Cultures shared through sport at Wintec
Ping-pong, dragon dancers, and calligraphy: it was all on offer at Wintec’s multicultural day.
Intercultural battles of the best kind played out at Wintec on Wednesday, as international students turned to sports to celebrate their cultures.
About 10 per cent of Wintec’s students are international, and that could be set to increase after the Government’s recent budget announcement of extra funding for marketing New Zealand to foreign students.
Wintec’s day of cultural celebration began just before lunchtime with a dragon dance from members of the local Chinese community.
Then the Atrium rang with the sound of supporters cheering on six teams of students in a fiercely competitive tournament covering ping-pong, Xbox sports, foosball, and volleyball.
Team Maori came out on top, closely followed by Team Saudi Arabia and Team Purple –aka Team Rest-of-World.
A special team spirit prize went to Team India, whose enthusiasm was obvious. Sport and exercise student Gurpreet Kaur enjoyed competing, and said she was proud to represent her country.
Saudi student of English Rayhan Aljoufi pointed out other benefits of the day, saying it was good to meet new people and speak English with them.
Meanwhile, in the Hub, foreign students showed off their skills in crafting mehndi designs on staff and students’ hands, writing names in Arabic, or producing Chinese calligraphy.
Business student Jasneet Blassi was supporting the busy mehndi artists, and hoped to see similar events at Wintec in future.
“It’s nice to know other people’s cultures.”
Wintec’s international student services manager Louise Willis was pleased with the first sport-based multicultural day, which aimed to help international students meet people and make more friends.
“None of them seemed to want to leave.”
The Chinese students had asked for another sports day soon, and the Saudi Arabian students planned to report on it to their cultural mission.
Wintec has around 900 international students from more than 36 countries, and the three largest groups are from China, India, and Saudi Arabia.
The international centre has several events planned for the second half of the year, including student presentations and displays, and the celebration of important cultural events like Eid al-Fitr (after the fast of ramadan), and the Chinese moon festival (a traditional mid-autumn event).
