On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Department of World Languages and the Japanese minor program hosted a Japanese themed craft fair in the Milo Bail Student Center atrium at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO).
Students were invited to attend event and learn how to make traditional Japanese crafts. Around 30 students attended and they were able to keep their crafts or give them as gifts.
Kanami Ito, a Fulbright foreign language teaching assistant from Japan, helped host the craft fair. Ito is teaching Japanese at UNO for one year. She set up the craft tables and taught many students how to make traditional crafts.
Ito said the first craft she taught is called “Umemusubi” (plum flower paper knot) for good luck, which is a kind of “Mizuhiki” (flower-shaped cords made of paper strings).
The second was an “Origami” paper craft of Santa Claus.
The third craft was “Hanko” which means stamp. Each student stamped the first letter of their names in the Japanese alphabet.
Lastly, Ito taught students how to write “Shodo” or Japanese calligraphy using brush pens.
Cecilia Tocaimaza-Hatch, Ph.D., chair and associate professor of Spanish linguistics, helped host the event and said that it was “very well attended.” She said the event was effective in creating awareness for the Japanese program and the new minor.
Tocaimaza-Hatch said that the department would love to host more events and demonstrations in the future and that they try to stay very active.
The craft fair was the first event that the Japanese program has held in the Milo Bail Student Center. Tocaimaza-Hatch said that the atrium location helped with visibility and encouraged students passing by to stop by the craft tables.
“Sometimes it is hard to spread the word and let people know what we are doing … they may just assume that we don’t have a program in Japanese,” said Tocaimaza-Hatch. “Japanese is having a great moment, culturally. Students are loving anything Japanese culture right now.”
The Japanese minor is a new option for UNO students. Tocaimaza-Hatch said that she and the other professors are hopeful that they will be able to offer a Japanese major in the future. She believes that the enrollment rates for the minor and Japanese classes have been great.
“The goal is to create a space where students feel welcome,” Tocaimaza-Hatch said. “We want a space where they belong and they feel safe.”
More information about the Japanese program or their events can be found on the UNO World Languages and Literature website or on their Instagram page @unoworldlanguages.