From September 29th to October 11th, students and lecturers from Singapore Polytechnic and DTU enjoyed learning about making traditional crafts in the three rural villages. They spent four days there, investigating ways of helping the villagers reduce shortage of materials and improve their productivity. When they returned to Danang they organized a “Gallery of Learning Express Projects” in the DTU library to demonstrate their accomplishments during the trip.
Students from DTU and Singapore Polytechnic
present their Learning Express project
Students worked with villagers at the Yen Ne 2 hamlet of Hoa Tien commune, a bamboo weaving village. They joined in preparing Ba Lieu sesame rice crackers in the Hoa Tho Dong ward and rice paper of Tuy Loan My Quang at the Hoa Phu 2 hamlet of Hoa Nhon commune. They got to know about how the goods were produced. At the same time they came up with innovative ideas to create awareness of traditional crafts in the younger generation and increase productivity.
Students from DTU and Singapore Polytechnic
Kee Jia Xuan, a Pharmacy student at Singapore Polytechnic participated in making the rice paper and said:
“We came to the rice paper village to try to understand the villagers’ lives and to come up with some suggestions to help improve the awareness of young people about traditional craft making. We learned about the local people and their cultures, which I had never seen before, so the trip was very useful for me.”
Eng Soon, a Singapore Polytechnic lecturer, said:
“It was a very interesting journey. I think the Learning Express is an excellent platform for students to learn about each other’s cultures. By conducting small projects, students learn how to solve problems together and understand and appreciate unique situations. As we left, they came up with the brilliant idea of bringing a home bamboo weaving tool kit back to Danang, which will be the perfect tool to create awareness of bamboo weaving, an essential craft in Vietnamese culture. I believe that Learning Express could be an effective platform for Singapore Polytechnic and DTU students to demonstrate the results of their joint educational experience to the people of Singapore and Vietnam.”
(Media Center)