Papuan Seminarians Learn through Oral Language

40 since they experience the violence when they were in elementary schools. This fact is supported by the experience of a Papuan seminarian named Sorin pseudonym from Kumurkek village, Maybrat regency. His experience of being bullied by a teacher in primary school is one of the examples. According to him, teachers had the power to restrict the students’ thoughts and actions. Therefore, there was a rule in the elementary school that students must not ask the teachers to accept the students’ idea. If the students disobeyed the rule, they would be punished. Once, he asked one of his teachers to give students some numbers of math exercise. In fact, the teacher considered his idea as an impolite direction to the teacher. Consequently, Sorin was hit using a stick as a punishment. In the same way, Nem and Nayak added some information related to their feelings in school. Both of them unhappily told the stories about their being “slaves” for their teachers. When they were in elementary school, teachers were also perceived as people with power. Therefore, students should obey whatever said by the teachers. Both Nem and Nayak stated that disobeying the rules made by the teachers would cause a punishment for students. The punishments were related to manual works such as going to forest to find woods or going to river to catch fish for the teachers’ lunch. This condition shows that Papuan seminarians learn in school unhappily. Mepa also added the information that he was always unhappy to learn in school. He stated that he experienced the violence when he was in elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school. Mostly, the teachers hit the students 41 using a rattan. Therefore, sometimes he was afraid to go to school since there were joyful works to do except going to school. Mepa also shared his experience when he became the pigs’ breeder. After graduating from elementary school, he took care of pigs. Therefore, he became the pigs’ breeder for three years. The reason was that he did not enjoy the learning process in school. Besides, he needed money to survive, while his parents had to move to another village to find jobs. The experiences of majority of Papuan seminarians show that there is sense of inferiority in school. The different backgrounds of students and teachers also influence the inferiority of the students. As stated by Sorin, students used to feel the inferiority toward teachers because teachers came from different islands such as Java, Sumatera, and Moluccas. The students believed that teachers from those areas had good quality of education. Therefore, the “diminishment” which was described by Robbins in Munro 2013 cause humiliation and a sense of inferiority to the students because they have no more confidence to share their ideas, thoughts, and feelings in school. The sense of inferiority which had been experienced by Papuan seminarians while studying in school was obviously noticed on the first day of my arrival at St. Paul House of Spiritual Formation. Based on informal conversation with the students, most of them were afraid of me due to their perspective towards teachers at school. The next day which was the first day of the course, they were still unconfident to speak English. However, they willingly wrote down their feelings in the reflection books. As stated by Kolvenbach 2005, reflection is 42 used in order to grasp the essential meaning of what have been learned. Therefore, the Papuan seminarians expressed their feelings, understanding, and imagination in their reflection book. On the first day of the course, two Papuan seminarians wrote their reflection about their feeling as followed. Mepa : “ I feel happy because I can English study in class room. All will for in so many to English.” Jack : “Happy Today is special for me, because English class make me happy. I feel that is interesting experience. I hope the next will be very interest then today. I think it’s wow… Also with English class or English day I hope after that I can speak English to well”. As shown above, in the reflection book, most of the seminarians said that they were happy and thankful for having the opportunity to learn English. Although their first reflection was quite short, the Papuan seminarians were eager to state their feelings in form of English writing. Those explanations show that Papuan seminarians learn better when teachers do not limit their ideas and thought. By developing their thoughts and ideas, Papuan seminarians will not feel the inferiority and diminishments in 43 learning. Moreover, by feeling the happy atmosphere in learning, Papuan seminarians will be motivated to learn. As a result, good learning will lead them to good jobs which improve their quality of life.

4. Papuan Seminarians Learn through Communal Activities

Merriam and Kim 2008 highlight the learning of non-Western adults which are communal, lifelong and informal, and holistic. In contrast to how Westerners view learning as individual, non-Westerners tend to view knowledge as communal. From this communal perspective, learning is the responsibility of all members of the community because it is through this learning that the community itself can develop p.73. It means that the knowledge gained is to be shared. Additionally, non-Western cultures view learning as lifelong and informal. It means that learning is not only related to formal institutions, but it occurs in everyday life and only ends when the learners die. Finally, learning is holistic. It departs from the notion that learning involves not only the mind but the body, the spirit, and the emotions p.76. Papuans as part of non-Western culture tend to view knowledge as communal. As defined by Boelaars 1986, Papuans are accustomed to doing communal activities. According to Mepa, the Bilai tribe in his village was accustomed to working together in the farm. People also built fence, bridge, and path together by the command of their tribe leader namely Sonowi. Since the Bilogai village did not have electricity facilities, the junior high school students also worked together to support their learning activities. They used to go to forest