TEMPEH

Tempeh or tempe is an original food from Indonesia and is especially popular in Java. Nobody knows when tempeh was first made. But the record about it first appeared in a book called Serat Centhini - a book about Javanese people's life cycle-, written in about 1815. Now, tempeh is consumed by people in different parts of the globe. Many people like tempeh because it is considered healthy for its low fat and high fiber content. Some big tempeh factories can be found in the U.S., the Netherlands, and Japan. One of the big factories in Japan is owned by Rustono, an Indonesian who married a Japanese and has two kids. The Rustonos live in a small village about an hour's drive from Kyoto.

THE WONDERFUL BOROBUDUR

Indonesia is one of the countries rich in ancient heritage. A lot of historical sites are scattered in different provinces-Borobudur is one of them, for sure. Since 1991, Borobudur has been listed as the world heritage site by UNISCO. Built by King Samaratungga from Syailendra Dinasty, who ruled the Mataram Kingdom in Central Java in 9th century, Borobudur took around 100 years to finish. The name of Borobudur, as some people say, means "a mountain having terraces" (budhara), while others say that Borobudur means "monastery on a high place."Using andesite stones taken from a river, the glorious temple is 118 m wide on each side and 42 m high, and has 10 levels - 6 levels of square platforms, 3 levels of circles and one main stupa ( where the main Buddha statue is placed ) on top. The andesite stones were cut, shaped, carried to construction site by thousands of workers, then were put together according to the architect's plan without using any adhesive materials or cement. After all the stones had been put together, the artists carved reliefs all over the walls. There are 2.672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues in all. But sadly, the most of the Buddha statues today are headless.

TOGIAN ISLANDS AN UNKNOWN PARADISE

The name Togian ( or Togean ) islands sounded foreign to my ears. When hearing the name for the first time. I thought it was somewhere outside of Indonesia. After doing some research on Google, I found out that the Togian islands lie in the Gulf of Tomini, off coast of Central Sulawesi. The trip to Togian was not an easy one. From Jakarta we were to fly to Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi. We then would take a 12-hour road trip to Ampana before taking a 5-hour boat trip to the Togian Islands. However, our expectation that our trip would be tiring was shattered when we arrived at Palu's Mutiara Airport: a majestic rainbow welcomed us. That rainbow was just the first of many rainbows we saw during our visit to Togian.

BATIK

The word batik is derived from the javanese word amba (= to write) and titik (= dot or point). The word was first recorded in the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1880. Wax-resist-dyeing technique used in dying fabrics is actually an ancient art form. It was found in Africa, especially Egypt and different parts of Asia. In Europe, it was Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who introduced this technique to this continent through his book The History of Java, which was published in London in 1817. Indonesian immigrants brought batik to Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Southhern Thailand. Now batik has become part of these countries cultures, especially Malaysia. Of course there are some differences between Indonesian and Malaysia batik. The first difference is in the pattern. Malaysian batik only uses floral and geometrical designs and the butterfly as the only animal design. The second difference is the method; Malaysian batik, which has larger and simpler patterns, doesn't use canting , and tends to use lighter colors.

WORRIED AMINAH

You're wise to be concerned about this if you have a glaucoma history in your family. Glaucoma is a genetic disease and is known as the silent thief of eyesight. It means the disease can lead to blindness. You may not notice that you actually have lost vision until the disease has progressed significantly. Glaucoma pressurizes the eyeball as a result of absorbing disruption of the liquid inside the eyeball. The pressured affects the optic nerves. What you have to do is see an ophthalmologist and have your pressured eyes examined using the tonometry measurement. Only then can you get appropriate therapy and treatment for your eye problem. Don't forget to help the eye doctor in diagnosing your complaint by telling every symptom you have. Common symptoms are pain in or behind the eye ball, headache with nausea and vomiting and visual disturbances with halos around lights ( like seeing a rainbow ). But remember that in some glaucoma cases, symptoms do not exist.

THE KEBAYA

There are two stories behind this traditional costume. The first one is that the word comes from the Arabic word abaya, which refers to a kind of clothing that opens in front. The other one claims that this kind of clothing was brought by portuguese explorers to Malay and Indonesia. At that time it was worn not only by Malay and Indonesian women, but also by Chinese women. That's how we got the term kebaya encim.

