New class, club bring love of Japan to Trine

When his brother returned from three years of teaching in Japan with photos and stories of that nation’s scenery, entertainment and culture, Trine University student Dominic Bumpus immediately fell in love with the country.

“He told me about his stay there and the culture, such as the many festivals they had and the friends he made during his stay,” Dominic recalled.

Kaylee Nelson grew up watching “Ponyo,” a Japanese animated fantasy film.

Her interest in Japanese culture and customs grew through a Japan Study Group she joined in middle and high school. Her senior year, she served as “sensei,” providing Japanese snacks and presenting to the group on culture and folk tales.

Dominic and Kaylee’s passion for all things Japanese has evolved into a new Japanese language class and Japanese culture club at Trine.

Class provided structure

After becoming frustrated trying to learn the Japanese language on his own, Dominic approached Darrin Wilcox, Ph.D., dean of the Jannen School of Arts and Sciences, to see if the university would offer a class.

“I always struggled to keep up with learning the language myself without the structure of a class, so when I knew that Trine taught other languages, I decided to go to Dr. Wilcox and see if we could make something happen,” he said.

“To my surprise, after speaking about my own interests and the professional benefits from the major companies such as Sony and Nintendo that operate and were founded there, he was more than happy to help get it started.”

Dr. Wilcox reached out to Matthew McLin, who had taught in Japan for seven years before starting as assistant professor in Trine’s Department of Humanities and Communication in fall 2023.

“Fall 2024 marked our first Japanese class, mainly among students that had learned of it by word of mouth from Dom or others,” said McLin.

The class played a key role in bringing Kaylee to Trine.

“When deciding if I wanted to go to college, Trine was in the back of my mind because of their esports program and their cold case unit,” she said. “One day I got a notification in the esports Discord about Trine's new Japanese language class. At this point I wasn't sure if I even wanted to go to college, but I couldn't miss the opportunities they had here. I couldn't find a Japanese language class anywhere else.”

Ten students took the fall class.

“It was great, honestly,” Dominic said. “Not only did I feel proud that I managed to get the program started so quickly, but also that I was learning the language I had wanted to learn for years. The class itself was also structured so well that the content was easy to understand, and I enjoyed learning the activities and conversations we had to learn the language.”

“I believe if credits and scheduling had allowed for all students interested, we could have had double the class size despite the short amount of time we had to get the word out to friends about it.”

“Starting the class was intimidating; I was the only female there for the first class,” Kaylee said. “I then met Hikari. She was studying here from Japan. I loved hearing Hikari's stories and interests. She gave me a more personal reason to learn the Japanese language, so I could meet and speak with more amazing people like her.”

Japan Culture Club

This spring, the university is launching a Japan Culture Club to give Trine students interested in Japanese culture a place to meet and talk, and to provide a space for international students, especially from Japan, to meet local students and create friendships.

“We started to get things around to form the club last semester after we had seen the massive amount of interest the class had with students,” Dominic said. “We are working on finalizing the members to make the club official. Once that is done, we have spoken about a possible movie night for CHAT credit much like what the Spanish Program did with ‘Coco’ last year. I personally hope to also work with the foreign exchange program in the future to see what we might be able to do together as well!”

“I want people who have the same passion I do for Japan to have a place to express themselves, have great opportunities, to meet students from Japan, make friends and maybe even go on a trip to Japan someday,” said Kaylee. “I've made so many friends, been a part of wonderful groups, had great opportunities, all because I had a small interest in a silly little kids' movie that grew into something amazing.”

Despite his love for the nation, Dominic has not traveled to Japan yet. He plans to do so once he graduates.

“I plan on going on a month-long trip abroad as soon as I can after college, where I plan on spending two weeks in Japan and two weeks in Korea,” he said. “The time of year I go will determine what cities I plan on visiting, as I hope to be able to enjoy some of the festivals in Japan, such as the various fireworks festivals they do there or possibly the Sapporo Snow Festival!”