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Continuing International Education Week, the international office put on country presentations. The presentations were held Tuesday Nov 19 from 1-2:30 and Wednesday Nov 20 from 1-2 in the Sunflower room of the Overman Student Center.
“I think the best part is like you can have the chance to talk about your countries culture and also know about other countries culture, you don’t really have a bunch of time to travel to every country and get to know all of the culture but for this presentation you get to know the countries culture from the countries person, not just online, there are some things you won’t learn from online probably,” said Meiyu Hung, senior in English.
International students were given the opportunity to share information about their country. They gave presentations about the country itself, about food, superstitions, traditions, etc.
“Total we have about sixty students giving presentations, over a variety of subjects from all the different countries, we have students presenting on holidays, tourist attractions, major cities, geography, languages, taboos and superstitions, food,” Angela Moots, study abroad coordination and French instructor.
Pittsburg State University students were given the opportunity to learn more about the cultures of the international students.
“I think it’s important for our international students just because they get to share a little bit about home and everyone’s always excited to talk about what they like from home, and they get to hear about other countries from other international students..,” Moots said “…and for our Pitt State students it really gives them the chance to study abroad without leaving campus, if you don’t have the opportunity to study abroad or haven’t got the opportunity to travel yet, you really get to do that without going anywhere and it’s a really great experience,”
Ximena Bogarin, junior in environmental engineering talked about her country Paraguay.
“I talked about superstitions and taboos, I talked about some things that we usually do in Paraguay to scare away bad luck and all that jazz..,” said Bogarin. “…I think it was so important to talk about this because it’s not like talking about the history or our dances, it’s what people usually do in their regular days,”
Hung talked about taboos in Taiwan and what women can and cannot do in Taiwan.
“Now the global world has a lot of international people all around the world, so if you get to know a countries culture, what you can do and what you cannot do, when you are interacting with others you know how to react to some of the superstitions, taboo, and anything else,” Hung said.
Students enjoyed the opportunity to share their cultures with others while also getting the opportunity to learn others’ cultures as well.
“I think that the best part was making the presentation, like I had to google and watch how the streets back home look like and I got to remember all the things people usually do, I was so excited to share with my classmates because we talk about very little things that make us Paraguayans, and it was so important to share,” Bogarin said.
