On Wednesday, April 10, a roundtable discussion, “Literature from Around the World,” was held in the Hortense Parrish Writing Center (Humanities 209) from 12:15 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. With standing-room only, 50 people were present for the discussion that was intended to celebrate campus-wide cultural and linguistic diversity.
Eight readers from seven different countries presented material in their native language and then gave a translation or summary of the material in English. Readers were as follows: Sayeon Han of South Korea, Svenja Kuberka and Daniel Moeller of Germany, Yu-Hsuan Chien of Taiwan, Pierre Gonhameu Mopo of Cameroon, Florence Nicole of Indonesia, Haruka Naito and Mitsukuni Shimaya of Japan and Dr. Anton Garcia-Fernandez of Spain.
After Writing Center Coordinator Jenna Wright welcomed the gathered students, readers and faculty, Sayeon Han opened the roundtable with a reading of a Korean poem about love. Her reading conveyed the musical qualities of her native language.
Kuberka then dramatically read in German from Goethe’s masterpiece “Faust.” Yu-Hsuan (Tim) Chien, who is from Taipei, Taiwan, read in his country’s official language, Chinese. He gave an English explanation of the poem, which spoke of a young man’s longing to see a girl once again.
Mopo from Cameroon, a country located on the African continent, gave a presentation using the software Prezi. Mopo displayed pictures from Africa and text in English; he spoke in both French and English as he talked about customs in Africa and some misconceptions many people have about Africa. Moreover, he talked about the effects and sorrows of genocide in present-day Africa.
After Mopo’s presentation, Moeller read in German a poem by Henriche Heine entitled “Germany: A Winter’s Tale.”
Florence Nicole from Indonesia read a poem about a thoughtful woman reflecting on many things while walking on the beach. Nicole beforehand told Writing Center Coordinator Anna Clark, “Thank you for the invitation to read; it is such an honor for me to attend this program.”
Naito read a short poem similar to Haiku in Japanese, and her Japanese friend Mitsukuni Shimaya explained how poetry from Japan has the ability to capture so much emotion in just a few words and images.
Lastly, Garcia-Fernandez, an assistant professor of Spanish in the UTM Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages, read in Galician a poem entitled “Black Shadow” by Rosalie de Castro. He also sang the first stanza of the poem. The poem originated in Galicia (located in western Spain), which is where Garcia-Fernandez grew up.
Clark gave ending comments and thanked all attendees for coming to celebrate the diversity of languages and cultures at UTM. She distributed the poem “Interstate 40,” written by former UTM faculty member Victor Depta, as well as a Japanese translation prepared by former UTM student Yuki Sei. Although Clark did not have the opportunity to read the poem aloud, she mentioned that Interstate 40 is indeed the corridor that connects us all since International students coming to Martin almost always arrive at the Memphis or Nashville airports and thereby must travel on Interstate 40.
Writing Center Consultant Beth Walker said that the event was the best ‘Literature from Around the World’ roundtable the Writing Center has ever had, and Steve Flowers, another Writing Center Consultant, concurred.
The Writing Center was greatly pleased with the successful turnout of the event and looks forward to such turnouts in the future. Although this roundtable was the last of the semester, more roundtable discussions are scheduled to take place next year.
