Language and culture clubs attract wide followings

EL CAJON -- Students Justin Abdel  and Tam Phan hail respectively from Iraq and from  Vietnam. Can you guess which one of these students serves as the president of the Arabic Club and which one is the president of the Italian Club at Grossmont College?

If you guessed  that Tam Phan was president of the Arabic Club, you were right.  At Grossmont College, language and culture clubs attract members from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds; you don’t have to come from a country where that language is spoken to join or to advance through the club’s officer ranks.

Phan and Abdel were among the students on Wednesday, Sept. 25, who staffed booths in the Main Quad in an effort to build the membership of the campus clubs.  To attract the interest of passersby, club members were quite creative.  For example, three members of the Italian Club dressed like ancient Romans.

Meanwhile, at the nearby Arabic booth, club members displayed beautiful Middle Eastern dresses, and wrote in Arabic script the names of passersby.  They also sold boxes containing a sampling of Middle Eastern cuisine.

At  Le Cercle Francais (the French Circle) booth, there were pastries available as well as bottled water.

-DHH=