Being Conductor in Britzone Class? Why Not?

Have you ever found out the coolest community in Jakarta? Well, that’s Britzone! It has been established since 2002 and gain more members in every week. For those who never know about Britzone, let me give you a direct explanation through this writing.

Britzone or BZ, is a free of charge English Community and located in Jakarta. This community conducts the class in the Library of Indonesia Ministry of Education and Culture (Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Indonesia, Kemendikbud), in Senayan, near Fx Sudirman and Gelora Bung Karno stadium.

Beside free entrance class, the members are allowed to lead as conductor in every single class that BZ has. I have conducted and acted as speaker in Britzone Fun Day class (BFD Class) on Saturday. I took a topic about Social Media Detox in that time. It was quite interesting and challenging for me.

Often, we always assume that being conductor is hard thing to do, however it depends on us. If you think you have that capability and capacity, just do it. You will never know until you try, right?! Well, the definition and the role of conductor have been cleared as what we’ve seen. Conductor is in charge to deliver her/his thought through presenting their idea in front of the public. You can voluntarily propose to be conductor, or BZ team will find and approach recommended people to fill the class.

Speaking in front of the class for two hours seems very hard and challenging to do, isn’t it? However, the mindset you have won’t vanish if you keep that mindset hanging on your brain. There’s only one thing you can do to erase that! Dare yourself to be a speaker! Believe me, there will be many benefits you will get of being a conductor, but I will recap several main things you probably want to know what exactly the benefits of being a conductor,

Increase your confidence. You might be the smartest student in your college or high-achiever at work; however it won’t give any guarantee you can conquer your fear to act as conductor in BZ class. I am not trying to frighten you, because nothing to worry about! Your friends in BZ are human being too, not zombies! If you still have the feeling of worry and afraid to speak up in English, but in the other side you really want to do it, just challenge yourself! If your capacity on delivering ideas in English is good enough, then try it! This community could be the best place for you to level up your confidence. You will never know how it feels to be a conductor before you try it, won’t you?!

Train your self-management. I am sorry if this too formal and quite beyond professional. LOL. You can deny that being conductor means you have to prepare many things i.e. idea and topic, presentation, method of conducting the class (are you going to complete the class with games or not), ice breaking etc., but believe me everything pays off! Becoming conductor indirectly drags you to be well-managed because you need to be prompt arriving at the class, even in time. Then you should prepare all the stuffs and you should finish your session on time! That’s exactly about what you are going through! Exciting and very challenging! 

Scale up your attitude. By taking a part as conductor you will feel more mature in term of anything. You could be more creative and able to secure any type of impromptu condition that happens during the class. Audiences will consider you as the center point of the class and they will be watching your move and act all the time. Act nice and properly will gain their attention and don’t forget to throw your sweetest smile while interacting to the audiences.

Since the day I took responsibility as conductor, I started to analyze what exactly the function of conductor in the class. People only go with the idea that conductor is a leader of the class because they navigate where the class is going to. However, it’s not that simple. Being a conductor means that you should trigger people to speak up, create a cool atmosphere where people will enjoy the class and unashamedly deliver their thoughts. Is it quite hard? Not really if you know what to do and the tricks!

Several things I could share with you about how to encounter your fear and doubt to be a conductor and find the fun way to interact with people inside the class,

1. Pick the easiest topic that people know, so you can go with the flow easily
2. Bring visualization of pictures or videos to support your performance
3. Give outstanding presentation in your Power point file to attract the audiences
4. Go with the Ice-breaking to freshen out the member’s mind during the class and bring back their focus
5. Find cool method as ornament like games or more interactive approaches

Now, let me tell you what points that matter of being conductor. Because this is not a TEDex or Campaign speech session, so as conductor we need to pay attention to these rules before we finally decide to voluntarily propose as conductor or accept the offer of becoming the conductor,

Don’t be a spotlight because you are not the King and give your friends much space to talk! Please notice that you are not doing a speech contest or debate session. You deliver topic, lead the class, make sure everyone has a chance to speak up, and let others develop the topic you bring to the floor! Some conductors make a mistake in it. They forget that their friends are not supposed to be passive audiences. They don’t come to the class for being a silent listener, but they come to do more conversation sessions with new friends and discuss the topic in the class!

Listen your member’s opinions and don’t cut them out! It’s sad when I saw several conductors might cut off the members while they were talking. This is not good. Let the members or audiences finish their opinion then you as conductor can start talking again!

Appreciate your friend’s thought! When your friends, members or audiences have finished their arguments or idea, please at least say thank you and clap your hands as a form of respect and appreciation to them. This indirectly gives them a ton of spirit to come again to the class and gather with others to learn together!