UNNC Global Village: Spain Representative (again!)
The Global Village: Spain, again!
Have you heard of the UNNC’s Open Day? On this special day, the UNNC opens its doors for people to explore campus and the opportunities it offers and experience for a day its warm environment. Fortunately for me, this year is the 20th anniversary of the UNNC and the Open Day is taking place on the UNNC’s International Education Week, so we at campus were more than ready to show what the university had to offer in all its aspects! One of the key activities planned for this day was the “Global Village” on the 14th of April.
The sunflowers really make for a meaningful touch and a connection to Spanish culture, don’t they?
Global Village? Or Global Fair?
You may have read one entry in my blog regarding the UNNC’s Global Fair (if not, here you go, in case you are curious (and also in case you are not)). What is the difference between the two, then? Think of the Global Village as a Global Fair in big scale. The influx of people across campus is higher thanks to the visitors, the audience is composed of people from all ages, and the goal is to show visitors how the UNNC has internationality and cultural appreciation intertwined in its essence.
The Proposal: 4 Bits of Spanish Culture
Even though I am an official member of Vis-à-Vis, if I wanted to represent Spain, I still needed to prepare a formal proposal where I introduced the aim and purpose of my booth, which I decided to organize into 4 main categories:
- Craft: painting Spanish wooden fans
- Practice: learning the symbolism and meaning behind different fan positions
- Learn: similarities and differences between traditional Spanish and Chinese fans
- Taste and Listen: discover one of the most popular Spanish candy while listening to songs played with a Spanish guitar
I wanted that, through these 4 activities, visitors would be provided with a colorful, refreshing, and creative way of interacting with Spanish culture while finding similarities with Chinese culture. The core intention of the booth was oriented towards fan folklore in Spain but would also extend to Spanish traditions, history, lifestyle, and other topics that diverge from fans.
Fortunately, it was a success! Let’s dive into the details.
The day of the event: a new linguistic challenge.
Notice how I mentioned at the beginning how the UNNC would open its doors to visitors? People from all over China would come to the UNNC. From all over China. China. All those parents interested in seeing campus, all those kids coming with their older siblings to visit the campus they are studying at, the relatives of incoming students finally seeing it in person… If I wanted to engage with them and show them my culture, it had to be in Mandarin (not to my distaste).
Yes, incoming students would be able to speak in English, but for most of the other visitors, our common language would be talking in Mandarin! Thankfully, it was delightful to see that the Chinese lessons I had been taking for 2 years in Spain and the Chinese class I had signed up for in Ningbo paid off nicely. With some specific vocabulary for the event that I studied in advance, I prepared a (relatively) small explanation to give to visitors as they arrived to my booth. It still is fresh in my mind (trust me, after talking for more than 4 hours about the topic, I knew my words by heart).
“你好你好 （或者“欢迎西班牙的展位”）, 来来来。 小朋友们， 让我教你们怎么在西班牙的扇子上画画。”
With melodies of the Spanish guitar in the background, as I offered the little ones the materials to paint the fans, I would then offer an explanation comparing a fan from Spain and a fan from China.
“然后， 请看看一下： 西班牙的扇子比中国的重，这是因为西班牙的用重木，而中国的常常用轻的木条。还有，西班牙风的扇子为了画花，用很亮和多彩的颜色，而中国风的花常常用柔和的颜色；看起来很舒适，是不是。有些中国和西班牙的扇子是一样的：木的，布的……”
Thus, visitors obtained two key takeaways: the differences and similarities in weight and design between Spain’s and China’s fans.
After the introduction, the kids (usually them, but everybody was welcomed!) would start painting following certain typical Spanish styles while I taught the other visitors about fan language in old Spain.
“我会教你门怎么用扇子‘说话’。如果你的扇子在你心脏的前面，它的意思是‘我爱对面的人’；然后，如果扇子在右边的耳朵：行/好/可以。所以，左边呢？不行，不好，不可以。还有，比如说你给自己扇扇风，你扇风扇得很快，这个意思可能是你很喜欢对面得人。最后，比如说我想和远的人一起晚点见，但是我不想别人知道我们会会议;我们怎么做？不太难：先看那为人，然后不但看你的扇子，而且数每木条。下午一点，下午两点，下午三点……很不错（也很有用），是不是？” 
This visitor was really willing to try and memorise the different gestures and their meanings
Of course, fan language is a really old and niche piece of Spanish culture, one that many people in Spain do not know about, so I felt the need to warn them about it. After all, it would be quite the situation to see them arrive to Spain and start making gestures to people with their fans only to receive no reply or puzzled looks! Could you imagine travelling to a new country and following a custom from the place that you believe is common, only for it not to be? (Trust me, this kind of thing happens more often that one would think!)
“请记得差不多所有今人不知道这件事情，但是这是西班牙文化有意思的一部分。”
Finally, at the end, I offered them some almighty 珍宝珠棒棒糖, which we may also call “Chupa Chups”, and shared with them that, while it is an extremely popular candy in China, very few Chinese people know is from Spain. Finally, the guests would receive stickers from Spain and be encouraged to paste them over a great mural to encourage the engagement of visitors.
“你们离开前，这里有一些珍宝珠的棒棒糖！让我问你们，你们以前知道珍宝珠是西班牙的吗？现在你们知道了。虽然这种棒棒糖在中国很有名，太少人知道这是西班牙的。感谢你们来到西班牙的展位，请记得用这张贴纸为西班牙投票。谢谢你们！！！”
Some quick final words
Being part of the Global Village felt like a step-up from the Global Fair; people from outside campus were enjoying their day and learning about our culture, and I believe the other booths and mine fulfilled the task of showcasing the UNNC’s internationality successfully, each in their own ways and through their own means. Thank you to my volunteers, your help was crucial, specially during the “rush”-hours!
Furthermore, while my Mandarin clearly was not exceptional, I am super proud of my overall performance. The time I spent during my winter vacations reading about phonetics and practising my pronunciation of phonems in Chinese really shined through at this event; after all, people truly were understanding what I was saying! It makes me happy to think how, in the future, once they look at a fan, they might recall the time when a Spanish boy taught them about their culture.
Isn’t that great?
Regards,
Saúl
Group picture of the volunteers and country representatives at the UNNC’s Global Village
It was at this moment, early in the morning, that I began to realise the amount of people that would arrive to campus
After a while, my volunteer and I both interacted and taught at the same time and following the same steps. That’s what I call synchronized teaching!