On a cloudy Sunday last week, members of Polyglot Indonesia - Chapter Jakarta gathered in a trendy youthful café in South Jakarta wearing full-coloured attires. The main theme of the gathering is celebrating the ritual of PI end-of-year meet-up with a fun secret special exchange gifts. Nadya and Editha were the persons-in-charge (PICs) of this similarly themed meet-up in 2013 and so, decided to join forces again this year. There were lots of new members coming in this meet-up and their motivation to join Polyglot Indonesia is very interesting.

We started the meet-up by opening 2013 Polyglot Indonesia's wishing jar. Four people who attended last year's gathering came forward and interviewed so we were able to find out whether and how many of their resolutions were realized this year. We were happy to know that at least one or two last year's resolutions were succesfully achieved. Bravo!!!

At the next session, we divided our members into their language group of choise. This time we had the English-, French- and a quirkly new group called "Kortañol" (it's a mix between Korean, Italian and Spanish group). The meet-up discussion was about the meaning of happiness because we have a different perspective about happiness, right? So that's why we'd like to discuss it together and exchange our perspectives.

After 45 minutes of discussion, each group presented their own findings and opinions about the meaning of happiness. The English group stated that happiness means a happy belly. French group had a different vision, for them, it is when all their dreams coming true. The Kortañol group preferred to explain that happiness means having time to travel (free) and have an always smiley face. This discussion concluded that happiness is what make us feel good, and happiness actually improves other aspects of our lives.

The meet-up was wrapped up by unwrappint the secret Santa gifts. This session was the most hilarious moment of the day, because there were heart-warming notes slipped in each and every gift. Everybody made a very fun creative note to encourage the person who received the gift to face the upcoming 2015. We couldn't stop laughing and smiling when we opened the gift and read the note. It seems like everyone had a good time!

So yeah, this is our way to celebrate the end of the year 2014. Laughing, sharing happiness, discussing and encouraging each other to face the new things.

Like Eleanor Roosevelt said: “Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.”

About the author

Several years ago, Editha went to France as an exchange student at L'Université de La Rochelle. During her undergraduate study, she was awarded two scholarships; one from the former Indonesian president and one from the Ministry of Education and Culture, known as Ministry of National Education at the time. Currently she is working for a French public institution which is part of the education and cultural services of the French Embassy in Indonesia.