This event was held at CSUSB on May 24, 2019 and was hosted by Korean Language Tutors and Korean culture Club, Sarangbang and was Co-Sponsored by Dept. of World Languages + Literatures
For my Public Events Assignment, I decided to go to potluck on campus which was hosted by Korean communities on campus. This event was open to the public and I was invited by two fellow classmates from our class who are a part of this community, having even gone to study abroad for a summer in Korea.
I decided to go because it was so outside my comfort zone. I can be a very introverted person at times and because of this, I sometimes an hesitant to go to school events or meet anyone new. But for the purpose of this assignment I decided that I would go one step further and meet people from a different background than me and learn a little something about a different culture than mine.
Upon getting to the venue for the picnic, there were quite a few students in attendance. There was a lot of commotion as people sat and interacted with each other. Some of them clearly having run into each other before while I seemed to be the only one who knew nobody at the event and had little to no knowledge on Korea as a whole.
My friends and I sat at a table to the side and took in our surroundings. There were about five or six large tables filled with guests chatting, people coming in and out of the room to bring food and drinks, and K pop was playing on the screen at the front of the room, creating a nice combination of chatter and music.
The actual activities of this event were a little unorganized as everyone was scrambling to get us together and in the right place and many (including myself) were left lost on what the actual activities were going to be.
I believe that part of the issue was the language barrier between the students and supervisors. There were many times the people who appeared to be in control of the event would switch to their native language to get their point across to the others.
It took a moment to get everyone on the same page but when they did they told us that the activity was going to be the game Charades.
Once the groups were separated we began our charades where the object or animal was written in English and Korean. It was extremely funny and entertaining to participate in as we were all made to use our body to describe the objects and not our words so in the end we were all able to participate together.
After we did a couple of rounds of this, we were brought to the tables in the back of the room which was filled with food. Both Korean foods and food we are accustomed to eating here in the U.S.
I was able to try some different foods that I would have never otherwise tried and we were able to again engage in conversation with others at the event.
This Event overall was very fun but lacked structure and purpose. Besides just getting together with other students on campus, I don’t know if there was really any call to action for this event. I thought maybe just opening up people to the Korean culture was the purpose but even then I think for the amount of time we were there, a large part of the event was just chatting with others.
I feel that if there was more information on Korea and programs such as Studying abroad, it would have been more helpful and educating. Videos could have been shown, speakers could have been in attendance. Although I enjoyed the event and the people who were there, I feel that it was a missed opportunity to enrich the Korean community on campus.
My favorite part of the event had to be the food. I am a very picky eater and I am often hesitant to try new foods so being able to come out of my comfort zone was amazing.
I know that events on campus can be difficult to announce on campus and to have leaders who can organize the events and make sure it runs smoothly, but maybe in the future they can improve.
Life in the Public 