Participants of Turkish Olympiads Promote Their Cultures in Festival
Hundreds of foreign students in Turkey for the 7th International Turkish Olympiads participated in a cultural festival in Ankara to promote their countries over the weekend.
The festival, which took place in Ankara's Altinpark as the opening event of the Turkish Olympiads, attracted many visitors from Ankara and neighboring provinces. The spectators showed great interest in the event and competed with each other to have their photos taken with the foreign students who were introducing their cultures at the festival's booths set up for each country.
The students brought traditional costumes, photos, food, handcrafts and music from their countries to exhibit at the festival. The food offered by the foreign students was at first accepted with hesitation by Turkish visitors, but when they looked up to see smiling faces and hear kind offers in Turkish, they quickly overcame their reservations. Not only were food and drawings present, but various musical instruments were exhibited as well. People enthusiastically applauded Indonesian students who performed local dances from Turkey's Burdur province.
A woman who came to see the festival with her 3-month-old baby said: “We would either bring our baby, or we would not come at all. We decided to bring our baby, too. He seems to be happy about coming here.” Seeing foreign students performing Turkish dances and singing Turkish songs, visitors of the festival said they experienced both happiness and pride.
Organized by the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER), this year's Turkish Olympiads host students from such diverse countries as Afghanistan, Argentina, Venezuela, Benin, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Uganda, Maldives and Sri Lanka. This year's competition is being held in Ankara, İstanbul and Bursa. Turkish Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan will honor students who receive gold medals in the competition with a Turkish Language Service Award.
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