Raisha Nur Anggraini/209221423195

Know Your Guitar!

Guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments in the world. It is a plucked string instruments which usually played with fingers or a pick. Guitar consists of a body with an unbending neck to which the six or more strings are attached. It is made of various woods and the former guitar strung with animal gut. However, the recent guitar mostly strung with either nylon or steel strings. According to the physical characterization, sound production, amplification, and the usage in song genres, we can classify three main types of guitar. Those three main types are electric, acoustic, and classical guitar.

The first type is an electric guitar (the upper picture). It can have solid, semi-hollow, or hollow body, but most electric guitars have solid body. Electric guitar also has some different parts which cannot be found in acoustic or classical guitar, some electric guitar have tremolo arm or whammy bar which can tight the string temporarily, change the pitch, and create a vibrato effect. Another different body part is the three control knobs for the volume and as the tone potentiometer. The electric guitar produces sound because it converts the sound of the vibrating strings into electronic current. These electronic signals are then changed and produced the desired pitch and vibration before they put to amplifiers. That is why electric guitar des not need to be resonant as the other types of guitar do. The sound of an electric guitar is largely dependent on a magnetically-made electric signal. The signal is then “shaped” to the amplifier by using a range of effect devices or circuits that modify the tone and characteristic of the signal. An electric guitar is used for all different genres of music, such a country, pop, jazz, rock and roll, and heavy metal.

The next type is the acoustic guitar (the second picture on the left). The body of acoustic guitar is hollow and it uses steel strings for a louder and brighter sound than nylon strings. It is also made of heavier woods such as mahogany, maple, and spruce. The sound of acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the strings which is amplified by the body of guitar. The body of this guitar acts as a resonating chamber or soundboard. The soundboard has a larger surface area and thus displaces a larger volume of air, producing a much louder sound. This type of guitar does not need amplifiers for its sound because the steel strings produce more tension for a louder and brighter sound though acoustic guitar can also have built-in electronics so that their sound can be amplified louder than before. Usually, acoustic guitar used in country, folk, and blues music genres.

The last type is the classical guitar (the second picture on the right). It is also known as “Spanish guitar” and becomes the most common of the three types of guitar. The classical guitar is shaped much like acoustic guitar with the hole in the center of the body which resonates the sound produced by the strings when they are plucked and strummed. Both acoustic and classical guitar have the same appearance, too. However, the strings of the classical guitar are usually made of nylon. It is less taut than the steel strings of acoustic guitar. Nylon strings also have much lower tension than steel strings, as do the former nylon strings which is gut strings. The lower three strings are wound with metal which is commonly silver platted copper. Another part of this guitar which is different with other guitar designs is that the headstock point backwards than point outwards. This type of guitar cannot be played with any kinds of amplifier to make the sound louder. If you want to make it louder, you can just simply placing the guitar in front of a microphone. The classical guitar is usually used in Latin, flamenco, and classical music.

All of the types of guitar mentioned above can be played together with other music instruments such as piano, drum, violin, etc. From those guitar types, I prefer to play electric guitar than acoustic or classical guitar, but we should support it with amplifier devices in order we can get louder sound. Besides, we can also add some effects with many kinds of effect devices which can make various sounds, so that we can play electric guitar for all different genres of music. However, I suggest you to try to play all of the types of guitar. You may know the differences by yourself when you play each type of guitar. Every type of guitar has its own uniqueness; just choose your own type of guitar which interests you to play.

Raisha Nur Anggraini/209221423195

Choose Your Dictionary: Longman or Oxford?

Since dictionary becomes an important thing for everyone who studies language, people try to look for the best dictionary they could use. As an example, I myself who study in English Department need a good dictionary. It helps me a lot whenever I study in the class or do my assignment. Considering the popularity, there are two English dictionaries which are mostly used by the students in my college and the quality are doubtless. Those are Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary. Due to their similar quality, students feel doubt whether to choose Longman or Oxford for them to be used everyday. Even though both of the dictionaries have a good quality, they are contrast in price, language used, and the content of the electronic dictionary. It really influences the students to make decision toward the dictionaries.

First of all, Longman and Oxford have a contrast price for the big and also the pocket size dictionary. Every year, both Longman and Oxford’s price change based on the fluctuation and the improvement of the dictionary’s content. As we can find the illegal copy for Longman pocket dictionary, Oxford big and pocket size dictionary in many book stores. I want to notify the contrastive of the present price for the original copy. Longman big size dictionary costs about 350.000 rupiahs whereas Oxford costs about 300.000 rupiahs. For the pocket dictionary, Longman costs about 165.000 while Oxford costs about 63.000. As the result, Longman is more expensive than Oxford.

