EARLY childhood education student Siti Nur Hanisah Omar Hashim, 17, from the Keningau Vocational College in Sabah, grabbed first place in an international haiku-writing online competition, Berita Harian reported.
A team of teachers from the Keningau Vocational College won the 2022 GoAbroad Innovation Award in the Innovative TEFL/Teach Abroad category with their award-winning project dubbed “Omiyage”.
The team made history by becoming the first Malaysian participants to make it to the final round of the competition and ultimately win a category.
The team comprises four members, namely Larry James, Alvinah Tony, Akmal Rosimun and Sirhajwan Idek.
“Omiyage”, which means souvenir in Japanese, was inspired by Japanese traditions and trends.
The aim of the project is to guide students to learn some selected aspects of Japanese social inventions and culture such as haiku, pechakucha, manga, keitai shousetsu and daruma otoshi in order to improve their mastery of some basic skills such as writing and presentation.
Some of the students have developed their own artistic and academic work using the elements of Japanese culture like haiku poetry and