominantly fractional states of the former Soviet Union. Parts of Russia also include Central Asia. The countries in Central Asia are Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia and Georgia.
If viewed on the map of the world indeed the countries are located in the middle of the Asian continent. Its white-majority population is like Europe and some are Asian-faced, but there are some who look like East Asian peoples (especially people from former Soviet Union countries), because of its proximity to East Asia. Central Asian countries are a developing country. The Soviet republics are in predominantly mountainous areas and valleys that are cultivated, farming for their livelihoods, as well as gold, uranium, coal, petroleum and natural gas mining which is one of the main sources economy of the country. In addition to agriculture and livestock, the valleys are made a residence for nomadic people, this is done by some Kyrgyz nations, which geographically does have a broader green valley region than any other country in Central Asia.
 Then in Southeast Asia, there are countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Brunei Darussalam, Philipine, Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor. The countries in the region are members of ASEAN, the unity organization of nations in Southeast Asia aimed at promoting economic growth, social progress and cultural development of member states, promoting regional peace and stability, and increasing the opportunity to discuss the difference between its members peacefully. With this organization among nations can exchange student, culture and language.
Countries in West Asia, often referred to as "Middle East". Countries have the same cultural and linguistic similarities as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Cyprus, Lebanon, Bahrain. Many countries from the region are rich countries, due to abundant petroleum mining. Furthermore, South Asia is an Asian region dominated by countries that are mostly dark-skinned but different from the African continent. The countries that inhabit this region are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives.
The latter is, East Asia, which is the Asian region located in the eastern region of Asia. Countries in this region are dominated by yellow and narrow-eyed peoples. Such as Japan, China (People's Republic of China), North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, Hong Kong (Dependencies of China), Macau (Dependencies of China).
The advance of technology in East Asian countries makes this region as a developed region compared to other Asian countries. But not all countries in the East Asia region is a developed country. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea are developed countries. Other countries in East Asia are developing countries. China, Japan and South Korea into 3 countries, which have enormous influence for the world. Most of the electronic devices used by the world today are manufactured by the three countries, such as Sony (Japan), Samsung (South Korea), and most of the world's products are mass-produced in China.
With the division of the Asian continent into five regions, making Asia a diverse continent of its inhabitants. Various tribes, cultures, religions, skin color, posture, facial contours and so on.
Based on the explanations described above, it can be seen that the word "Asia" is a continent inhabited by several countries and various ethnic, cultural, religious, color, posture, facial contours and so on, and the term "asian or asian people" is a term to call people from Asia, from across Asia, not just from East Asia.
The problem may be caused by the very high popularity of East Asian countries and their culture has a tremendous effect on the world.
With this paper, people of the world who know "Asia" and know the term "asian or asian people" who only for East Asian countries can change their understanding of "Asia" and the term "asian or asian people" is the name for the whole countries in Asia, not just countries in East Asia.

This video maybe can help you to understand about countries in Asia :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exeKgohZWRo

_DinarRamadhona


Reference :
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastAsia
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/WestAsia
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoutheastAsia
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/SouthAsia

Momijigari, one of festival in Japan

Japan is one country in Asia that has 4 seasons a year, winter in Japanese called Fuyu (冬), summer called Natsu (夏), autumn called Aki (秋) and spring called Haru (春). In every seasons, there is a lot of festival in the region of Japan, and that festivals always be a tourism magnet for local or foreign tourists. Autumn in Japan begins in September to November, after which Japan enters winter or Fuyu (冬).

Autumn is a season where abundant fruits are ready to be harvested. In addition, the leaves begin to change color because of the decrease in air temperature, is during the day reaches 5 ° C and shortening sunlight to shine. This color change starts from the northern part of Japan and then heading the southern part of Japan. That discolored leaves is the most unique thing in Autumn in Japan. And they have a festival to celebrate this discolored leaves.

The discolored leaves are called Momiji (紅葉). Actually there are 2 ways to read kanji 紅葉, namely Momiji and Koyo. Momiji refers to the type of leaf that changes color, namely plants that belong to the family tree, Ginko and Maple. While Koyo refers to the color changes experienced by these plants to yellow or red before falling down.

Momiji or Red Leaves in Autumn in Japan

Discolored leaves is the main attraction for Japanese society and foreign tourists. Changes from green to red and yellow are the most beautiful and unique things to enjoy.
Japanese society has a tradition to enjoy the beauty of the leaves that change color, called Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り).

The contents in Manyoushuu (万 葉 集) which is a Wakashu (Japanese poetry collection) say that, Japanese society in the mid-Edo period (1716-1789) likes to see and pluck the leaves of Momiji (紅葉) for fun and recreation. The word Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り) consists of 2 words: Momiji (紅葉) and Gari (狩 り).
Gari (狩 り) is a hunt, used for hunting wild animals such as wild pigs, deer, birds and so on. Another sense is, the activities to collect weeds, wood, fruits on the mountain. The nobles who enjoy the beauty of Momiji (紅葉), likens their activities as hunting. Then came the term Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り) who became famous among the nobility and then spread to the commoners.

In addition there are Japanese legends that also underlie the term Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り). In ancient times, there was a monster named Momiji who attacked the village in Togakushi mountain, Nagano. The Emperor ordered to capture the Monster of Momiji because of its existence made the residents restless and worried. Some people who were given the task by the emperor, began to hunt down the monster of Momiji. And the activity is called Momijigari. The legend is still staged in traditional Japanese drama art, Noh or Kabuki with the title "Momijigari".

Momiji Monster

Momiji (紅葉) doesn't appear simultaneously throughout Japan, the foliage that will turn into Momiji (紅葉) adjusted to the region of its existence. For the northernmost regions, Hokkaido and Tohoku, Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り) can be done earlier in September to November. For the Kansai region, Chubu, Kanto, Koshietsu (Yamanashi, Nagano, Niigata) are able to do Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り) in early October to early December, while areas in the south, Kyushu, Chugoku, and Shikoku can enjoy Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り) from end of October to end of November.
During doing Momijigari (紅葉 狩 り) there is no need to bring equipment because the activity is not to take Momiji (紅葉) but we go to the mountains and enjoy the beauty of Momiji (紅葉) and take some photos for memories.

On 10 November, each year at the temple in Kotohira city, Nakatado district, Kagawa prefecture, Shikoku island, a Momijigari festival (紅葉 狩 り) is performed with traditional dance performances. Namely Sanuki Fuzokumai (讃 岐 風俗 ) dance performed by men and Yaotomemai (八 少女 舞) performed by women. Both dances aim to thank the gods for blessings during the fall.

Yaotomemai dance

_DinarRamadhona

Referensi :

https://matcha-jp.com/id/2672?amp=true

https://www.omatsuri.com/sch/11.html