Karaoke Day in Irvine, California

Valentine’s day is approaching.  Love is in the air, but birds aren’t the only ones singing. 

 

For February’s inter-campus event, POLY Languages at Irvine is hosting a Karaoke day followed by dinner at Diamond Jamboree in Irvine! Karaoke will begin at 3:00 p.m. and will carry on until 5:30 p.m. 

 

Karaoke – an interactive form of entertainment where amateur singers sing lyrics off a television screen into a microphone, while a music recording plays in the background. It is a favorite pastime that’s enjoyed by people all over the world. According to Wikipedia, “Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques.” Like learning to speak a new language, singing requires one to focus on tone (intonation), rhythm (flow), and other techniques (such as stress, etc.). 

 

Singing is a part of everyone’s culture and Karaoke is an essential social activity in many countries, especially countries in Asia. Bryan Singer wrote in USA-Karaoke that “Japan and the Philippines are two huge karaoke spots” furthermore, he explains that in the Philippines and Korea, “it isn’t unusual for them to grow up with a karaoke machine in their living room.” He lists several reasons as to why Karaoke is more popular in Asian countries, these reasons include: cultural differences, price, setting, and song choice (Asian countries have over 30,000 songs to choose from).

 

The special thing about this inter-campus event for our students from abroad is that students and faculty from all three campuses (Pasadena, Irvine, Los Angeles) will be joining in. This will be a great opportunity to meet and befriend other international students. After karaoke, we’ll most likely be going to BCD, a Soon Tofu restaurant located in the same complex. Fellow ESL students will be able to share and compare their experiences from different parts of Southern California! We especially encourage students to sharpen their pronunciation and really try out their new skills on KARAOKE DAY!

Students Celebrating Graduation

The Masters in Advanced Studies in Integrated Crop Management (MAS in ICM) programme was launched earlier this year by CABI in partnership with the University of Neuchâtel and the Canton Jura to help address the need to improve global food security.

Students benefited from learning how ICM can help to support farmers around the world to produce sufficient and safe crop yields and avoid a food crisis. They graduated from the programme with either a Masters or a Diploma of Advanced Studies and will return to jobs addressing sustainable agriculture within a range of organisations including governments, advisory services and universities.