Semarang │ April 13, 2017 Faculty of Foreign Language and Culture (FBBA) of the University of Muhammadiyah Semarang (Unimus) held a cultural event entitled Cultural Sharing, with participants from several countries. Held in the campus park, the event was attended by volunteers from Indonesia International Work Camp (IIWC) such as Yuri Maruo (Japan) and Sofie Osterloff (Germany), Lea Marjorie Sanchez (France) as a Dejavato volunteer, Unimus’ Thai student (Sufiyah Duraseh), the dean, heads of study programs, the lecturers as well as the rest of FBBA students. The event was held to share information about Indonesian, Japanese, German, French and Thai cultures. The diversity of the participants in the cultural sharing event gave chances for all participants to learn about foreign culture, language, food and so on. Dean of FBBA (Yesika Maya Ocktarani, S.S., M.Hum.) stated that the event aimed at introducing each country’s culture to the FBBA students as well as a medium to practice their English skills. “The event is intentionally located outdoor, exactly in the beautiful park to represent the nature of Indonesia, which is rich of flora and fauna” she added.
Topics of the discussion was about culture and language. Linguistic diversity in Indonesia was demonstrated in form of conversations in Acehnese, Dayakese, Sundanese, Javanese and some other local languages by the students. The students and lecturers also demonstrated some kinds of traditional games and sang a couple of Javanese songs, such as Gundul – Gundul Pacul and Cublak – Cublak Suweng, depicting the diversityy of Indonesian culture.
On the occasion, Yuri Maruo demonstrated how to wear a Yukata, a kind of traditional Japanese garment. Meanwhile, the students showed how to wear Javanese traditional clothes and also introduce several kinds of Javanese traditional food.
It is hoped that event can help the students learn how conditions and cultures are in other countries. Besides, after participating in the event, they are expected to be more open-minded, responsible and responsive towards the circumstances as well as improve their qualities in accordance with their contributions to both environment and nation. All in all, the event is hoped can promote Unimus to the international public and help establishing friendships between the participants. All of them are happy with it.
Reported by the Technical Unit of Public Relations and Protocol.
