The English Zone started as a place for Indonesian young people to practice English by participating in lively discussion groups, daunting public speaking sessions, and challenging pronunciation practice. While that’s still true, what the English Zone has become is an overwhelmingly supportive community.

On any given afternoon, an English Zone member rushes through the front door, laptop and notebooks in hand, and asks for help editing a scholarship application or essay that they’ve written in English. Often times, a long standing member will read it through and suggest changes or sometimes the entire room joins in and suddenly everyone is arguing about tenses, grammar, Eurocentric versus American spelling, or what synonym is best to use, and all this in their second language.

Often, when an English Zone member is preparing for an interview or examination in English, they gather with other members around the little coffee table in the back room and spend hours coming up with possible questions and perfecting articulate answers. Every once in a while, someone will briefly slip into speaking their native tongue before half the room erupts with a shout of, “English please!”

It’s truly amazing to see so many young people reaching fluency and a level of comfortability in English that should take years of study or immersion to accomplish. But not only that, all this is happening outside of a classroom and without a curriculum. These Indonesian students, entrepreneurs, teachers, and others from every walk of life are able to reach their goals with the help and support of their English Zone community.