Taylor's Learning Carnival 2012
What does TLC stand for? Tender Loving Care, maybe? Or maybe even Try Looking Cool? Well on the 17th and 18th of March, it stood for Taylor’s Learning Carnival. It is an event held annually for secondary school leavers to get a look at how studying at Taylor’s would be like. So, it was no surprise that many parents and their teenage children came to the carnival and got a warm Taylor’s welcome (even though the college is freezing cold). The carnival was held mostly by the front doors of Taylor’s College Sri Hartamas where they set up a little stage and had tents for the booths. The atmosphere was quite lively with performances to entertain the crowd of students and hopefully soon-to-be students. The performances and showcases were more or less the same for both days but some of the performers decided to switch up their acts on the second day.
At around two in the afternoon, members of the Music Club took the stage. They performed “You And Me” by Lifehouse and ‘Someday’ by Joe Brooks. After that, it was virtually an open mic. One by one, members of the crowd stepped up, picked up the guitar on stage, and sang a song. At around 2:30 on Sunday, Taylor’s Learning Carnival officially came to a close, a successful event indeed.
The first performance on both days was a piano duet between Liew Man Kin and Duncan Soo. Now, when I say piano duet you might think of classical and quiet pieces but there was no room for that here. They performed upbeat tunes like “Life in Technicolour” by Coldplay and “Kids” by MGMT, which really got the crowd going. When asked about his performance, Liew Man Kin said, “It was alright, you know. The crowd was nice. It was alright.”
Next up was Astina Lee, a student council member with a singer-songwriter vibe about her. For her performance on the first day, she performed two original songs. One was a somber number and the other, a happier up-beat song. On the second day, wearing a Slipknot t-shirt, she performed “Truth About Heaven” which was originally a rock song but she decided to switch it up and perform it acoustically. After that, she sang a song she actually wrote that very morning titled “If Only Words”.
There was a short half hour break till the next performance, a martial arts demonstration by the martial arts club, Storm 8. The short performance comprised of them having a showdown with bamboo sticks. They didn’t return for the second day though (let’s hope they didn’t get injured during the showdown).
After three entertaining acts, there was still something missing. Then, the dance club made their grand entrance. It wouldn’t be a carnival without a little dance performance. In this case, we had three. First, was the contemporary dance where the performers temporarily took us to a more serious place. Then, the next two were hip hop dances. Their performance had people in the crowd clapping and cheering.
After that there was another short break before the next performance. You could look around to see the booths and maybe play some games (at least, that’s what I did). Student Council was selling hot dogs, burgers, fries, brownies, muffins, and fruit juices. Beside them, the Dance Club had a booth with a dancing game. There was also the D.O.T. Club (Doctors of Tomorrow) which had a game where you had to put your hand in what was ‘non-newtonian fluid’ to find a 3-D number and guess the digit, blindfolded of course. They also had a game where you pin the organ on the body, kind of like pin the tail on the donkey, but without blindfolds. The IB students also had a booth where they sold t-shirts. The t-shirts were donations from the students and the proceeds went to the orphanage, Divine Life Ashram. They also had a raffle ticket sale where the lucky winner would get to keep 40% of the money made from the raffle tickets.
The poster made by the IB students
The Anime Club was also present on the first day selling their rice cakes and Japanese food. The Korean Club made an appearance on the second day to sell their Kim Bap (a kind of sushi) and Jab Chae (basically delicious noodles in a cup). The Psychology Club sold drinks and the Leo Club was selling various merchandise to support breast cancer awareness and the SPCA. The Rotaract Club had a booth of their own too. Also, Apple held a booth which was situated inside the college just after the doors showcasing their products beside the CAL and SAM booths.
There was also time for a short chat with the DJ for the carnival, DJ Leonard. He says he has been DJ-ing for about four years and he loves the job. DJ Leonard, who DJ-ed at Taylor’s College for the first time that weekend, says that “the carnival is a good way to attract new students”. He was joined by his crew, Jason and Boo Chee.
DJ Leonard DJ-ing
Apple had a showcase after the break where they demonstrated and explained their products. They talked about the applications iTunesU, Dropbox and Garage Band as well as having an iPad presentation. After these demonstrations, performances continued with the Anime Club, dressed in their Japanese costumes, giving the crowd a dance performance. The dance moves and entertaining performance had the crowd cheering and asking for more.
By Muhammad Imran bin Sa'id
