So I was lucky enough to be accepted as one of the 30 K-Pop fans to take part in this years K-Pop Academy, organised by the KCCUK. It’s a 12 week program that explores various social aspects of Korea, including the language, authentic cooking and of course the K-Pop!
For week one, we were introduced to the program, our own self introductions (of which I was really nervous!), what we’d be doing over the next twelve weeks and finally taking part in a mini contest on our Korean general knowledge! I was put into the BTS team (thank goodness) and we won! Our prize was the famous Korean snack ‘Pepero’. One thing that struck me when I first met the others was the openness and how comfortable I felt around everyone else – we all shared the same interest!
Week two was all about the March First Movement and the Korean flag Taegukgi. For those slightly unfamiliar with Korean history, the March First Movement was that start of a peacefull rebellion against harsh Japanese military rule. It occurred around 1910 and was the start of several successive movements to bring freedom to Korea. This movement symbolizes the strength and determination of Koreans. The flag, Tageukgi, has a variety of meanings to it, but I won’t go into a history lesson here! The main activity of this session was using traditional Korean patchwork to create our own replica of the flag.
Week three (possibly the most fun AND stressful) was the cooking activity. We were on task to create seafood dumplings and pancakes in teams of about 5. Of course we all thought the pancakes would be easy – it looked really simple in the demonstration. I was self-delegated to the task of making the dumplings with two other people and it was not as hard as one might think. In the end, the food tasted delicious – it was gone within 5 minutes!