Another different aspect between Longman and Oxford is the usage of language. Both Longman and Oxford use different English language in explaining every word in the dictionary. Longman uses American English while Oxford uses British English. The usage of American English makes some people understand the meaning of every word in the dictionary easily. Many students in my college also said that Longman is easier to be understood than Oxford. Though Longman gives longer explanation for every meaning of the word, but the explanation is clearer. As an example, Longman’s explanation about the word “tea” is a hot brown drink made by pouring boiled water onto the dried leaves from particular Asian bush; while Oxford gives shorter explanation which is the dried leaves of the tea bush. Of course there are still many other explanations which are written after the main explanation. Nevertheless, from the example above I conclude that Longman’s explanation is clearer than Oxford.

The differences between Longman and Oxford do not end with price and language used. Both Longman and Oxford are completed by electronic dictionary which is different from each other. Longman and Oxford differ in respect to the disks they used. Longman uses DVD-room but Oxford uses CD-room for the electronic dictionary. Though Longman uses DVD-room, it is a bit complicated to install. We still need a computer cracker after the installation so that we do not need to insert the disk anymore whenever we want to open the application. Unlike Longman, we just simply install the Oxford’s CD-room and we can open the dictionary application every time without the computer cracker and also insert the disk first. Beside the installation of the disk, Longman and Oxford electronic dictionary have their own special features. The special feature of Longman electronic dictionary which does not exist in Oxford is the “activator”. It is a unique tool to help you choose the best word or phrase to express your ideas when you are writing or speaking. Different from Longman, the special feature of Oxford is the “know-how”. Actually, this program is not a grammar checker when you are writing. However, it will give you three suggestions of correct formed examples if you type a wrong sentence. So that, we may know particular problems on writing and the “know-how” gives the ways of solving them.

Every student in my college has their own point of view about Longman and Oxford dictionary. They deserve to choose their own dictionary and I think they do not need to be so confused about which dictionary is the best to be used by considering the price, language, and the electronic dictionary. I conclude that both of the dictionaries are good for students and I think both Longman and Oxford can support each other.

Enemy is not Always Different; Commonalities between Aremania and Bonekmania

Khoirotul Amanah/109221422444

“Salam Satu Jiwa!” “Salam Satu Nyali!” Those are greetings from two hostile football supporters in Indonesia, Aremania and Bonekmania. Aremania are the supporters of Arema Indonesia Football Club (FC), while Bonekmania are Persebaya Surabaya’s great fans. The reason why they are discordant to each other is unclear, but still, those two bunches loathe one to another until now. As two wrestling group, they are very different in many things, such as in coalition partners, anarchism, and attitude. Take for an example, Aremania have at least three supporter friends; Persija Jakarta’s Jakmania, Persis Solo’s Pasoepati, and Persela Lamongan’s La Mania. On the other hand, Bonekmania have only one comrade; The Viking, the supporter of Persib Bandung. This is just one of the differences. Actually, there can be more dissimilarity to talk about from the two groups; yet as we observe them without prejudice, actually they have several commonalities.

Firstly, their similarity is in anarchism aspect. Most people recognize that Bonekmania are anarchist supporters, but we cannot say Aremania are not anarchist either. Aremania were the most terrifying troop for society in 90’s because of their rude deeds; fighting, looting anything, etc. The last defacement by Aremania came about two years ago. In 2008, Arema-nia defaced Brawijaya Stadium, Kediri; one of the supporters ran down to the field and hit the referee, before the crowd of Aremania followed him down and burned the goal. Although the position as the most terrifying bunch is taken by Bonekmania lately, Aremania are still ac-knowledged as radical supporters. Similar to Aremania, Bonekmania are not better in brutal-ity. Nowadays, Bonekmania are one of the most unwelcomed groups in the society. They do the same thing as Aremania do; defacement. The last Bonekmania’s tour to Bandung is the example. In that tour, they take away anything in any shops in the station without paying. Be-sides, they did not buy the train-tickets and broke the train facilities like the seats, windows, and toilets. Therefore, PT. KAI got about Rp300 million loss; a big financial loss.

Secondly, it deals with attitude aspect; the two supporters are bad-mannered fans. In the stadium, Aremania and Bonekmania always yell swear words. They do not only offend the opponent in that particular match, but also their true rival; Bonekmania for Aremania, and the other way around. Take for instance, when AremaFC is having a match versus Sriwi-jayaFC, Aremania would not shout their backing to their club or sing hostile songs to Sriwi-jaya FC only; yet, they are also yelling anti-Bonekmania and Persebaya words. This is the same as what Bonekmania always do. They affront AremaFC and Aremania all the time, no matter what team is playing against Persebaya at that time. Moreover, when the supporters converge with their comrade in one stadium, as in Persebaya-Persib or AremaFC-Persija match, their yell will become more discourteous.

