Search Engage

Hi! My name is Brianna (some of you may know me as 安娜), and I am a fourth year studying Chinese and Japanese. I am also the current Social Secretary for EARS. Being part of this society has been one of the highlights of my academic year, and I've really fallen in love with the EARS community. I would therefore love to represent EARS as president for 2022-23.

As social secretary, I have prior knowledge of EARS events, how things work and what's popular. I believe that this experience makes me the best choice for EARS going forward. I would like to outline a few ideas I have for the society that I believe make me the most suitable candidate.

I can speak Mandarin Chinese and Japanese to a level of conversational fluency as well as Korean, which I have been studying as an extra-curricular subject for many years. I would love to put more focus on EARS as a casual language exchange group where those studying East Asian languages, whether officially as a degree subject or as a hobby, can chat with native speakers of their target language who are in return provided with the opportunity to practice English/other languages with home students. I would like EARS to host regular, no-pressure language exchange group sessions where people can chat freely in a comfortable and non-academic setting. As someone who was unable to go on my year abroad in China, I think that practicing language in a casual, social setting such as this can be incredibly beneficial to other students who also missed out on their year(s) abroad because of COVID.

Due to their immense popularity this academic year, I would like to host a bi-annual East-Asia themed Otley Run and more regular karaoke sessions at Crown Chinese. The Chinese Zodiac run was one of our biggest successes last academic year and I think that it would be worth investing more time in. I also thought we could have monthly karaoke socials in which members will be free to sing songs in either English or any of the target languages, making language and cultural exchange a more fun and relaxed activity.

EARS is, first and foremost, an academic society, and so as not to forget that, I would like to put more energy into arranging academic talks this coming year. I think it would be a good idea to carry out surveys regarding what areas of East Asian society/culture/politics our members are most interested in and endeavour to get in contact with relevant academics. The political talk in semester one this year was a huge success and I would like to replicate this, but cover a wider range of topics that may interest our members.

The day trip to York in semester one also proved to be incredibly popular and I think it would be worth looking into any other East Asian culture related events/exhibitions that may be taking place in other cities and plan day trips accordingly. I also think that this is a great way for international members to explore the UK. Collaborating with other East Asian societies to find fun and enriching events taking place around the country is another way that I would like to work towards broadening our members’ horizons.

Themed Beers with EARS and Spill the Cha is another idea I had going forward. At every other Beers with EARS, I thought it would be fun to introduce a new drinking game from East Asia for members to learn more about East Asian culture in a fun and social setting. I also thought that every other Spill the Cha could be a themed discussion session about an aspect of East Asian society/culture and provide members with the opportunity to share their opinions in both English and the East Asian target languages. I do know that our members also enjoy some downtime, so we would still have casual Spill the Cha on a bi-weekly basis.

It would mean the world to me to lead EARS during my final year in Leeds. I am looking forward to another fun and exciting year with the society! Thank you!