Korea Day at RMIT

Emcees for the Event ... 3rd Semester Bachelor of Commerce and Diploma of Commerce Students

RMIT has many, many student–run clubs and almost every week, there is at least one event put on by students .. this week it seemed there were lots and lots of events, as there were high school student tours guided by RMIT students who go out of their way to make the visit fun and exciting; Teacher’s Day where students were creating photo tributes, serenades and selling flowers and cards for favourite teachers (there's always next year), the campaign "Sympathy is Not Enough" to raise money for flooding victims in the Central Highlands, and the launch of a great initiative called IEU ... I English You ... to try and make our campus more of an English-speaking environment. And I know I have forgotten some ... really, our students are very, very active! But in this blog I am going to tell you about Korea Day.

Although RMIT International University Vietnam is comprised primarily of Vietnamese students, it does live up to its name with an enrolment of approximately 200 international students, about half of which are Korean. I think I may have mentioned that my neighbourhood, Phu My Hung, which was developed by a Taiwanese company, has a lot of Korean residents ... in fact many local businesses, stores, and especially restaurants in District 7 are owned and operated by Koreans.

Many of our Korean students have lived in Vietnam for 6 or even 8 years, and generally I think they like living here. However, they are extremely proud of their national heritage. A couple of years ago, there was a Korean Day at RMIT and it was a rousing success. This year's event followed that lead; Korea Day 2010 was a great initiative on the part of our Korean students, with help from the wider Korean community and the RMIT International Club, and it was a lot of fun!

Brian

Brian, a student in my WPP class last semester had told me about the event, so I had been thinking about it, but even if I hadn’t, the event was marketed very well. Signage, students with great T-shirts, and lots of energy buzzing about. I went to the opening ceremony ... a few speeches and then some entertainment. First was a pretty amazing taekwondo exhibition.

I guess taekwondo means the art of striking with the fist and the foot, and we certainly saw a masterful demonstration of that. 

Setting Up the Kick



Back Flip to Kick Both Apples

The Ho Chi Minh City Taekwondo Club put on the display, and I think the team has a combination of Vietnamese and Korean athletes. They hollered, leaped, kicked and punched, splitting boards and smashing apples to smithereens in the process. At one point Brian said, “I think it is a little violent.” But it was really very exciting. One of the most exciting moves was when one athlete did a back flip and kicked two apples that were suspended from a rod to bits, sending bits of apple all over the audience. Wow, it was amazing!



After the martial arts exhibition, a samul nori group from the Korean International School came to play. I was introduced to samul noli by my friend, Serin Hong, who is a composer and musician.  While he started out playing the traditional Korean bamboo flute, he has expanded his repertoire considerably and has a World Music Players playing an amazing range of music. At any rate, when I went to one of Serin’s concerts in Toronto, there was a samul nori group playing and I was an instant fan. Amazing what can happen with two kinds of gongs and two kinds of drums! So the kids from the KIS were great and so cute. There is such energy in samul nori music. As an aside, I saw part of a documentary recently on samul nori and it included the group, SamulNori, a well as shamans and other aspects of Korean folk music. In trying to find more information about that show, I came across reference to “Intangible Asset Number 82” so maybe that would be a good movie to see one day soon.

After the formal program there were various activities ... being photographed wearing a hanbok, having your name written in Korean, learning and playing some traditional games ... and then of course the food court! The students (and maybe parents or local restaurants) had all collaborated to put on a good spread and people could purchase lots of kinds of food. It was very well organized. Lots of evidence of teamwork and a cheery approach to geeting it all done! And the food was delicious.  Well, I can certainly vouch for the bulgogee and kimbap.

So, I take my hat off to the students who organized RMIT’s Korea Day 2010. I always tell students that to plan and pull off a successful student-run event like this requires a great number of skills that can be transferred to the workplace, so I hope many students will be adding working on this event to their resumes and CVs! Well done!