Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) firstly conducted an Indonesia-South Korea Cultural Camp program on 20 December 2017 to 16 January 2018. 18 students of UMY and 18 students of Sun Moon University (SMU) joined the program.
Director of International Affairs of International Relationship Office (IRO) of UMY Yordan Gunawan, S.H., int. MBA informed that the program aimed to promote Indonesian and South Korean culture.
“In this opening ceremony, a dance club of UMY Sentakamudya presented two traditional dances of Yogyakarta. It was with the purpose of promoting Indonesian culture to South Korean students. Indeed, the students were amazed by the dance performance,” declared Yordan when delivering a remark in the opening ceremony and welcoming lunch of Indonesia-South Korea Cultural Camp at building of K.H. Ibrahim E.7 of UMY on Thursday (21/12).
In the cultural camp program, 36 students had three classes, namely an education class, cultural class, and field trip. In the education class, students were given opportunities to introduce their culture through presentations, cultural discussions, English and Indonesian language class, and introduce the governmental, political and economic system in Indonesia. “For, the cultural class, students will be invited to get to know batik, Indonesian cultural heritage, and typical Indonesian food. Then, in the field trip will be carried out in Prambanan, Lava Tour Merapi, and Breksi Cliffs,” mentioned Yordan.
Yordan expected that the program enabled students to think, learn, and broaden their knowledge of culture of both countries.
In addition, the program is also held in order to achieve the goal of UMY as a reputable international university, which is shown through various international academic activities such as visiting professors from foreign universities to faculties at UMY, especially to international programs. “As a sustainability of this program, we hope that there will be cooperation in the form of visiting professors and a student and staff exchange program between UMY and Sun Moon University. We also wish that the cultural camp program could be organized annually,” ended Yordan.
