United Nations Day celebrated at the Golden Link College

Mr Vicente Hao Chin, Jr, National Director of the TOS in the Philippines and Chairman of the Golden Link Board, writes:

All our schools, specifically Golden Link College, Sunshine Learning Center and TOS Learning Center, celebrate the United Nations Day by holding a program in October on the Sunday nearest the UN Day. The children usually wear the costumes of different nations, with a sash mentioning the name of the country. The parents and relatives of the students are invited to attend the program.

The program starts with a parade around the community, with the flag of the UN in front and a person who beats a small drum. The community people usually watch the parade because of the beautiful costumes.

Students returning from the parade around the community in their costumes and the flag of the UN		A group of primary students during the United Nations Program

Then a program is held in the hall of the school where students deliver speeches on subjects related to the UN, World Peace, Universal Brotherhood, etc. They also do the following:

a) Introduce selected countries and feature something special about that country, such as the Angel Falls of Venezuela, the Taj Mahal of India, etc.

b) The speakers greet the audience in the language of the country they are representing. Those representing China or Singapore would say “Ni Hao!” or “Xie Xie!” Those representing Spain would say “Buenos Dias!” or “Muchas Gracias!”. There are times when students even deliver the speeches in Mandarin, Spanish or French, with the appropriate translation by the speakers themselves.

c) There are often features about the cultures, practices or religions of different countries. For example, the program might discuss the different traditions in marriage, or in gift-giving, or ways of showing respectfulness, etc. In Thailand for example, it is inappropriate to touch the crown of children’s heads, or point your toes to a person in front of you while sitting and crossing your legs. In Southern China, it is not appropriate to give clocks as a gift because the word for clock sounds the same as the word for ‘death’. The students often prepare slide presentations about the practices or features of each culture or country. The slide presentations entail research and the students get to know deeper glimpses of other countries and cultures. This encourages understanding and compassion about people of other countries, and promotes friendship, tolerance and cooperativeness with people of other cultures.

College students making a presentation during the UN program		Primary students of Golden Link College preparing for a presentation on stage during the United Nations program. Each student represents a country and gives interesting facts about that country.

Added to these experiences is the fact that Golden Link College often has visitors from many countries (Australia, France, Japan, China, Switzerland, etc.) and whenever we have visitors, we often ask them to visit classrooms of primary and high school students and speak about their countries. The students often ask questions about the visitor’s country and there is lively interaction. The visitors often teach students how to speak in their own languages, such as greetings in Japanese, and they usually have a lot of fun doing so.

As a result of these activities, the students feel very comfortable and friendly with people of any race or religion. Knowledge about other cultures and languages prevents fear of other people and intolerance. On the contrary, it develops a tendency to be friendly to such people.