My Journey to became ``An Academic Story Teller``

Assalamualaikum my dear...

It`s 2014 ...time flies and your granny still here in Japan, haven`t finish her PhD yet. However, the good thing is...she improved :)

Improved in what ? You guys may curious on it... let met tell you a shamed as well as boasted stories about my academic journey.

Middle of 2012, my academic supervisor asked me to submit a paper for international conference in Shanghai. It was my second international conference, the 1st was held in Indonesia when i just finished my master study on 2006. It means, there was quite long time i didn`t present in any academic conference.

During that period (2006-2011) I was working as a marketing and part time lecturer for some subjects related to public speaking such as presentation skill and public speaking introductory. Simply say that, in the past I was incharge as the person who should  presented the product knowledge in order to convince our future clients. Also, became a person who encouraged, trained and helped students to improve their speakings` skill in front of public. 

It might be unbelieveable for you neither did I...October 2012 in Shanghai, the 1st ISHED conference I became the worst presenter ever. Athough the organizer didn`t announced it but I felt that I was the worst one. Because of nervous, I only could read the slide and couldn`t finished the whole of my 30 slides in time...meaning that i didn`t have opportunity to talk about my research findings. It was horrible...was worked on that research for more than six months and lost the right moment to share it. 

Some friends was trying to cheer me up and saying ``Everyone did, it`s fine ! ``  but for me it`s totally not fine..I was a person who taught about public speaking, who knows exactly about posture, gesture, intonation, eye contact, ice breaking, etc... but I did a big mistakes : i did short time in preparation and lack of practice! 

``By having enough time in preparing your speech, slide and others supporting tools it would make you confident. Would be more confident when you practice as much as you can... remember, practice make perfect !`` I always emphazised those things to my students but then ...I was the one who ignored this fundamental value in public speaking.

Video of my presentation at the 1st ISHED in Shanghai, China

Time passed by and i finally could accepted the failure then treat it as my valuable experience. Anyway, here`s what`ve done to became the worst presenter in the 1st ISHED Conference.

Related to my slide/ppt :

• I worked on it at the last minutes, only two days before the deadline of ppt submission.
• After I submitted, I changed the contents of some slides and assumed that I still could adjust it.
• There were plenty of words, long sentences, pictures and many animations in almost every slides.
• Most of the data presented in number.
• I ignored others comment and suggestion about my ppt appearance.
• I didn`t make any draft of speech (Q-card) for each slide.

About the practice :

• I only practice five times and didn`t pay attention to the time management.
• I did not rehearse to present it as a ``talk`` 
• I did not create any ``fresh`` opening and closing statements to grab audience attention
• No preparation at all for Q & A session.

The show time

• I didn`t have any meals before presenting therefore felt more nervous because of hungry.
• I wore a very colorful dress with a big belt which made me a lil bit hard to breath.
• I came on time to the venue, didn`t have enough time to get familiar with the laptop, pointer and even the venue.
• I was standing in front of the laptop and made me just read the slides without paying attention to the audiences from the start till the end of my presentation.
• I run off time and couldn`t finished all of my slides then in the end i was reading the conclusion part in a very high speed. 

Guyzzz... I suggest you not to follow it otherwise you`ll be the next worst presenter :p

Around June 2013, I got another chance to submit a paper and present it on The 9th International Symposium of AURG, January 2014. As my experiences there was no differences betwen conference and symposium, it`s only about the term that they choose. So then, i promised myself this time I should really do my best. I should have to finish all my slide in time, not by reading it but by explaining it as I talk to others.

I didn`t expected to be the best presenter since I knew from the list of participants some of them are come from Florida, and Canada, the EFL (English as First Language) people. And the rest are ESL (English as Second Language) people, from Thailand, Bosnia, Afganistan, China, Indonesia, Korea and of course Japan.

Opening ceremony of the 9th AURG Symposium

my second paper...one step ahead toward PhD :)

Alhamdulillah... so happy when I could finish presenting my research only in 12 minutes, before the first reminder (at the 13th minutes). Altough, i found some negatives point from the video that Hiromi chan recorded for me.. oftenly move around and did many unimportant gestures but at least i reached my target to present in time.


