Culture Fest 2012!

Congratulations to all our participants in this year's Culture Fest! Particular congratulations go to Egli and Mandy, our Portuguese tutors, and to their students Natalia and Edgar - their decorative efforts and willingness to chat with interested students for hours helped the Brazil table win the Best Table Prize! Here are photos of how some of our languages were represented:

Brazilian Portuguese:

Mandy quizzes some students on their knowledge of Brazil.

Egli and some students taking the 'test your knowledge of Brazil' quiz.

Arabic:

The beautiful display for Morocco won second place in the Best Tables competition! Hurray!

Korean:

Jae and a friend promote the Korean Club.

Chinese:

Chinese Club students promote the study of Mandarin at GPC.

Japanese:

Japan Club members teach students to write in Japanese.

You can see more photos on the GPC Dunwoody Culture Fest page. Wonderful job, everyone - our languages were well-represented!

Upcoming Events: Korean Concert

The Dunwoody Korean Club in conjunction with the Academy of Humanity Studies presents a charity concert to benefit North Koran Tuberculosis patients.

Date: Saturday, October 29
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Dunwoody Auditorium (C-1100)

Admission is free!

The concert features traditional Korean musical instruments rarely seen and played outside Korea, such as Haegum (String), Danso (Bamboo Flute) AND Jangoo (Double Drum). Let your students know so that they can plan to attend!

Korean Festival Photos (and More Culture Fest)!

First, congratulations to Jae, our very own Korean Tutor, for winning the GPC Student Leadership Award this semester! What an honor - and well-deserved! Hooray for Jae!

Jae and his Korean Club also hosted a Korean Festival on Thursday - check out the photos below!

Jae, on right, and Korean Club members show off some displays for the festival.

One of our excellent students of Korean with a display of traditional Korean outfits - students could actually try them on!

The festival got our own Korean Club students and other GPC students sharing ideas and information about Korean language and culture.

Tasty snacks for sampling! Professor Kendrick joins club members in making sure GPC students are well informed - and well fed!

Photos of Dunwoody Culture Fest 2011

Many thanks to everyone who participated in Culture Fest! We were well-represented, and the students had a great time. I think they also learned a bit about our programs, and about the languages and cultures we represent. Here are the first of the photos, and there will be more to come:

Dana (awesome Arabic tutor) and Professor Fallon pose with the Palestine display.

Nura, one of our excellent Arabic 2001 students, shares some insight into Lebanese culture and history.

The festival opened with a lion dance, sure to get students excited about Chinese culture.

Japan Festival - April 27th!

We have another big event in the works - the Japan Festival! Please join us on Wednesday, April 27th, from 11:30-2:00 in the Dunwoody B-Building Student Center. There will be food, fashion, music, and more. Professor Kendrick of the ESL Department is the chief organizer, and is eager to get as much student involvement as possible. We would love for everyone to participate - and are hoping your students will want to get involved too. Please promote the event in your classes, and let me know if you want to help! Or, post a comment to let us know if there is anything you or your students would like to contribute.

See you this Thursday for Culture Fest...

Korean Festival: April 13th

I'm very excited to announce yet another upcoming event - the Korean Festival! Please join us in the B-Building of the Dunwoody Campus from 11:00 until 2:00 next Wednesday to celebrate Korean culture. There will be music, dance, games and more. If you'd like to help by organizing a cultural display table, please let me know - or contact either our Korean tutor, Jae, or the Korean Club Adviser, Professor Kendrick. Of course, please also encourage your students to attend - it promises to be lots of fun!

(Also, photos of today's Culture Fest to come soon... it was amazing. Thanks to everyone who helped!)

Chinese Films at The High

The High Museum of Art will be hosting a series of Chinese films in April. The films will include:

Last Train Home - April 2nd at 8:00 p.m.

Senior Year - April 9th at 8:00 p.m.

Suzhou River - April 16th at 8:00 p.m.

No matter what language your students are studying, I'm sure they will enjoy attending the film festival. For more information, visit the High's website.

Dunwoody Culture Fest 2011

Good afternoon! I wanted to announce that Thursday, April 7th, Dunwoody will be holding its annual Culture Fest! There is still time to reserve a table, so if anyone would like to help present the cultures of the communities that speak your language, let me know. It also can’t hurt our enrollment for students to learn more about the diversity of languages we offer at GPC.

The deadline to reserve a table is March 31st, so it is fast approaching. Look at your schedules and see if you might be free on April 7th, from 11:00-1:30. Of course, if you cannot be there the whole time with your country’s table, your students can help! I’ll be there to help too. Traditionally, Culture Fest tables include a display of some sort – whether it is a poster board with information about the country or language, or some traditional clothes, or art, etc. I’m also happy to help you think of ideas – this is the sort of thing that makes the job fun!

Please let me know by this Friday if you’d like to help promote your language, and we’ll work together to make sure that we’re well-represented at the festival.

Brazil Fest Photos

Egli, our Portuguese Tutor, and one of our Brazilian students help decorate the atrium in preparation for the festival.Professor Meadows, setting up some Samba videos.

Roin, Lab Assistant Extraordinaire, and I with some of the pretty posters.Students gather to look at the posters, listen to Samba, test their knowledge of Brazil on a fact quiz, practice their Portuguese, and -mainly- eat some delicious Brazilian food!Thanks to everyone who helped! Our students enjoyed it and learned a lot. I'm looking forward to the next festival!

Brazil Fest Needs Your Help!

What: Brazil Fest!
When: November 18th, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Where: Dunwoody Campus, C-D Building Cafe
Why: To promote our Portuguese classes, to broaden students' awareness of the diverse cultures of the Americas, to celebrate the culture of our Brazilian students, and to increase student awareness of all our SILP / Critical Language offerings during registration period!

What we need: More student involvement!
We'll be decorating posters with information about Brazilian dance, music, politics, art, food, and culture on Tuesday at 1:00, Wednesday at 2:30, and Friday at noon in the Language Lab - any interested student or tutor may attend and help us plan and prepare for Brazil Fest (I'll provide snacks). If you have Brazilian students in your classes, please encourage them to participate! If you lead a class on Dunwoody Campus on the 18th between 12 and 2 p.m., bring your students to the festival for some food, music, and dance. If you would like to participate, or if you would like to make fliers about your own language to distribute during the festival, please let me know.

More about Brazil Fest:
1. We'll have Brazilian food, sweets, and soft drinks for the students to sample
2. We hope to have Capoeira (dance influenced by martial arts) demonstrations and a Brazilian folk musician
3. Students will be able to hear samples of Samba, Bossa Nova, and contemporary Brazilian popular music
4. Free food!

Please attend and encourage your students to do so as well!