Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Culture Shock Part II: Promotion Commotion

On the surface it appears strange, but the club promotion culture here really shocked a lot of the exchange students here, as well as caused some sleepless mornings. It seems like almost every week that there is a club or organization doing promotion on campus.

What is promotion? Well, I'm still not exactly sure myself about the details, or why it happens, but in most cases it involves gathering the members of a club or organization together to walk around campus shouting club slogans for days to promote said group, or encourage people within the organization to vote for them. This is very odd to me as an American college student, and perhaps some of you readers as well, so I'll try to describe it as best I can.

My first taste of promotion was over a month ago, when I woke to a group of students shouting below, mind you five floors below and on the opposite side of the building. Quite a set of lungs they had. What's going on? It's nine or so in the morning...is it a political rally of some sort? I remembered that there had been an incident involving the police at another university, so I thought that since the shouting was so loud and passionate, it must be because of that.

Turns out that the group members were actually students running for office in my hostel, and that this is a normal activity of all the hostels here. For the next two weeks, every weekday, the students would be shouting hostel slogans for what seems like hours at a time outside the building to 'promote' themselves running for office.

Firstly, I'm used to people running for offices doing their own campaigns, not all cooperating together. After all, how would you know who to vote for if they can't distinguish themselves and their policies? It turns out that there was already only one person running in most positions, and that in the end we either voted for or against the entire group of them. (Perhaps they were all singled out from an earlier vote within the present cabinet...?)

I also wondered what the purpose was of shouting the slogans over and over again until they were hoarse; why don't they tell us what they will do if they are elected instead, maybe make a poster? They would at least save their voices. But, this must be a difference between international college cultures...

The students were so passionate during promotion that they would stand outside early in the morning (around 8 or 9am if I remember correctly), afternoon, and evening to share their passion with us, though I admit that I sometimes wished that they would recognize our passion for sleeping in. However, later on there was a conference for all hostel members to meet with them and discuss issues and recommendations for the hostel, and the entire second week they offered students walking out of the hostel free hot chocolate.

Another thing that struck me as different was the fact that they not only shout the slogans outside the hostels, but they would also shout them as they walked around campus during class hours, which is another thing that I and other exchange students found, um, culturally different, to put it nicely.

I remember a fellow student and I giving a presentation one day in an economy class, and toward the middle of it I could hear my fellow hostel mates coming toward the building shouting. The professor gave us a signal to wait and continue after they passed. OK, won't be long. 


However, the group decided to stand in the open area next to our building and cheered for what seemed like 15 minutes or so, or maybe longer. No matter how long, I got a bit flustered as we had to speak loudly, on the brink of shouting, for some time until they left. I wonder why students are allowed to march and cheer during class hours anyway?

The practice of promotion will probably remain a cultural mystery to me and most of my fellow exchange students.

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