The Foreign Languages Week (FLW) that was held by the six foreign languages departments of TKU opened last week on Tamsui Campus. Suddenly, the campus was filled with exotic languages, music, dances, plays and food. For students of non-language majors these activities to help experience foreign customs and cultures first-hand were entirely a novelty.

The FLW was opened by the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Feng Chao-kang, who was accompanied by the Dean of the College of Foreign Languages, Sung Mei-hwa. The latter praised the efforts all her students had put in to make this event not only possible but also more creative than those of previous years.

The creativity of this event was best demonstrated in the programs that were on show during the opening ceremony. It started with the elegant ‘Welcoming Fan Dance’ by the Japanese Department, followed by the lively Latin dances in revealing costumes performed by the Spanish Department. Conversely, the French Department used a slower tempo with their court dances to calm everyone’s hot blood down. Yet, it did not last very long as the Russian Department whipped up everyone’s emotion with their fast- and up-beat folk dances. Uncontrollably, the spectators joined in with their tapping feet and clapping hands. Apart from these dances, there were also German Waltz and American Hip-hop to make the show truly a feast of international diversity.

There was also a live band performance led by Cheng Jun-bing, the Chair of English Departmental Club. He and his band sang well-known English pop songs in the sweltering heat covering in their own sweat on the Poster Street. Their sing-able melody spread all over the campus interspersed with some admiring screams from the audience. Amid this music and screams, American hot-dogs, German beer, French bread and Japanese octopus balls were served.

French, German, Spanish and Russian Departments all put out a play for this occasion. Among them, the “Mr. Ambassador” by the Russian Department attracted the biggest crowd, as it was a work of concerted efforts by both students and professors. Nearly all the male professors from the Department had a role in the play, including the Chair. They used Russian, Mandarin and Taiwanese interchangeably on stage, which threw the audiences off totally. They found the combination hilarious and extremely entertaining.