The third is their loyalty aspect. Aremania and Bonekmania are both very loyal to their club. They show their fidelity by many actions; the easiest one is by wearing the club’s attrib-utes like T-shirt, scarf, cap, and other attributes in ordinary days. When you are in Malang, Arema and Aremania attributes will dominate the surroundings; in the same way, when you are in Surabaya, you will easy to find people wear Persebaya or Bonekmania T-shirts. That is just a simple thing. However, they have behaviour, which is more fanatic as supporters; tour. When their club has away match in their comrade’s zone, they will escort it there. Bonekmania have yearly tour to Bandung when Persebaya has away match versus Persib. Like Bonekmania, Aremania also have a same yearly tour; the tour is to Jakarta and entitled as Aremania Tour de Batavia. What very interesting about the tour is that each year, many supporters are killed because of travel-accident like train accident or street crush, but still, those aficionados want to get involved in the tour to support their club. Those are the exam-ples how loyal supporters are.
Even though Aremania and Bonekmania are well-known as antagonistic bunches, if we look them impartially without preconception, we can recognise several similarities of them. They are both anarchist, bad-mannered, and very loyal. Their anarchism has been proved in some occasions and their bad manner can be seen in every matches. About their loyalty, we should not hesitate about it anymore; they not only sacrifice their money, but also their lives. All in all, I think they are not that different.

Zahrah Zakiya Ahda/209221416624

Cool Gadget; Cute Shape or sophisticated Features?

        Do you still remember a film about a handsome detective called James Bond? In that movie, James Bond is always accompanied by many sophisticated gadgets which always help him anytime. Just like in James Bond’s movie, nowadays, gadgets fill every activity in your life. They help you to fulfill your needs of information, communication, and even entertainment. I am sure that you have, at least, one gadget to fulfill your daily need; cell phone is one of the examples. Lately, cell phone industries produce so many variety items as the result of the increasing the need of gadgets. Take for example two big cell phone companies, Nokia and Samsung, they always compete in producing their products. I was confused to decide which product, between Nokia C3 and Samsung Corby TXT, which suit me. May be you feel the same way too because both Nokia C3 and Samsung Corby TXT have cute shape and are similar to each other. Thus, if you want to buy a cell phone with cute shape and lot of features, I suggest you to read my essay on how Nokia C3 and Samsung Corby TXT are different.

            At the first sight, you might be difficult in differentiating Nokia C3 and Samsung Corby TXT because both are similar to each other. But, if you look at those items carefully, I am sure that Nokia C3 and Samsung Corby are not exactly the same in appearance.  Nokia C3 is bigger in size; likewise, it is bigger in shape, dimension and weight. Samsung Corby is smaller and looks cuter than Nokia C3. Both of them have good screen resolution with 256.000 colors, but Nokia C3 has wider screen 2, 4 inch. Like Samsung Corby TXT, Nokia C3 has QWERTY keypad. However, Nokia’s keypad is bigger and larger than Samsung Corby TXT. Those things may become your consideration in choosing one of them because your comfort in using them is the most important thing. In addition, one thing that makes Samsung Corby cuter than Nokia C3 is its fashion jacket. Samsung Corby is available in two colors and each of them is accompanied with 3 fancy fashion jackets, while, Nokia C3 is only available in three different colors, without any fashion jacket.

            In shape and color, Samsung Corby is better than Nokia C3, but I can say that Nokia C3 is leading ahead in its features. Nokia C3, which is newly released item, looks more sophisticated than Samsung Corby TXT. Although both Nokia C3 and Samsung Corby TXT have mp3 player, Nokia C3 has better sound than Samsung Corby TXT.  Besides, Nokia C3 is also better in phone memory. While Samsung Corby TXT has only 40MB phone capacity, Nokia C3 has up to 50MB phone capacity.  It makes Nokia C3 looks better than Samsung Corby TXT, even though both items are completed with FM Radio and 2MP Camera. Moreover, Nokia C3 is also better in battery and talk time calling than Samsung Corby TXT. The picture quality of Nokia C3 is not as good as Samsung Corby TXT. Nokia’s photo is a little bit blurry, while Samsung’s photo is bright and clear.  In contrast with Samsung Corby, Nokia C3 really leads ahead in the network connectivity because Nokia C3 has already had Wi-Fi or LAN. It will help you to keep contact with others by Internet.

