From spiced beans and rice, to American jelly sweets – this year’s Global Week held across NTU campuses was a multicultural culinary success, students say.
The “travel the world in five days” programme started on Tuesday, February 24 and culminated with the Cultural Fair event on Friday at Newton building.
Both international and home students united to celebrate diversity and multiculturalism – and also fill their plates with food from around the world.
Here are some impressions from students that were at the event:
Fashion Design student Xu Kfan, 20, said: “You can enjoy completely different things at once because they are all in the same place.”
Also an international student from China, Xu enjoyed to ‘see and taste’ so many different cultures at once.
“It combines different cultures and it shows that our university is multicultural”, he added.
Most of students appreciated how diverse the stalls were and took the opportunity to find out more about other cultures.
Business Management student Jake Dunkley, 18, said: “I am surprised to see how many cultural backgrounds NTU students have.
“It is very interesting to see that our university is this diverse.”
Second year Law student Ramez Hassan, 27, said: “I think this event has an educational side to it, so it is important for an university to support multiculturalism.”
Ramez is an international student from Syria.
He and his friend Rohin Dalwai enjoyed exploring various cultures on Global Week, as well as trying different types of food for free.
First year Finance and Investment student Rohin Dalwai said: “My favourite stall was definitely the Syrian one. I think it is very interesting and there is free food as well – which is always nice.”
Alongside the food stalls at the event, an attraction for students was the creative drawing corner held by Jess Chilvers, on behalf of Debbie Bryan.
Students were asked to draw their favourite place in Nottingham, the sketches following to be combined together in a final collective artwork.
Jess is also a second year Business student, and she thinks it is important for young people to get to know other cultures and to educate themselves in this aspect.
She said: “It is good for awareness, definitely. It is very nice to see people who are passionate about their culture and happy to tell you more about their home country.”
The event united more students than expected, all of them showing their enthusiasm towards the chance of experimenting various international cuisines.
International Relations student Callum Hitchcock, 20, said: “I did not expect it to be this busy, I think it is great and interesting to see how many people have different cultural backgrounds.”
He and Georgia Woodier represented the Social Sciences Society at the fair, both agreeing that “we need events like this”.
“Whenever I go to the Global Lounge I see people discussing and interacting with each other – I think it is great. Everyone seems very welcoming and close to each other”, Georgia added.
Stallholders have proudly represented their home country on this day with traditional food on offer. Bianka Peeva even brought her traditional Bulgarian costume from home to portray an authentic image of her origins.
Studying Animation at NTU, she said: “It was interesting for me to see that some of our traditions are similar to ones in South Korea. It is really nice to have so many different cultures in one place.”
Crossing the ocean to come to the UK, the stallholders representing America have told us about the importance of having these events to fight against prejudice.
Real Estate student Adele Werner, from Seattle, 19, said: “It is good to have people coming with presumptions about our culture. That means we can talk to them and combat the existing stereotypes.”
She and Justin Dela said one of the most popular presumptions about their home country is that they do not have a culinary identity, “which is false”, they explained.
Asked what he misses the most about America, Justin from California said “that the British weather is quite depressive”.
And although we do not like to make presumptions about other countries and cultures, one thing is certain about Britain – it rains a lot.
Despite the unfriendly weather, the atmosphere in Newton was welcoming, combining exotic cultures and traditional food available for all NTU students.
By Olimpia Zagnat
All images credit: Olimpia Zagnat