One night, at the beginning of this semester, I sent a WAG message to my students:
Indeed, music became an integral part in my course. I know my students better through their music. It's all started in 2021, when I first teaching at SU with cohort 2018: Rena, Nami, et al. It was in pandemic situation. Hence, the song of this cohort is really just about that: the feels of isolation, yet we hope someday all the shit is over.
Teaching them is my gateway to Korean music indeed.
Then came cohort 2019. They were a lot. I mean ... they were 24 students. I spent extra time to have one-on-one coding consultation with each of them, to make sure that at the very least, their module is in a good shape. And they did make it good.
There are several songs that reminds me of them. Rachel put Yellow cover by Brooklyn Duo in her artstep project in final EDUTECH assignment. That, I will never forget. It's like a full circle to me when I played the song for them and they gave it back to me. Lots of the folk liked K-Pop, so Rose's On The Ground reminds me a bunch of them. And they were resilient. Despite of shortcomings, they tried their best. Yura Yunita's Merakit never fails to make me watery eyes while thinking about some students in cohort 2019.
Maybe one song that represents them the most is Coldplay's Fix You. I played the original song in the class. But Jacob Collier has an incredible cover at the end of last year:
Cohort 2019 is indeed pretty special to me. Some of them took their time, traveled to Jogja for vacation and stopped by my house. Some of them, I supervised their capstone and a bunch more asked me for advice even though I was not their supervisor. Some worked in a "research-for-fun" with me. A bunch of them still say hi to me through WhatsApp or Instagram.
Collier's Fix You illustrate it best.
After the pandemic is over, I was given the privilege to teach my courses online. But I go to SU when I see it fits and is necessary.
My first face-to-face (F2F) meeting was with cohort 2020, the pandemic cohort. They started their journey in Sampoerna University fully online. Fadil didn't even show up when I had my first F2F meeting because he is still on the way to Jakarta from Kalimantan.
This cohort, so far, is the most musical.
Well, there's El. But there's also Syifa who self declared having Ph.D. in DAY6 (a band from Korea) and metal head Jessica. In fact, I started my "Student" playlist in this cohort. I filled the list with DAY6's Time of Our Life, an OST from Persona5 (a game that Fadil spent his life force on before he met 'the girl'), "Bad Things" from a rock indie band Prevail introduced to me by Jessica and some other songs.
However, Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" has a special place in our collective memory. Jessica presented lyricstraining for Technology in Teaching Listening/Speaking and the whole class jammin' to Miley's tune.
I found that the mashed song cover by Poomplamoose represent the dynamics, the creativity, and the quirk of cohort 2020.
They are a bunch of students who asked me the most questions to ponder in class.
I'm still looking forward to cohort 2021 playlist, but as I said, in my opinion they are not "musical". I mean, maybe they love music but I never be able to probe what their music is all about. I would guess maybe similar to K-Pop thingy, but some of them have old soul as well. In all of those mystery, I'd like to hook this cohort with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. It's complicated. It's hard to play. But it's beautiful af.
It's really ironic though, since Ally and Nat probably the only two students who spent three semester with me. They took ADV.EDUTECH with 2020 cohort and then took the regular EDUTECH on the next semester, and TLL on the semester after that. But somehow, 2021 is overshadowed by their "neighboring" cohort.
And finally, the 2022 cohort. The cohort whom I sent this message to. It's the end of the semester and I found a perfect song for them. Teaching faculties in SU often advertise their cohort as one of the best they had. And surely, they didn't disappoint. They're crazy, but crazy good. Quirky. Unique. Creative. Hard-working. Resilient. All the good things. A "Crazy" song cover from Walk Off The Earth would fit their characteristics perfectly. But no. Our interaction during the semester is more than that. This cohort is always looking for connections. Something that has meaning beyond the face value. So I wouldn't choose classical music even though Celine would love it. I wouldn't choose any oldies like Michael Learns To Rock's "Strange Foreign Beauty", or some MRT song that Gio put in their Spotify list for me (Yes, MRT stands for Mono Rail Train).
Their song, in my opinion is this:
This is a soundtrack of Sakamoto Days anime series, aired on Spring 2025. Exactly. This cohort only doing one semester with me because in the Fall 2024, I didn't teach. And Sakamoto and his bunch portrayed my interaction with this cohort perfectly. Not to mention, the Japanese vibe of Gaby and her SONIC obsession is too strong LOL.
I am looking forward to meet the next cohort. I wonder what their song would be. Or would Sakamoto be my last song? I never know.
