World Languages and Cultures
3rd Annual Karaoke Festival (2018)
The formal academic Japanese program is reflected in and complimented by student life experiences through various clubs on campus including the CSUMB Japan Club. In April of 2018, the Japan Club in conjunction with the Japanese Language & Cultures (JLC) Program, held the 3rd Annual CSUMB Karaoke Festival, where students performed songs in Japanese as part of a competition. The competition was broken down into two different groups: native speakers and non-native speakers of Japanese. The Native Speakers group consisted of students that were a part of an international exchange with CSUMB and the Non-Native group consisted of students within the JLC major and non-major students currently studying Japanese. Community volunteer judges, Mr. , Mr. Cameron Chen, and Ms Mio Nishimura (Salinas High School) identified the winner of the non-native competition as Isaiah Owens, who performed the Japanese version of “Country Road” which was originally featured in the film Whisper of the Heart (1995). Mihaya Kondo was selected as the winner of the native, singing Chris Hart’s song “I Love You”.
Following the competition, Dr. Ernest Stromberg, from the School of Humanities & Communication, provided a demonstration of the Japanese martial art Aikido supported by Ms. Christina Jones and Mr. Gerald Jones.
To close the afternoon, Japanese exchange students from J. F. Oberlin University performed Soran Bushi, a traditional Japanese dance.