Culture Corner is back! The much-awaited popular student activity has returned for this semester, continuing efforts of internationalization and social interaction through cultural activities.
Assoc. Prof Dr Ariffin Abu Hassan commenced the evening’s activities with the usual ice-breaking session over a cuppa. Students had a little chat before grouping for selfies to be posted on social media with the hashtags #utmculturecorner and #utmawesome. Regulars and newcomers turned up in full force, amounting to over 240 students from more than 24 countries. The students were divided into 12 different groups comprising students from different nationalities and degrees, and were tasked to choose a folktale from one country and write one word related to it from the many languages of the group members. It was an interesting and challenging task that coincided with this week’s theme: Fairytales. The activity provided an open platform for group members to communicate with one another and share stories from their various backgrounds., thus generating a fun and inclusive atmosphere as per the objectives of Culture Corner. Afterwards, Dr Ariffin selected a few groups at random to do a short presentation of their group’s fairy tale and associated word.
An artist hard at work
The evening was brought to the next level with performances from the representatives from Afghanistan, China, Indonesia, Somalia, and Sudan, where they exhibited their unique fairy tales titled “Katawazi”, “The Great Revival”, “Sangkuriang”, “The Story of Elephant and Silver Dik Dik”, and “The Hasty King”, respectively. The Malaysian team performance served as the climax of the evening. with an enchanting performance of “Puteri Sentubong & Puteri Sejinjang”. The performances were informative, engaging and carried valuable lessons that the students can take away and later apply in their daily lives.
The Glory of a King – Performance by ISS China – The Great Revival
To reward students who put in their utmost concentration and attentiveness, a session of Kahoot! was then played. Always the adrenaline-inducing activity, students battled it out in a multiple choice quiz game online and the three best-scoring students were rewarded with gifts.
We even had a surprise performance by visitors from the Foreign Language Faculty of Technology Education Ho Chi Minh University, Vietnam where they performed a song about the history of Ho Chi Minh city.
The evening would be incomplete without a sing-along session with this week’s song being “Let It Go”, lead by Ms. Fasihah Jaslan and special appearance from our Culture Corner vocalist Dr. Norzie.
A group photo marked the end of Culture Corner 20.0. As always, we wished that the bonds formed during the activity will last beyond the evening and we sincerely hoped that the students gained a monumental experience from interacting with each other during the session.
Group Photos, always full of chaos and excitement
A special thank you to the UTM International staff and their families for the great support and helping hand, and not forgetting our Global Buddies for their commitment.
Stay tuned to our Facebook page for more interactive and interesting student activities in UTM, and we hope to see you for future Culture Corners
Sincerely,
UTM International team