Cultural Event Essay

“Individual Paper: Cultural Event”

Introduction

As a student on exchange in Korea, I decided to attend an event organized by the school to immerse myself in their culture, in hopes to be able to better assimilate into the new environment. Although there were a few events, the Yonsei-Korea Games, better known as YONKO Games was the most striking one as it was one of the larger scale event organized by the school and is very popular amongst the students. The event was very hyped up as banners where placed starting from Sinchon and all the way inside the school. The school even sent emails to ask for our understanding from the “noise” coming from the cheer practices. Also, I was keen in attending the event as I was very interested in learning

Besides having the cheer team, the alumni of Akaraka were present at both the stadium and the after party. This shows the collectivistic culture of Korea where people value the needs of group or a community. Even though they have already graduated from the school, many came done to show their support and all the Akarakas showed great cohesion during their cheer performance.

Even though Korea score higher on masculinity, the cheer team consist mostly of males, instead of females. Contrary to other cultures, cheer teams usually consist of mostly females. This shows that gender dynamics are changing as men fill roles taken by females.

Whenever a goal was scored by the Yonsei team, blue gas were shot up to celebrate it. The university also invested in material objects like confetti and inflatable air dancers. Besides releasing the blue gas, a particular cheer involving some head banging was performed as a ritual to celebrate every victory.

Conclusion

To conclude, the YONKO Games showed Korea as a collectivist culture as we see groups of people coming to support their own school. Much like how they showed their support to their national soccer teams during 2002 FIFA World Cup where Koreans gathered in front of Seoul City Hall to cheer