On Sat., Sept. 27, the City of Spartanburg will host the 22nd annual International Festival at Barnet Park from 11:00-6:00PM. If you have the time and inclination to attend for perhaps an hour or two, check out ONE of the nations (or ethnic groups) represented on the Avenue of Nations and ask whoever is representing that nation this question: If there is anything about them that they wished people in Spartanburg knew better, what would that be? On this blog entry, post a brief write-up of their response and your own reaction to it (a couple paragraphs at most).
You may earn 3 extra-credit points for this.
REMINDER: Don't forget to post your comment on the Obama speech (the deadline is Monday). And I expect the families to post their two points about Part 2 of the video series, "Race: the power of an illusion" sometime between now and next Tuesday.
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The International Festival was by far more interesting and entertaining than I expected. While there, I spent the majority of my time in two “countries”; Spain and Switzerland, the first being Switzerland. When I offered the representative the question, I don’t believe that she fully understood what it was that I was asking. She took the question to indirectly mean “what is something unique about the country?” I thought that answer might be informative so I didn’t try to press it. Mrs. Hunziker spent several moments telling me how the country has been neutral in every war since 1815, and that there are four official languages spoken in Switzerland; German, French, Romansh, and Italian.
After that, I decided to venture to another country to see what else I could find out. Because I am going to a Spanish speaking country this January, I thought learning something about Spain might be of use. The Spain booth drew in a lot of children because of the bright prints and painting the representative had displayed on the walls of the tent. When I asked this lady our sociology question, the first thing she asked me was which school I am from. The lady seemed to be impressed that Wofford has their students asking questions that really matter. Spain was quick to inform me that “not all Spanish speaking people are from Mexico”, not that there is anything wrong with being a Mexican. Spain takes pride in all facets of it’s unique culture. Picasso’s work was among those hung within the tent. The representative also told me that Spanish is the official language of Spain but each region seems to have their own “version” of the language. She didn’t take the time to mention any specifics so I looked this us up online. It seems that there are several co-official languages aside from Spanish. In Catalonia, Aranese is also spoken on a daily basis. In Galicia, Galician is also spoken and so on, forcing nearly everyone in Spain to be bi-lingual.
The Wofford Spanish department is doing an awesome job of informing students about stereotypes. Last Tuesday I went to a meeting on Immigration during the “Social Justice in the Americas” seminars. Professor Rhoden explained to us many of the “push/ pull” factors of immigration and that jobs are not being taken away from American people and all the money being sent back home. On average, only 20% of an immigrant’s wages are sent to another country. The International Festival was a successful way for Spartanburg county to hold such a “seminar” that is appealing and educational for all people.
ok, Aften. I am glad to hear that someone appreciated the fact that Wofford students took an interest in actually learning something at the International Festival.
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