From then on, the kebaya has been part of Indonesian fashion style.

JOINT FIT DOWNHILL CHALLENGE 2010

At the end of the year 2010, Jakarta Downhillers Community (JDC), a downhill bike riders organization, held a race in Sebex track, Gunung Pancar, Serpong on December 4-5, 2010. More like a gathering attended by downhillers from Jabotabek and Bandung, the event also raised funds for the victims of the recent national disasters.

There were three categories for the raced: Beginner, for newbies who have never raced before, aged 12-40 years old; Junior, downhillers with moderate skills, aged 12-18; and Elite, exclusively for national athletes. Interested to find out more about downhill bike riding or looking forward to the next competition?.

TURIN INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR (ITALY)

While the Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest book fair in the world, the Turin International Book Fair, defined as the "record-breaking fair," has the most visitors each time it held. The 2010 Turin International Book Fair recorded 315,013 visitors - 7,353 more visitors compared to 307,650 in 2009.

The Turin International Book Fair, or Salone Internazionale del Libro Torino, was founded in 1988 inspired by an idea by two Torinesi: the bookseller Angelo Pezzana and the entrepreneur Guido Accornero. The fair was held at Torino Esposizioni. With the first 100,000 visitors, 3,600 professionals, 958 teachers, and 553 exhibitors, The Salone immidiately became a destination of great authors and publishers.

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE

If you're into anime films, you're probably familiar with Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese manga artist, film director and animator well-known for his works with Studio Ghibi. One of his anime feature films is the 2004 Hauru no Ugoku Shiro, which follows the adventure of an 18-years-old hat maker named Sophie, who is turned into a 90-year-old woman by a witch, and her search for a way to lift the curse. Hanuru no Ugoku Shiro became a box office in Japan and was nonimated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

The anime was loosely adapted from a teenage fantasy book by Diana Wynn Jones titled Howl's Moving Castle, first published in 1986. The book won a Boston-Horn Book Award.

WAR OF THE ROSES

These wars were a series of civil wars which took place in England from 1455-1487 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York to fight for the throne of England. The name was taken from the badges used by the two parties: The red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists. The war ended with the victory for the Lancastrians. Then Henry Tudor, the founder of the House of Tudor, became the King of England and Wales. The house ruled England and Wales for 116 years.

FLOWER POWER

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, as an action to protest the Vietnam War, the Flower Power slogan was a symbol of non violence ideology used by hippies, aka the Flower Generation or Flower Children, as indicated, wore clothes in flower patterns and vibrant colors. The followers of this ideology made symbolic gestures such as giving flower to police officers and putting flowers into the barrels of rifles. Check out this gesture in the Pulitzer-nominated phothograph by Bernie Boston.

PRESENT PERFECT

Lesson Topic: Using The Present Perfect.

There are times when you are talking about an event in the past, but

you don't know when it happened, you don't care when it happened, or the time when it happened is a secret.

When talking about past events AND the time is unimportant, unknown, or a secret, the present perfect is a good tense to use. What is the present perfect? Here is an example:

I have visited 56 countries.

How is this grammar formed? It is formed with the following words:

I have visited 56 countries. subject + have or has + past participle

The past participle and the simple past are sometimes the same. Sometimes they are different. For the word visited, the simple past and the past participle are the same. If the simple past and past participle are different, they are usually irregular verb

The present perfect can give a starting time or an amount of time only if you use the words since and for. When using these words, the sentence usually means that the action is continuing. If you do not use since or for, the sentence means the action is finished, and it may or may not continue in the future. Take a look at these examples:

I have smoked. I have smoked for 12 years. NOT SURE it continues SURE it continues Meaning: The person smoked in the past (we don't know when), and he/she may still smoke, but we do not know. Meaning: The person started to smoke 12 years ago, and he/she still smokes.

Therefore, when the present perfect sentence does not have since or for, we do not know if it is still continuing.

So, the present perfect is used for one of the following two reasons:

1. When the time is unimportant, unknown, or a secret. OR 2. If the time is known and the action is continuing (for or since are used in this situation).

