▲ Departments in the College of Humanities presented academic festivals at the Bongrim Hall Theater

Over the past few weeks, many students in the College of Humanities have been busy preparing for academic festivals, also known as ‘Nights of [Department].’ The academic festivals of the College of Humanities from each department, in which students present their talent related to their specialties and demonstrate academic competence through diverse themes and activities, offer visitors various enjoyment. Despite their busy university schedules, students prepared various events at the Bongrim Hall Theater for this academic festival. We interviewed some students at the Department of Korean, English, and French Language and Literature, asking them why this event was important to them, what the main events were, and their thoughts on the experience.

The Academic Festival features a variety of topics related to the characteristics of each department. Park Soo- yeon, the student president of the Department of Korean Language and Literature and the overall coordinator of the event, stated, “The theme of our academic festival is celebration, and we focused on ‘harmony.’ This is a festival created by ourselves. Through this festival, we aimed not only to provide a space of harmony for our students in the department but also to create a space that all students at CWNU can enjoy.” On the other hand, the Department of English Language and Literature selected a topic more closely related to their major for the organization of this event. Jo Dong- hyun, the overall coordinator of this year's academic festival, shared, “This year, we decided to illustrate 'The Great Gatsby,' which we learned in our major classes, as a play. We wanted to focus on the era of the 1920s, also known as the 'Jazz Age,' and emphasize the significance of the keyword 'greatness' associated with Gatsby.”

Talking about the composition of the events, the Department of Korean Language and Literature organized the first part of the event, featuring the recitation of a poem by the winner of the Hangul Day Baekiljang contest, undergraduate students’ singing and dancing performances, and ‘King of Masked Singer’ event. In the second part, they prepared a creative play titled ‘The Attic Cat.’ The Department of English Language and Literature arranged the first part with an English choir performance and individual singing by students, along with quizzes and a prize draw. In the second part, they prepared a play based on ‘The Great Gatsby.’ The Department of French Language and Literature organized the first part with a welcome drink featuring wine, cheese, and chocolate sharing. It included a French song choir by the students. For the second part, they prepared an original- language play of ‘Les Misérables.’

In all academic festivals, the most highlighted element was the ‘play.’ Park Soo- yeon stated, “While the performances in the first part were also diligently prepared over an extended period, the play has been in preparation since the beginning of the semester. It involved the largest number of participants and was the most diligently prepared performance.” Meanwhile, in the Department of French Language and Literature, the participation of exchange students played a very helpful role in organizing the play. The student president and the overall coordinator of the event Kang Gyung- yeol mentioned, “Preparing for the play, exchange students from France were a great help. As the play was mainly composed of first- year students and conducted in French, it posed many challenges. However, feedback on pronunciation and intonation from the native professor and exchange students contributed a lot to making the play more special.”

The students who successfully concluded this year's academic festival also shared their individual impressions. Jo Dong- hyun expressed, “It has been about six years since we last hosted an academic festival. I was worried and wanted to do well, but I'm very pleased that it concluded successfully.” Kang Gyung- yeol, stated, “It was an academic festival that I could never have done alone, but it was successfully concluded because everyone helped a lot. It seems we were able to achieve the true meaning of the event, 'harmony,' and reap the fruits of our efforts.”

The College of Humanities is creating a festival stage where students show their talents in their own unique ways. Applauding the efforts of all the students, we hope that ‘Nights of [Department]’ will continue to be a tradition, serving as a stage for the harmony of students, a stage for talent and effort, for a long time to come.

By Kim Han-seul, cub-reporter  hozejunior@naver.com

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