Turkish Olympics Exhibition Offers Taste of World Culture
Hundreds of foreign students in Turkey for the 6th International Turkish Language Olympics have participated in a cultural festival to promote their countries. "Of course there are many fairs that promote world countries.
But here, there is a difference. The young foreign students speaking in Turkish are informing people about their countries. This definitely makes for a vibrant and interesting atmosphere," said Özlem Oğuz, a visitor to the fair, which took place in Ankara's Altinpark over the weekend as the opening event of the Turkish Language Olympics.
The students brought traditional costumes, photos, food, handcrafts and music from their countries to display at the fair. 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 reserve.
"I made a world tastes tour in 80 minutes," said Mustafa İlhan, while eating dried fruit from Thailand. Ahmet Küpeli, working at the Dutch exhibit said within only a couple of hours they had served guests 20 kilograms of cheese.
There was a very long queue in front of the Indian exhibit as well as those of Mongolia and Japan. At the Indian booth, two sari-clad students drew beautiful patterns with Indian henna on the hands of visitors, while at the Mongolian and Japanese booths, students decorated visitors' arms with their name written in beautiful calligraphy.
Not only the food and drawings, but the different musical instruments, handcrafts and costumes also drew the attention of visitors. A young student standing in front of the South African exhibit shouted excitedly to his friend several meters away, "Look, look Uğur, a real ostrich egg!"
In one corner of the fair, students from Mozambique to Argentina and from Vietnam to Denmark were performing pieces in Turkish. Visiting couple Sefa and Hatice, accompanied by their, Alp, said everything was interesting and educational, but that the best part of the fair was listening to all the foreign students speaking, singing and reciting poetry in Turkish.
Students in traditional dress were happy to have their photo taken with Turkish visitors. The most popular were the students from African countries, although the Vietnamese students were blinded by camera flashes, too. They posed in their pink dresses and woven headgear around a tea table, even providing traditional hats to guests who wanted pictures taken with them. The Kazakh students were dressed in armor, while Turkmen students with fleece hats posed for pictures and then sang traditional songs for visitors.
The Turkmen students also left a notebook for visitors, encouraging them to record their thoughts and opinions about the Turkish Language Olympics and the fair. One wrote there, "Thank you for coming, and don't forget about us."
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