Some verbs are NOT used with for or since because they do not have any length of time. The following is a list of some verbs that can be used in the present perfect when the time is unimportant, unknown, or a secret. These words very rarely use for or since because they do not have a length of time. In other words, the following actions occur, but then almost immediately do not continue; they do not have a length of time. Therefore, they do not use for or since.

start arrive begin meet end leave stop

Here is an example of what we mean:

CORRECT We have begun the test. INCORRECT We have begun the test since yesterday.

The first sentence is correct because it does not use since or for. Begin (begun) does not have a length of time. After a few seconds, it is over; you cannot continuously begin the same test.

Some of you may know the present perfect progressive. If you do, then you may want to know what the difference is. For example,

present perfect I have worked here since 1977 OR present perfect progressive I have been working here since 1977.

Actually, there is little or no difference between these two sentences. You may want to know when to use the present perfect and when to use the present perfect progressive. We will continue this topic in our next lesson, but for now, remember this: the present perfect progressive almost always means it started in the past and is continuing; the present perfect means the action is continuing only if it uses since or for (otherwise, we are unsure if it is continuing). For example,

I have lived in Iran. Not sure if this person still lives in Iran; the time is also unknown. I have lived in Iran since 1997. We are sure this person still lives in Iran; we also know the time. I have been living in Iran since 1997. We are sure this person still lives in Iran; we also know the time.

The second and third sentences above have identical meanings. The first and second sentences have (potentially) different meanings even though they look almost the same.

SMART MOM

A mother was walking with her four-year-old daughter picked up something off the ground and started to put it into her mouth. the mother stopped her and said she shouldn't do that. " Why?" asked the little girl. " Because it's dirty. It's been on the ground. You don't know where it's been. It probably has germs." The little girl looked up at her mom with admiration and asked if how i knew so much?. Thinking quickly, the mother said, " All moms know so much. We have to. It's on the Mommy Test. If you don't know it, you don't get to be a mommy." The little girl thought about what her mom just said for a minute. Then her face brightened. " I get it!" she said. "if you don't pass the test, you get to be a daddy!".

5 SENTANCE FROM DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

Present simple
She said, "It's cold."

› Past simple
She said it was cold.

Present continuous
She said, "I'm teaching English online."

› Past continuous
She said she was teaching English online.

Present perfect simple
She said, "I've been on the web since 1999."

› Past perfect simple
She said she had been on the web since 1999.

Present perfect continuous
She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years."

› Past perfect continuous
She said she had been teaching English for seven years.

Past simple
She said, "I taught online yesterday."

› Past perfect
She said she had taught online yesterday.

Direct and Indirect Speech

When using indirect or reported speech, the form changes. Usually indirect speech is introduced by the verb said, as in I said, Bill said, or they said. Using the verb say in this tense, indicates that something was said in the past. In these cases, the main verb in the reported sentence is put in the past. If the main verb is already in a past tense, then the tense changes to another past tense; it can almost be seen as moving even further into the past.

Verb tense changes also characterize other situations using indirect speech. Note the changes shown in the chart and see the table below for examples. With indirect speech, the use of that is optional.

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
simple present He said, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	simple past He said (that) he went to school every day.
simple past He said, “I went to school every day.”	Þ	past perfect He said (that) he had gone to school every day.
present perfect He said, “I have gone to school every day.”	Þ	past perfect He said (that) he had gone to school every day.
present progressive He said, “I am going to school every day.”	Þ	past progressive He said (that) he was going to school every day.
past progressive He said, “I was going to school every day.”	Þ	perfect progressive He said (that) he had been going to school every day,
future (will) He said, “I will go to school every day.”	Þ	would + verb name He said (that) he would go to school every day.
future (going to) He said, “I am going to school every day.”	Þ	present progressive He said (that) he is going to school every day.
		past progressive He said (that) he was going to school every day
Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
auxiliary + verb name He said, “Do you go to school every day?” He said, “Where do you go to school?”	Þ	simple past He asked me if I went to school every day.* He asked me where I went to school.
imperative He said, “Go to school every day.”	Þ	infinitive He said to go to school every day.

*Note than when a Yes/No question is being asked in direct speech, then a construction with if or whether is used. If a WH question is being asked, then use the WH to introduce the clause. Also note that with indirect speech, these are examples of embedded questions.