Graduate psychology major Kelli Brooks, sophomore business management major Midori Mukushi, and sophomore digital audio recording major Juri Tokuda introduce the history of Japan on Monday. International Education Week will continue through 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Friday. Yohan Kim/The Bulletin
Students and faculty celebrated International Education Week at Emporia State with a variety of activities on campus this week.
Hosted by the Office of International Education, the event has been celebrated worldwide in over 100 countries since 2001. According to Iew.state.gov, the event “aims to promote international understanding and build support for international educational exchange.”
“I think a lot of times in classrooms there’s kind of an invisible wall in between people of different cultures being able to approach each other so hopefully (this week) can break the barriers and let them know each other,” said Kelli Brooks, graduate assistant of programming for OIE and graduate psychology student.
On Monday, the OIE showed a movie called “The God of Cookery,” a 1996 Chinese film about a chef trying to redeem himself as another chef takes over his role as “God of Cookery.” This was also the third film to be shown for the Food Film Festival.
“What we were trying to do with this collaboration was to combine International Education week with our general education food theme,” said Deborah Gerish, associate professor of social sciences. “This was the initiative of the general education faculty and the Office of International Education.”
Tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Science Hall room 72, a potluck dinner will kick off the finale of the Food Film Festival. At 7 p.m., they will play another cultural film, “What’s Cooking?”
“One of the most interesting parts of going to a different country and seeing a different culture is looking at what food means in that new culture,” Gerish said. “It’s really informative.”
Yusuke Suita, an international student from Tokyo, Japan, and senior biology and molecular biochemistry major, said that ESU has helped him establish how to think from other cultural perspectives.
“I am a scientist so I have gotten to know the culture through different ways of creative thinking,” Suita said. “It has broadened my knowledge.”
In Heath Recital Hall at 7 p.m. tonight there will be a World Concert, which will feature different students from other countries performing music.
“The goal is to help students get a different cultural view than they have seen before,” Brooks said. “They can find a different way to view music.”
At 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Recreation Center, there will be contra dancing, which is a type of dancing that originated in Ireland and incorporates old-fashioned square and line dancing.
“We hope through personal things, like dancing, people will be able to interact and learn,” Brooks said.
There will be a table set up in the Memorial Union in front of the bookstore from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow for those interested in studying abroad. The table has been set up since Monday with information and displays from various countries and will feature the Chinese and Japanese cultures tomorrow.
Susan Welte
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