Pursuing an international career: Why not?

How did I start?

About the end of 2018, I started thinking about working abroad, especially in Malaysia. There was no specific reason or motivation why. It was simply because I was in a relationship with someone who was at the time working there and I thought it would be a good idea if I were also there so that we could be together. He was the one who told me that he found many Indonesians working in Malaysia, so it would be possible as well for me to work there. Since then I started to look for a job in Malaysia for Indonesian speakers. Why 'Indonesian speakers' became a keyword? It was because I am a native speaker of the Indonesian language and this skill is what others from other countries don't have despite my educational background and working experience that I had. As far as I remember, I applied to many job vacancies available on Google starting from those on the public job portals such as Jobstreets and Linkedin to those on the outsourcing company portals such as Manpower (he was hired by this company anyway) and Kelly and many others.

 

The offer to work in Malaysia came a few times, maybe around three times, but the other two did not go well maybe because my educational background and/or working experience was irrelevant. As far as I remember, they needed someone who has an educational background in business. Finally, the third time I got an offer and an interview by phone was arranged. Guess what? I had the interview on a bus from the airport to my rent room in Jakarta. I was on my way back to Jakarta from my hometown in Lampung. Unexpectedly, my flight delayed for about one or two hours. Well anyway, it went well. I got the offer the next day by email and I said yes right away. Was I excited? yes, but I was not too excited because my boyfriend vanished in January with no reason until at that time. Nevertheless, I was sure I would be okay in Malaysia without him. I changed my purpose and motivation for going, not because of him, but because I wanted to get more experience in life and if possible to continue my Ph.D. there. For your information, after a week of my arrival, I was thinking about inviting my ex for a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, it turned out he got married already. With who? With an Indonesian girl from Wakatobi. The worse part was that they got married on April 21st, my birthday when I was flying to Malaysia. Anyway, the ticket I had was supposed to be a two-way ticket for a short vacation in Malaysia to be with him celebrating my birthday, but no one knew what would happen next, right? I came here to Malaysia for work and just let the other ticket go because it was not refundable. It was a cheap flight ticket for a vacation promo that kind of thing. 

What's my background?

At that time, I had graduated from my Master's program a few months earlier, exactly in August 2018, and I started teaching in a university (where I studied for a bachelor's degree) as an English instructor starting in October. At the same time, I was still teaching part-time at English First Pondok Indah, Jakarta. So, it was a big decision for me to make at that time leaving the English teaching career that I had had in Jakarta in the last 8 and almost 9 years (since 2010, the second year of my bachelor's as an English private teacher). Especially at that time, I was an English instructor in a university a.k.a lecturer. I really love my students. We were like friends sharing stories and learning together. I also loved my colleagues who always had stories about many things such as other colleagues, teaching materials, and even about our students. Haha. We had a name for students, like good-looking ones, annoying ones, naughty ones, cool ones. Sadly, I was just there for one semester. I still remember that one day my supervisor, Ms. Widdy, asked me if I was sure about my decision and what I would actually do here in Malaysia. Honestly, I had no clear idea at that time and I just said whatever written there in my job descriptions. How it would look like? No idea at all. But, life must go on. I was ready to take another challenge leaving my comfort zone in Jakarta and to have another fight in Malaysia. Just like what I did before, leaving Lampung and fighting in Jakarta. Just like when I left my village to the capital city Bandar Lampung to fight for my high school. One fight after another I take. What for? I am not even sure what it is for? but what I am sure of is that a lot to learn in every single step I take.

