Students from Kazakhstan will share their traditions, including native songs, clothing and food. The event is free and everyone is invited.

The holiday is one of the most important of the year for the people in Kazakhstan and is always celebrated at the vernal equinox.

Ilyas Dyussengaliyev, president of the club, said this the first public event for the club since it was formed two semesters ago. The club has about 30 members now, he said.

“People don’t even know where Kazakhstan is,” he said. “This is a great chance to explain us more. I hope to make the club bigger and bigger.”

The Asian/Pacific Islander Celebration of Culture at the Christian Cafeteria at 4 p.m. yesterday was part of the university’s celebration of culture series. The event was sponsored by the Minority Services office and Aramark with participation from students from Asian and Pacific Island nations.

Aramark served the special Asian food for dinner prepared from recipes provided by students from Japan, China and Vietnam.

Students demonstrated martial arts, calligraphy, origami and traditional instrumental music during the event. Many American students tried to write their names with Chinese or Japanese symbols. The martial arts demonstration got a big round of applause.

Calligraphy was part of the Asian culture celebration

“There are some festivals by Asian countries but this event is everything gathered into one place,” said Angela Jackson, interim director for minority service. “It’s good time to compare different cultures that you don’t know. I hope more countries from Asia, like South Korea and Kazakhstan, will join next time.”

Two international theater students from Japan believe it can and are presenting a show to prove it today in the Black Box Studio Theatre in the Snow Fine Arts Center. The show, “Muzyun,” will be performed during X-period today and again Thursday.

The story of “Muzyun,” which is the Japanese word for “paradox,” is an argument between the characters Devil and Brave about their weapons of choice in the final stages of a role-playing game. The issue is which is stronger, the strongest sword or unbreakable shield.

The actors first perform the play in Japanese, then in English. The audience can compare their comprehension of the play in each language.

Megumi Kabe, a senior theater student and one of the actors, said he and the other actor, Nano Kasuga, a junior theater student, wrote the script in both languages and performed it to practice their acting. Elizabeth Parker, business manager for the theater, and some professors saw them and suggested that they give a public performance.

Which is stronger?

“I guess the story is easy and funny and people can sort of understand the main stream of the play without English,” Kabe said. ”Also the atmosphere helps them understand.”

Admission is free.

The international students in the Intensive English Program (IEP) produce the IEP Observer as a monthly newsletter that reports on events, people and issues within the international student program. With more than 600 international students from more than 60 countries, the publication has a sizable audience.

Students taking the class get one hour of credit for their work. There are seven students in the class this semester.

“It’s a good chance for the students to meet interesting people, practice their English and get an elective credit,” said Cecelia Hitte, director of the IEP program.

The publication was started last Spring semester and is run like a newspaper. The students find story ideas, conduct interviews, do research, take photographs and write the stories. They use the journalism model of answering the who, what, when, where, why and how of every story, Hitte said.

The IEP Observer

“I decided to take this class because I wanted to prove my English-writing skill,” said Nasser Al-Wadai, a student from Saudi Arabia. “And, I wanted to try new things while staying in America.”

The IEP Observer is available in the IEP office on the third floor of Torreyson West. The next edition of the publication will be released any day now. It is free.

The Intensive English Program sponsored the hunt as part of a program to explain the Christian holiday to students from Buddhist and Muslim countries.

About 50 international students attended the event, according to Phillip Taylor, an IEP instructor. The faculty and staff hid 400 eggs with candy in them for the students to find. Ten of the eggs also contained an extra bonus point in the IEP class, he said.

Last year’s event was plagued by cold, rainy weather. Only six students attended.

Students at the event said they liked the egg hunt and other events. They laughed at one of the instructors who was dressed in an Easter Bunny costume.

International students at the Easter Egg hunt.

“I had so much fun here,”  said IEP student Yerali Baiterekov, a Muslim from  Kazakhstan. “I have never experienced this event before.”

IEP student Shine Shi from China said, “China doesn’t have Easter. It was a good time and I’m glad I could find the special egg.”

It’s the third annual UCA Sakura Festival. Sakura is Japanese for cherry blossom. The cherry blossom has a special place in Japanese culture. You can read more about that here.

The festival will include contemporary bands, dancing, brush and ink calligraphy, martial arts demonstrations, origami, tea ceremony demonstrations, games and a chance to wear traditional Japanese clothing.

Japanese cherry blossoms

Nana Goto, vice president of the Japanese Student Association, said this year’s festival will focus on modern Japan. Previous festivals had emphasized ancient traditions and customs.

“The band and dance show modern Japanese culture and we created the huge map explaining the geography and some areal differences,” Goto said. “But, we’ll also show the traditional things, like tea demonstrations and clothes try-on booth.”

UCA plans to charge international students out-of-state tuition beginning with the fall 2011 semester. Currently, international students pay the lower in-state tuition rate if they maintain at least a 3.0 GPA or live on campus.

The change would double the cost for international students. In-state tuition is $170 per credit hour. Out-of-state tuition is $340 per credit hour.

International students face big tuition hike

Lisa Shoemake, director of international student services, said she was worried about the effect of the tuition increase.

“We fear this tuition change will have a negative effect on UCA,” Shoemake said. ”It’s too bad. The population of internationals will decrease. Maybe it will shift to the other cheap universities like Arkansas Tech University or Arkansas State University.”

The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is the only school in the state with more international students than UCA.

The conversation club is designed to help international students improve their English skills, meet other international students and learn about American culture. The IFO throws in a free dinner, too.

IFO also offers a friendship-partner program to international students who study in central Arkansas. The program pairs an American individual or family from a local church with an international student so they can spend time together and develop a friendship.

Scene from conversation club

“Internationals makes American rich, and vice versa,” said LaJuana Magee, director of IFO Conway. “Conversation club can create a lasting friendship. Now we have students from Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Mongol, and more. We will come back next June.”

Try International Student Fun Night at the Peace Lutheran Church Family Life Center, 800 Donaghey Dr. The event begins at 5 p.m. Shuttle bus rides begin at 4:45 p.m. from Stadium Park.

The event is designed to allow international students a chance to meet new people, make friends, share ethnic food and discuss their cultures. All students are invited and admission is free.

Saki Fukuda, a Japanese student in her junior year, said the church began regularly hosting the event last semester to help international students adjust to life in Conway. With about 600 international students, UCA has the second-largest international student population in Arkansas, behind the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

International students gather

“This is the third time since it started,” Fukuda said. “In the first time, there were only 10 people to attend. But about 30 people came last time. It’s still getting bigger. It’s not something like a church study. So feel free to join us.”

This is the Year of the Tiger and is the year 4707, 4708 or 4647, depending on the Chinese calendar you use. The New Year is one of the most important annual celebrations in Chinese culture and attracts millions to temples to light incense and pray for good lives. The celebration lasts 15 days, culminating with the Lantern Festival.

Chinese Scholar and Student Association produced Saturday night’s event in the Student Center Ballroom.

Students dance in native dress

“We had started to prepare this event from the beginning of November,” Stephanie Sun, president of the association, said. “This annual event is getting bigger year by year with the increase of the population of Chinese student in UCA. The hardest thing was to contact everyone and to make a time to practice the performance. But succeedingly, over 400 people attended this event.”