International Education Week workshops explore Japanese culture.
By Jose Arredondo
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
Imagine enlivening a piece of paper by folding it into a well-detailed crane using the art of paper folding, or origami.
Or smearing ink onto a cloth, creating calligraphic art the Japanese call “Shodou.”
The media for people living in 15th-century Japan included pieces of cloth, brushes, ink stones, ink sticks and scraps of paper.
Students at this college can experience Japanese history as International Education Week kicks off Nov. 17.
Japanese Instructor Yuko Kawabe will conduct a Japanese calligraphy workshop from 1-2 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Oppenheimer Academic Center lobby. She will demonstrate the process and teach participants to write their names in an artistic Japanese form.
Kawabe will also host an origami session from 11-11:30 a.m. Nov. 18 in the lobby of the Oppenheimer Academic Center. She will teach how to transform paper into a creative design.
“Origami seems hard to many people,” Kawabe said. “But it is a lot of fun, and it projects students’ creativity.”
Kawabe teaches six Japanese sections here and is on the board of directors for the Japanese Teachers Association of Texas. Her students refer to her as Senei, or teacher.
She is also an Excellence Awards recipient from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. Kawabe has taken students to Japan for a study abroad program for five consecutive years.
For more information, contact Kawabe at 210-486-0976.