The English Literature department holds its own big event every year. This year, the 35th Night of English Literature was held at the Education building of Kangnam University the evening of October 6, 2015. This event had two parts.
A scene from Molière’s “The Pretentious Young Ladies at the 35th Night of English Literature.
Photo: Jini Han
In the first part, six of the department’s freshmen performed three pop songs. Three male students sang Sam Smith’s “I’m Not the Only One” as a trio. Then three female students sang “Wings” by Little Mix. The two groups joined to sing “Love is an Open Door” from the movie “Frozen”. Then Kyunggyu Park, an English Literature major who graduated from Kangnam University, delivered a speech.
Park talked about his university life and how he decided on his dreams and goals. He said that he took a part-time job at the famous Korean technology company Naver by chance. Because Naver is an information technology (IT) company, he had to learn how to use computers and computer programs. Moreover, he always enjoyed traveling. So he saved his money to travel as much as he could. He told the students, “Everything you do is connected with each other.” He emphasized that young university students should experience as much as they can to find their own dreams. The first part ended with three female freshmen who danced to the popular K-pop songs “Only You” by Miss A and “Shake it” by Sistar.
The play “The Pretentious Young Ladies” by Molière was the main event and performed in the second part by thirteen freshmen who practiced the play for three months with passion and effort. The students changed the play a little. For example, they changed the original setting from Paris in the 1600s Paris to modern society. They also changed the number of characters such as two daughters to three. Also, in the middle and end of the play, the characters sang and danced their lines instead of speaking them.
The Pretentious Young Ladies is about a father, Alex, who seeks eligible young men for his three daughters, Grace, Ann, and Mary. Three CEOs Bill, John, and Paul are rich but unattractive. The daughters only judge people by the way they look, so they show no interest in the CEOs. Angry, the CEOs employ Mike, Tom and Brown as fake CEOs to take revenge on the pretentious women. Just as they plan, the snobbish daughters have crushes on the fake CEOs. Even when the men make fun of what the daughters wear, they don’t feel humiliated — blinded by their money and good looks. At the end of the play, the daughters learn they have been deceived by the real CEOs and bitterly regret their behavior.
The 35th Night of English Literature was an interesting event with performances, games, and even a lottery. The night had even more significance as it was prepared only by English Literature students.