            Both Nokia C3 and Samsung Corby have its own characteristic which makes them different. The great features of Nokia C3 and the good-looking shape of Samsung Corby will make you confused.  In choosing one of them, the price may also become your consideration. Nokia C3, which gives you a lot of sophisticated features, costs you Rp1.115.000, 00. In contrast, Samsung Corby is a little bit cheaper than Nokia C3. With its good-looking design and fancy jackets, Samsung Corby only costs you Rp875.000, 00.

            The cute-shape of Samsung Corby TXT and the features of Nokia C3 really make me confused to choose one of them. Besides their difference in price also become my consideration. Nokia C3 is good in features and I think it is more sophisticated than Samsung Corby, nevertheless, Samsung Corby TXT does have cute shape, better quality of picture, cheaper price, and fancy color that makes it good looking. Thus you have to be selective in choosing both of those things, but if you read my essay, I am sure that you will be able to choose one that suit to your need.

Wedding Parties: Kediri Vs Malang

Essay Writing (Comparison and Contrast Essay)

Henny Rahmawati/807221410578

Wedding Parties: Kediri Vs Malang

Newly-wed Couple (Kediri)

            Wedding parties are universally held by people across countries. The different ethnic group will have the different ways in heralding these parties. Javanese people also have a special ceremony in this occasion. Within the same culture, people have common ways to conduct wedding parties. As an example, people, who live in Kediri and Malang both are Javanese people, have the same basic custom in the wedding parties. However, those two parties are still considered different in the following three cases.

            The first case that makes Kediri’s and Malang’s wedding parties different is the bride’s and groom’s attires (Javanese blouses). In Kediri, the bride and groom wear traditional attires colored in black during the first meeting between the bride and groom in wedding ceremony or panggih/temu manten in Javanese term. For the bride such blouse is called kebaya. Besides, in this ritual, the bride, with traditional hairdo called gelungan, wears jewelries and other special accessories. While the groom wears a ceremonial knife called keris and some other particular accessories for him. In Malang, the wedding parties in terms of the bride’s and groom’s attires mostly remain the same. The difference lies on the color of the attires used during the first meeting between bride and groom in wedding ceremony or panggih/temu manten. In contrast to wedding parties conducted in Kediri, wedding parties conducted in Malang does not require the bride and groom to wear black attires when doing such ceremony.

Newly-wed Couple (Malang)

            The difference of the wedding ceremony in Kediri and Malang does not only end with the traditional attires but also the rituals. Kediri’s wedding party has some major ceremonies. The ceremony of the first meeting between bride and groom is called panggih or temu manten. Then, the ritual of crashing an egg done by the groom’s right foot; then, the bride washes it by using water mixed with several kinds of flowers. Javanese people call it wiji dadi. Next, sindur binayang or the ritual when the bride’s father leads the couple to walk towards the wedding chairs while the bride’s mother covers the couple's shoulders with shawl called sindur. After that, the bride and groom do kacar kucur or tampa kaya ritual. This ceremony is conducted when the groom pours some soybeans, peanuts, paddy rice, corns, yellow rice, Dlingo bengle herbs, flowers and coins of different values by using a piece of cloth. Simultaneously, the bride receives her bride’s giving by using a piece of cloth also. The following is dahar klimah or dahar kembul that is undergone when the bride and groom are feeding each other. The last is the ritual when the couple should kneel and appeal their parents’ blessing—first to the bride’s parents, then to the groom’s parents. It is called sungkeman in Javanese term. Unlike before, in Malang’s wedding parties, ‘wiji dadi’ is no longer conducted. Still, the other rituals are preserved well. Nowadays, such ritual is omitted.

            Other than the traditional attires and the rituals, the differences also lie on the reception. In Kediri, bringing some stuff such as rice, noodle, eggs and etc. is a common thing when people visit the newly-wed couple. They believe that giving those things will make them getting a closer relationship. Conversely, this custom is not preserved in Malang.  The people prefer to bring some money rather than to bring some stuff. Based on my interview with Malang people, to give some money is more practical and it maybe more useful for the host rather than to give some stuff.

            In conclusion, within the same custom, the way of conducting wedding parties can be different. In this case, the differences between Kediri and Malang’s wedding parties lay on these three aspects namely the dressing, the ritual, and the reception.

Negoro, S.S. 1997-1998. Traditional Javanese Wedding Ceremonies, accessed on October 20, 2010, http://home.wanadoo.nl/javas/Cultuur/Joglosemar-Wedding/WeddingCeremony.htm. PT Sangga Sarana Persada