Many things have happened since I graduated from Sampoerna School of Education, now well known by Sampoerna University with more faculties, not only education. I started teaching at Rumah Bahasa only for a few months then decided to leave due to its unprofessional HR management. Then found an opportunity on the internet, again not sure where it was from, I applied to English First and got hired. I still remember that the HR person Ms. Pram thought I was a model because of my previous school names, MIN Model (Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri) and MAN Model (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri). In fact, this word 'Model' was to represent that the school was a role model for other schools in the region. It's funny, isn't it? after one year of teaching there I started getting bored and no challenge in my routine so I decided to continue my Master's degree part-time at UIN Jakarta (Universitas Islam Negeri). Well, the distance was not far from my rent room, to EF and to UIN, with my motorbike. During my master's, I tried to take this opportunity as much as I could, especially to do things that I couldn't do during my bachelor's. One of them is to present some papers of the assignments at some international conferences and to request the university to financially support me. Well, not bad, I went to Malang, Singapore, and Thailand supported by UIN. Other than that, I actively contributed to the student council conducting some projects such as TOEFL and TOAFL preparation classes for master students there considering they needed to pass the minimum score to graduate. Also, recognizing me in attending some international conferences, some lecturers in my faculty sought my assistance to be a part of the committee in international conferences conducted by UIN. It was great that I could get the experience not only as a participant or a presenter but also as a committee member. Because of my close interaction and relation with the lecturers there, I was awarded as the best master's student in 2016 in the faculty. Oh, last, I got involved in some research projects with Ms. Ratna and Ms. Desi. A lot of things I did, right? 

Any challenges I got through?

Well, the very first challenge was to find a place to stay. Luckily, I knew a friend from an English community that I joined a long time ago www.speaking24.com. He was studying for his Ph.D. in Malaysia. Surprisingly, there was a vacant room at his unit. The old tenant just moved out a month before, so I took the room. The problem was that I was not familiar yet with the surrounding, especially the distance from this place to my office and any transportation available. It turned out, its location was quite far. It got even worse because my work schedule is uncommon. I work in shifts, morning, middle, and night, and the schedule changes every three months. I am sure it would be much easier at that time for me if I knew someone from Indonesia (especially female) staying in Malaysia who could help me. Yes, at that time I had a friend but I didn't want to trouble him too much. What I thought in the first place was that so as long as I found a place to stay, then that's fine. After three months of staying there, my transportation expense was quite much so I decided to leave the place. You know what? I didn't know and I wasn't familiar with the tenant agreement at that time which some say the minimum period of stay is 6 months. The thing was that he didn't tell me clearly about the terms and conditions. Finally, I gave him one month's notice, left the place, and moved to a room at an apartment near to my office. See? It's complicated.

Another challenge was the currency. I needed a calculator most of the time when I wanted to buy something to at least compare and contrast the buy value between here and Indonesia so I could decide if it was cheap or expensive to buy something. Seriously, it was not easy. Each currency has its own value attached to the general values applied in its country or region at least. A higher price here in Malaysia does not always mean it is more expensive than it is in Jakarta. It may have a higher price but the value is just the same in the general value applied to the people and community here. Anyway, I am not good at talking about money and I may confuse you here. But, the thing is it is difficult to decide if something cheap or expensive. Even until now. That's why I don't think too much anymore about it now. I get tired of it. I will get what I need. That's all. haha. I don't care if there might be some friends who have been here long before me making some jokes on how stupid I am to buy certain stuff at a certain price which they may consider to be too expensive. I don't care. It's fucking difficult. Oh, by the way, now the currency from RM 1 is Rp 3,500, or in other words, 1 x 3. But, in my mind what's written is not like that, simply I put 3 zeroes at the back. Let's say I buy a snack costs RM 2, what I have in mind is like Rp 2000, which is totally possible to make me broke because in fact it actually costs Rp 7.000. Can you see what I mean?

Here comes to me dealing with the people here Malaysians or those who look like Malay. Most people think that Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu are the same. I'd personally rather say that they are similar, not the same. If they are the same, they are totally and exactly and absolutely and definitely the same. Well yes, some are the same, but some others are different. This difference sometimes makes me confused whether I better speak Bahasa Indonesia or Malay or even in some situations English. A few times I tried speaking in Malay, but the person I talked to could easily notice it and right away think that I am Indonesian from my accent. There was nothing wrong with it of course. But, by then they would refer to me as a low-educated person who works as a housemaid and does not know English. How do I know? From the questions that they asked me. It's terrible, isn't it? At the other time, I spoke in English, especially with Chinese because even some of them sometimes do not know Malay. The thing is that there was a time when I spoke English and the person I talked to started asking where I was from. As soon as he knew that I was from Indonesia,  he started preaching about language saying that it was disrespectful to speak in English, not in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia in Malay land. So, what should I do then? Tell me.

