EF Academy Oxford’s culture fair – The place to be!
It’s easy to take for granted just how international we are as a school. It’s intrinsic to our character, and in our title printed on all prospectuses and signs. Maybe because it’s so obvious we’re an international community we forget just what that means and how unique our diversity is.
Last night our wonderful ambassadors arranged a culture fair. Decorations, logistics, performance slots and layout was organized entirely by this select group of dedicated second years. Cassy Le, a ambassador said of the experience- “You should have seen us moments before the thing started – everyone was running around freaking out, getting the presentations ready, printing out things, making sure the decorations were on point. Victoria was a fantastic host and I think overall we coordinated the whole thing really well and managed to get a lot of people involved. This is one of the many things that make me love being in an international environment. I am super proud of all the students who creatively represented their culture and went out of their way to do a great job!”.
For the culture fair each country had a stand offering cuisine from their culture- rice and chicken and assorted peanuts from the African team, sweet cheese and chocolate from Norway, an eggplant based dish from Iran, hummus and crackers from the Jewish table…it was like a world buffet.
Aside from the food the students showcased their countries in various ways-
The African girls representing the countries of Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Angola performed a dance as colourful and lively as their national dress.
I asked Asma’u why she and her friends decided to create a ‘Team Africa’ and present together their different countries. This was her response- “It was great to have the opportunity to present Africa as a continent and making it clear that it consist of several countries just like Europe because many don’t know. Presenting Africa as a whole was a way of showing unity in the continent”.
Other performances included Jewish folk songs and the Tanbour (a traditional Iranian instrument).
Dzung decided to perform a dance representing ‘Alien’ culture. The soundtrack was a cut up using samples of various western music, notably Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’. Using comedy skills and his talent for popping and isolation dance Dzung captured the audience’s attention. His unusual choice to represent ‘Alien culture’ shows the struggles we have in fitting into new cultures or having an allegiance to more than one country.
Our Deputy Boarding Manager and School Nurse, Janine, showcased Jewish culture both through her food stall and vocal performance. As a new member of staff this was Janine’s first culture fair and she was very impressed “I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Cultural Fair. It was an energetic and well-organised event with representation from many of the cultures living and studying within EF. Students had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare presentations and performances and create key dishes from their home countries. I believe this is an extremely positive moment in the school calendar when we can all learn more about each other’s backgrounds in a warm and respectful environment and particularly become more aware of what we share and how we differ”.