Millennials celebrate Portuguese Week

Islamabad

A Portuguese movie show was organised at 'The Millennium University College (TMUC)', for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme learners from Roots Millennium Schools (RMS), One World Campus, says a press release.

The Ambassador of Portugal Joao Paula Sabido Costa and the Ambassador of Brazil Claudio Lins were the chief guests.

In consonance with the International Baccalaureate (IB) philosophy, which “aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect”, the RMS offers foreign languages and cultural exchange programmes to build a community of open and internationally minded millennials who are equally respectful towards all religions and cultures. The students sang the national anthems and performed on Portuguese and Brazilian songs.

Speaking to the occasion the Director Schools and outreach Sabina Zakir said “One can always admire other people, their unique behaviors and work patterns but we can understand their joy and engage in the same standard of reverence in its entirety only once we learn to communicate with them in their own language. As a step towards this doctrine, a Portuguese movie with English subtitles was selected for the students to watch, enjoy and reflect on. The main concept behind this activity was to help the students understand the importance of bridging borders and learning the common language of human beings, that is, love. IB teaches languages to enable learners to become global citizens and this activity will ultimately help them in developing an in-depth understanding of the Portuguese culture.”

The movie show was followed up by an interactive quiz to gauge the observation, critical thinking skills and understanding of the students about the theme of the movie. They were also asked to put up these characters in Pakistani context and evaluate how the same characters would behave and react. The students came up with brilliant responses to the movie and showed their appreciation for life and relationships regardless of the language. They came to the conclusion that language does not remain a barrier if one wishes to understand the human emotions. However, further details about the significance of the characters’ names and the architecture was emphasised upon by the Brazilian Ambassador who spoke with great fervor and shared his praise for the students’ level of understanding and the respect that they showed to the Portuguese culture. 

Towards the end, both the ambassadors frankly interacted with the audience and had an informal exchange of views. The event closed on serving of refreshments and tea.