At the closing party of the symposium, the organizer announced the best presenters...as I told you before that I didn`t expected to be the one. I only want to deliver my presentation in time. However, unbelieveable...among 70 presenters, there were only two person selected as the best presenters and I was one of that person. Both of the best presenters are Indonesian, it means that English is not the main issue in presentation.

And..here`s what I`ve done then became one of the best presenter in The 9th International Symposium of AURG :

I started my preparation earlier, even finished my ppt 10 days before the deadline. Amazingly, it was the first time i didn`t make something at the last minutes. If in the last conference 2012, i have 30 slides and couldn`t finish it by the time. Therefore in this symposium I decided to use only 15 slides since the organizer gave us 15 minutes for present and 5 minutes for question & answer. I estimated, 1 minute is for 1 slide.

Regarding slide appearance, I asked my skillfull sista whose major in design, Irma chan, give me some advices. And asked third opinion from the view of  students who have the same major with me, my lovely sista, Heba san and my dearest lab mate, Mi chan. Lastly, I showed it to the most important person, my supervisor, Prof Zhao. I felt ready enough, since all of them said that my slide is clear and easy to understand. I believe that the aim of any presentation is at least to make the audience "find something" or even ``understand something`` from your speech. Once a lecturer in my current university stated ``Academic presentation doesn`t need to be understand by the audience because it`s very specific and doesn`t need to entertain the audience because it`s a scientific`` then I said `` I am disagree with you sir, academic presentation held to communicate and share your findings to the broad audience. So that, you need to connect with them by a simple, understandable and interesting presentation or speech`` 

I practiced every day at least 2-3 times and pay attention to the time limit. I walked around the neigborhood 3 times in a day while practicing my speech, to produce a long breath. Utilizing the mirror, I watched on my eye contact, smile, gesture and posture. 

Video of my presentation at The 9th International Symposium of AURG, Oita, Japan.

And finally the H day !!...I was wearing a very comfort yet ``look smart`` suit and had my meals two hours before the presentation time. I came thirty minutes earlier to the venue, make sure that everythings is work properly and to made myself familiar with the room.

I was the first presenter in my session and for me it was like a jackpot :( ...Suddenly felt drought so i rushed up get a cup of water and put it on a the table next to the stage. I took a very deep breath and praying when the chairman start to introduced me then...here we go, it`s show time! 

During the presentation, I intentionally stand up quite far from the laptop and was facing the audiences to avoid reading both of it. I talked clearly in a moderate speed. I was so lucky, in my conference room there were 6 Indonesian watched on my presentation included the chairman and it made me felt secure. To be honest, the chairman was one of professors when I had my master degree in Urban Management Department, Hasanuddin University. 

Happy face after the presentation :)

Perfect!! Finished my session at the same time with  these 20th years old Japanese done the coming age ceremony

Closing Party of AURG...before the award announcement

and the award goes to... ;)

With  Prof. Ohgai and another best presenter, Mr. Herry, also from Indonesia

At the moment when the organizer announced my name as one of the best presenter, actually since that time untill this morning I was assump that... maybe they made a misjudged. I felt i am not deserve at all for this award. But...this afternoon, I sent an email to my Professor in Indonesia, thanking him for selected me as the best presenter. Then he replied...``It was a fairly judgment, no arrangement at all``.  Finally... I feel confident, that I had done a good joob and supposed to share this academic journey for your reference in the future, my dear.

Alhamdullillah...grateful thanks to my lovely mama and papa, my siblings, my big family, my best friends who always pray and support me. Thanks to my experience in Shanghai when I became the worst presenter.

One of my dreams came true...being an academic story teller....

Have many more dreams, but hopefully in the next AURG on 2016...I could get the best paper award and able to be the presenter together with my future husband as my professor from Indonesia did it with his wife. What a romantic academician couple.Huwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....... I suddenly feel so warm although now it`s 3 degrees in winter.  

Prof. Ananto, my professor from Indonesia

Hiro chan, the cutest lil sista and my loyal companion during the conference

The moment when Prof Ananto was watching on his wife presentation <3

The man in red, is a Japanese Professor who was attending my presentation and after the award announcement he came to congratulated and asked me to invite him on my open defense. InsyaAllah, I will for sure :)