Seorang mahasiswa asal Jepang, mengikuti mata kuliah Geologi Kebencanaan dan Lingkungan di Program Studi S1 Geologi, FMIPA UI sepanjang 1 semester dari Februari 2023 hingga Juni 2023. Dia menuliskan pengalamannya tersebut dalam tulisan berikut ini

Yuuki Takashima (NPM. 2206022815)
Environmental Geology and Disaster
24 June, 2023
Hello. My name is Yuuki Takashima, a Japanese exchange student at the University of Indonesia (UI) from August 2022 until June 2023. Here, I would like to write about my experience of taking a class named “Environmental Geology and Disaster” in FMIPA for my second term at UI. Even though my major at home university is not in geology but in meteorology, I made contact with Mr. Twin to ask him if the course accepts external students, since my initial interest was in how society perceives natural disasters and works on mitigation. Fortunately, he accepted me and provided me an English support throughout the course. After all, it was one of the best decisions during my stay in Indonesia to jump into this course. Participating in lectures and activities, I have got new sights on disaster management in Indonesia that I had been interested in.
First of all, the CREDO project for the mid-term assignment was a meaningful experience for me. Planning and giving a lesson about volcanic activities to junior school students were something exchange students can rarely do. It was also a great opportunity to visit a junior school and see the collaboration with a university. I was glad to be a part of the educational project that is important to raise public awareness. One thing I think we could do more about this project was to include more geological aspects in the class. Even though they are still in middle school, I think we can teach them the movement of plates, what happened to the magma, what can be the results other than lava, and so on. I tried to add a little information about geological movements by making a page of a slide book about the underground and tried to explain it but it was not enough. Talking from my personal experience of learning the types of major rocks, the different shapes of mountains due to their temperature and viscosity, and the basic process of volcanic activities in elementary school, learning about the earth never gets boring for children if we provide it with thoughtful ways.
Second, I joined the field trip to Ciawi Dam with a keen interest because I have been curious about flood management in Jakarta since last semester. I visited one of the laboratories in FMIPA and an organization near the Ciliwung River, then wrote a report on community involvement for flood management in Jakarta in the other class. Even though I could understand only a small part of the lectures due to my poor Bahasa, one of the seniors kindly gave me the notes in English so that I was able to obtain better insights. It was my first time
visiting a dry dam and learning its function. I was more interested in the operational view rather than the construction of dams but it was still informative and impressive.
Lastly, the assignment for UAS was also stimulating and eye-opening for me. All five topics broadened my views on environmental problems in Indonesia. Coincidentally, I was traveling around NTT which was described as the province with the highest rate of stunting in the video, and one of my destinations was Sumba Island where solar power panels were picked up. Belitung Island, a place of tin mining, was my next destination as well. Most topics were something I have heard of but did not know exactly what was happening there. By watching the videos and answering questions, not only my trip became more insightful but also my
understanding of Indonesia increased its resolution.
One thing I would like to mention as a small issue was the information on the schedule. I assume there were slight changes from the first syllabus due to holidays and MPG, and sometimes it was delivered to me at the last minute. This was also my problem of not knowing that the building was closed on holidays, but it would be helpful if the lecturer could notify students earlier because some other courses have classes regardless of holidays. The last-minute change from offline to online class was also a little confusing for me. Another thing as a suggestion is that FMIPA could accept more exchange students since my experience was great there and the faculty already has enough capacity. Not only lecturers but also students are also proficient in English. In my personal experience in both activities mentioned earlier and during the regular class, students in the class were all friendly and welcoming for a foreign student. They were always by my side to help me out even though I could not contribute a lot to the group projects due to the language barrier. Providing an English class to offer interactions with foreign students would surely benefit UI students as well.
Last but not least, I would like to say thank you to both Pak Twin and Pak Urwa for welcoming me to this course. I really enjoyed the bilingual class provided by the lectures. To be honest, since I could not attend MPG and it seems like MPG accounts for a big part of this course, I once thought of dropping the credits for this course and not transferring it to my home university. It did not mean that I wanted to, but I thought this course was so meaningful to join this course and interact with lovely students from the geology department that it worthed a lot even without a credit.
I sincerely wish you happiness and success in the future.