The members of the Japanese Culture, Language and Entertainment Club at Carver STEAM and the members of the Manga Club at Carver Early College decided to work together to put on an immersive festival experience to introduce their peers to a whole new world.
The Carver Early College Japanese Festival was a two-day event that showcased the many different aspects of Japanese culture from the art of origami to the world of anime and manga. The students set up stations featuring games, art, and snacks of Japanese origin to introduce to the festival goers.
The festival also featured a student-built tea garden and tea house, which had information cards explaining the different cultural aspects that make it unique.
“I want people to see how fun, different and creative a different culture can be. That’s what I really want them to get from this,” Carver Early College junior Syona Kelly said. “The educational part was very important. Because while it’s fun, there’s also different rules to different cultures that you have to understand before indulging in them.”
Kelly wasn’t initially interested in Japanese culture. However, once she realized that the people around her, including her family members, were interested in anime, she decided to give it a try.
Bringing the Japanese Festival to life required a lot of work, support and collaboration from the students from both schools. Karen Collins, the media specialist at Carver Early College, and Princess Dikko, the biology teacher at Carver STEAM and sponsor of the Japanese Culture, Language and Entertainment Club, helped the students organize the plethora of ideas they had for the festival.
“The ideas were endless. It took a lot of work and a lot of planning,” Collins said. “We worked every day for the last month to put together our vision and I’m amazed at how it turned out. I feel like it could be an annual event because it is really great, and the kids are having a really fun time.”
Collins admittedly new very little about anime, manga, or Japan in general, but the level of interest from her students drew her in.
“I asked them to be my guides and I let them teach me so that I can better serve them. I didn’t know anything about Japan or Japanese culture,” she said. “Collaborating with Ms. Dikko over at STEAM, and being allowed to do that, turned something that could’ve just been mediocre into something fantastic. That collaboration and creativity, I’m going to carry into all the work that I do from now on.”
Dikko started the Japanese Culture, Language and Entertainment Club at Carver STEAM to introduce students, who may have already been interested in the popular anime and mangas, to the more traditional side of Japan and its culture. In her club, she teaches students the basics of the language, exposes them to Japanese art with monthly movie nights, and hosted events where they can learn the history and significance behind different cultural aspects like origami or the cuisine.
“The kids definitely love it,” she said. “You can see them adapting the more respectful parts of Japanese culture. Some of the kids bow to each other, which I find really cute. By doing different cultural elements, we’re able to bridge the gap for a lot of different kids even if they’re not here for anime or music.”
Introducing students to a different culture not only provides a reprieve from the ordinary school day, but also broadens the horizons and expectations of what’s possible for students. Dikko’s goal goes beyond sharing her interests with passionate students, but to hopefully inspire them to want to go to Japan and experience it for themselves.
“I definitely see a difference even in the kids’ work ethic. I feel like having some kind of interest in something outside of what you know expands your mind and opens your world view,” she said. “The kids are a lot more respectable to other cultures and they’re more likely to be open.”
“The end goal is to get these kids in Japan to see how different it is from America. It’s one of those cultures that’s vastly different from ours,” she added. “Travel, open your mind, and no matter what you do, try to look at life through another person’s shoes.”
