Pre-Class: On the 17th of February 2012, The Korean Cultural Centre UK released it’s list of students for the Kpop Academy 2012. As only 30 people could be chosen as students. The aim of the K-pop Academy is to educate students on Korea and Korean culture through Kpop.
I was one of the lucky 30 who were chosen to take part in the course. I was glad to know that some of my colleagues and friends would also be in our class, and of course it was nice to meet some new people too! Those who already knew each other were able to start a facebook group for the class which meant we could get to know each other a little before the class. We were also set prepare a one minute presentation on ourselves before our first class.
As soon as we arrived we were given name tags, and asked to take a photograph holding the K-Pop Academy sign.
Then we were given a bag which inside contained…
Korean snacks!
Leaflets on a Temple stay in Korea, ‘The year of the 12 directors’ film events or Korean Film nights. ‘New space around the body’ which is a fashion gallery currently displayed at the KCCUK, and a booklet on Seoul the capital of South Korea.
and… One of the 2012 Kpop calendars, which i believe were distributed by the South Korean government themselves to Korean Centers and Embassies across the globe.
Class: Our class was split into two halves, first we were introduced to the PR of the KCCUK, and introduced to the course. We then each gave one minute presentations. (The order of students was chosen at random). Most of us were nervous to give our presentations but it turns out that it wasn’t so bad.
Afterward we were given a short break there were drinks and some of us were asked to be interviewed. Questions included ‘What do you expect to learn during this course?’ and ‘What do you like about Kpop?’.
Not to mention free SHINee posters~!
The second half of our class was a lecture given by Dr Park from Cambridge University. (This image is credited to SuMi). 
She gave us a lecture on Korean History, which helped us to gain a better overview of Korean Culture. Dr Park also related history to dramas and gave her personal opinion on the dramas. She also told us about a few of the actors and actresses. 5000 years of history was a lot to cover within an hour, but we managed to cover from the Korean myths up to the present day. Students took notes and photographs.
After the lecture students were given a tour of the ‘A new space around the body’ gallery. The gallery showed Korean intertextuality from the seoul Olympic games, to ‘what is the perfect girlfriend’ which is a popular topic in Korea right now.
After this we were able to go home, or hang around for a while and make use of the Library downstairs. Some of the students went to Seoul Bakery afterwards for a celebratory meal~
I look forward to the next 11 weeks.
Please note that this article has been taken from my personal blog: hellosujin.wordpress.com
