Lida Foung
School of International Liberal Studies
This was my first time ever participating in an ICC event. Because I had arrived in Japan just a week before, I was eager to make new friends and thought this would be a good opportunity to do so while learning something new about a topic I was already very interested in. And this event certainly fulfilled those expectations!
The ICC organized an online tea party event where their student staff to introduced the tea culture of their home regions: China, Japan, Korea, and Ireland. Although it was not a tea party in the literal sense, especially being held online, it was still considered a tea party nevertheless, for it gathered people who ultimately had an interest in the topic of conversation: tea. I was already quite familiar with the tea cultures of China and Japan beforehand owing to my interest, but I still learned a lot of new information, even about those familiar to me. For example, I was not aware of the various snacks paired with different types of tea in Chinese and Korean tea culture, nor the social conventions around rejecting and accepting tea as a guest in someone else’s home in Irish tea culture; it was also interesting to see how the different tea cultures were similar in some respects. Following the presentation was a “Kahoot!” quiz consisting of questions related to what we had just learned. I was very lucky that I ended up being one of the three winners and received a special prize package consisting of Waseda University’s own coffee beans and biscuits.
Shortly after the presentation and quiz game, all of the participants were split into breakout rooms to introduce ourselves, exchange contact information, and chat. We were given a list of icebreaker questions we could ask each other, some related to school and others related to the contents of the presentation or our personal interests. I was in a room with four other students, including one of the ICC student staff. Our conversation mostly revolved around tea, from what types of tea we liked to drink to collecting tea ware. The ICC student staff in the breakout room also introduced us to the ICC Lounge and encouraged us to visit, which I have done regularly ever since. Afterward, we rejoined the main session and a picture of all the participants was taken before the event ended.
Participating in this event opened up a new avenue of experiences for me that I would not have known about had I not participated in this event. I found it to be very culturally and socially enriching overall. I look forward to participating in more in the future and I highly encourage other students to participate in an ICC event.
