SAGA Competition and SAGA Show 2024 are activities presented by the Postgraduate Arts Division of Universitas Gadjah Mada as a means to channel interests and talents in the arts. SAGA Competition and SAGA Show 2024 itself is a collaboration of 5 divisions in the Postgraduate Art Division of Universitas Gadjah Mada. The SAGA Competition itself competes in painting and photography, while the SAGA Show will feature dance, music, and theater. Both activities were held on the same day and for the SAGA Competition was carried out this afternoon and in the evening we will both witness the talent of UGM students. This activity was held on the 2nd floor of the Auditorium room, Campus V, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Kota Baru, Yogyakarta on June 9, 2024.

Approximately 3 months had been prepared for this activity, starting from the open recruitment stage, the inaugural meeting, talent training, until tonight we will present what had been prepared so far. The involvement of students in these 2 activities is not only limited to UGM S2 and S3 students, but there is also an important role from friends from the Vocational School and also friends from S1. Not a few students from the Faculty of Cultural Sciences joined and played important roles such as theater talents, dance talents, event committees, and so on. In the event, they performed their best. The activity also made them closer to each other even though they are from different majors.

Gadjah Mada Theater is one of the Student Activity Units under Gadjah Mada University. Its various sub-fields include acting, backstage (including lighting, costumes, makeup, and props), writing, and production. As part of the student activities at UGM, Teater Gadjah Mada acts as a place to channel talents and interests in performing arts. TGM actively contributes to the development of theater arts through performing arts activities and self-development. This process involves various competencies such as production, stage management, and stage art creation.

In line with its goals, Teater Gadjah Mada organizes their annual event, Studi Pentas, in order to be a means of education, improving social skills, and creativity for new members of Teater Gadjah Mada. The Gadjah Mada University students involved in the project come from various levels and study programs from various faculties at Gadjah Mada University, one of which is the Faculty of Cultural Sciences. Not a few students from the faculty joined and played important roles such as the main actor, director, treasurer, and so on. In this activity they performed their best. The activity also makes them closer to each other even though they are from different majors.

Social media is an online platform where users can share content, communicate with other users, and participate in community activities. Some examples include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn. There were 139 million active social media users in Indonesia in January 2024. This number is equivalent to 49.9% of the population in the country. Not only personal use, but a number of institutions also use social media to introduce their institutions more widely to many people, one of which is the Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Gadjah Mada, the Faculty has several social media accounts such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook. They often share their activities on these platforms and reap various responses from other users.

Recently, social media was shocked by Tiktok FIB UGM content about students of the Master of Linguistics study program who were presenting presentations in their respective regional languages. This was considered unique by netizens and received a positive response. They think that this is interesting and can preserve local languages. Until now, the content has been shared everywhere such as on Tiktok, Instagram, and X by well-known accounts such as indozone, undercover.id, fyifact, and many more. Many praised the skills of each presenter and did not forget the psycholinguistics course lecturer who had taken the initiative to give this assignment. To see the video and want to follow other daily activities, follow our social media accounts at fib.ugm!

A varied dialect within a multilingual country might emerge as a phenomenon where the people speak the same language but still can’t understand what other people say from another area. For instance, the Javanese people who live in the Special Region of Yogyakarta and East Java speak and hold Javanese culture. However, they might be confused or clueless about what the listener says in a conversation. Thanks to the language variation that brought so-called dialect.

Dialectology, a linguistics study focusing on how language differs based on geography and social factors, comes to assist in answering the question. In this case, 14 students from dialectology class attempted to study vocabulary (words or phrases) variation specific to certain regions. They went to Jombang, East Java on May 10-11, 2024, to find the vocabulary variation of the Javanese language.

“There are 14 students in our class and they spread into 5 groups. Each group went to different sub-districts, which were Perak, Wonosalam, Diwek, and Peterongan. We brought 200 Swadesh word lists to find out the changes from the Javanese standard by interviewing an informant in each sub-district,” Eduar explained. Those sub-districts were chosen based on their hypothesis. “Diwek and Perak are in the west of Jombang, so we predict that the people still use the Mataraman dialect while Wonosalam and Petarongan are in the east. Thus, the people are most likely to use the Surabayanan dialect,” Dina added. From the data gathered, they compared and mapped the changes.

The students said that this field trip was a priceless experience. It gave a clear picture of how a linguist collects the data such as planning the program, coordinating with the locals, and interacting as well as interviewing them. “It was fun and always be a valuable experience for me. As a Javanese native speaker, I learned a lot from this experience. For instance, I didn’t know that the word kenceng means lurus (go straight on) in their dialect. All I know kenceng is banter or kencang (fast). It, of course, enhances my knowledge,” Dinda illustrated what she felt.

“I think it would be fantastic if we could continue to hold field trips like this in the future. We learned a lot. I hope the department, the faculty, or the parties involved will always support this sort of activity,” said Ningrum.