 

The next challenge is when I had to deal with the diversity around me, especially at the workplace. LGBTQ is something common among colleagues and superordinates. It was my first time dealing with people who openly declare themselves to have a certain gender identity or sexual orientation. I am okay with that. We are all humans living together in this world, so let's be human. The thing is that there might be at some point where I am confused about what stand should take in how much support I would give them. Sometimes there is some kind of contradiction between what I believe to be a human and what I believe to be a Muslim. But anyway, despite all diversities at the workplace, we get along and work together really well for the best performance. Let the personal preferences be personal, and together be professional. 

How do I survive?

This job is a job that I have never done before, but I believe that I can always rely on my educational background and working experience. In the first few months, I tried very hard to get to know how things work exactly at the workplace. Any mistakes I made? A lot. Many times. But, each mistake I made let me learn things one by one. I observed and learned until I got the main idea of what it wants from me at doing the job, especially in terms of quality and quantity. What kind of quality I should have and how much quantity I should do. Trials and errors I have been through. Did I ever feel like giving up? Of course. Many times. It would be much easier for me to get back to school teaching lovely and fun students, right? But here I am not a teacher. I am a totally new student in a new work environment. If I can be a good student here, I will definitely be a good teacher here as well.

Other than my work, there are surely things out of my control coming from the management side. Some decisions are made changing from time to time, sometimes with a notice in advance and some other times in short notice. Well, what more to expect? No matter I go, in which institution or company I work for, the change would always be there. It was one of many things I remember from what Sir Anddy said (my supervisor in LRC SU). Any changes are the dynamics and what I always believe is that change happens for a reason, or maybe some reasons. Sometimes I know it, sometimes I don't, even though there must be some kind of feeling within me wondering why certain things happen. Well, we can't force ourselves to know everything, right? So, what I can do is to always see the big picture of something and its bright side in dealing with any dynamics. Some say that it may be me who may lose, but who cares? I don't care. Well, I may care, but that's none of my control and none of my business. The story would be different if I still have a chance or a way to fight for it. Anyway, as long as I live, I am happy and grateful for what I have and keep doing a good job. 

To work abroad does not mean to earn only money but also a lot more than that. After three months working here, I started thinking about teaching. I missed teaching so much. It took me to Myprivatetutor Malaysia on the internet where I could register myself as a teacher of English and Bahasa Indonesia, and connect me to students. Until now I have got students from Italy, Korea, German, and even Malaysia. It's interesting, isn't it? Other than teaching I still got involved in a research conducted by Ms. Ratna and Ms. Desi on Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia and Singapore. I tried to find some Indonesian migrant workers organizations in both countries. Here, I started to be in touch with Edukasi Unntuk bangsa (EUB) and International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). Before the pandemic came, I voluntarily taught English conversation with Ibu Sri to Indonesian migrant workers. Sadly, no more classes until now because of the pandemic, and the school SIKL (Sekolah Indonesia Kuala Lumpur) is closed. In IDWF, I have been actively involved in some events as an interpreter for Bahasa Indonesia and/or English. These opportunities have made me in close contact with Indonesian migrant workers family here. It is great. Some of them are elder than me who treat me just like their daughter and little sister, and some of them are younger than me whom I consider like my little brothers and sisters. Additionally, I joined some voluntary teaching programs conducted by my company Accenture in collaboration with  Teach for Malaysia and SOLS 24/7, which allows me to broaden my network here as well as share knowledge and impact. These all are self-rewarding. 

So, for those of you thinking about going to work abroad, why not?

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Last January I was invited by my old university, Sampoerna University, to share my experience of working abroad with the students there. I was with my other two friends, Agnes and Sahlan, who are also working in another country, Agnes is in Malaysia and Sahlan is in Thailand. It was an honor and a pleasure for me. May they and you all find this information useful. Here are the PPt slides.