Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts Korean Multi-Cultural Fair

Korean Multi-Cultural Fair

The Wisconsin standards are: B.8.7, B8.8, B8.6, B8.2.

My activity is to break my class up into 6 groups. Each group is given a topic:
1. Religion
2. Korean language
3. Housing
4. DMZ
5. Mounds
6. Chopsticks

The religions are: Catholic, Buddhist and Confucian. The students must display an example of the deity of the religion and the basic rules. They also need to show and build a model of their place of worship.

The Korean language: the students need to show the different characters used in Korean vs Chinese. They also need a model of a few Korean and Chinese words on paper. They will also detail the Hangul language which they will watch a video by Mark Peterson to get a little background.

The housing: the students need to show the modern city(Seoul) vs the average farming village. They will make a model of both. I will show examples that I took on my trip with FPRI and some from Paul Dickler.

DMZ: the students will make a model of the fence at the DMZ. As a class I will go over what the DMZ stood for and when it first went into place.

The mounds: the students will make models of the burial mounds. They will also explain the difference in the mounds in Korea vs the local Indian burial mounds. They can also make comparisons to the pyramids of Egypt and how they are dug up but not the ones in Korea if the heritage is known for the mounds.

The chopsticks: this group will research the food of Korea. They will make examples of the typical meal arrangement (variety of dishes with vegetables) and the main meat. They will also come up with a variety of bowls with the different consistencies that they have to pick up with chopsticks.

Instead of picking six activities go with three. I would pick language, printing and religions. I think these three give the best feel of Korea and its contributions. In the religion you could just focus on the two main religions in Korea (Buddhism and Confucianism). I went with the Catholic religion because I work at a Catholic school. I wanted to show the students how our religion is not that different from the Korean religions and that we have similar practices (vigil candles vs Buddhist candles).

One could also go the English route. The students could read “Shrimp between two whales” or “Still life with rice” and talk about the trials and tribulations, or “Way home” to talk about differences in people. The students could also learn about sejos which are Korean poems and compare them to the Japanese haiku.

Mark Peterson’s YouTube videos
Paul Dickler’s articles
FPRI blogs

Author
  • Michelle Heim
  • St. Joseph
Related History Institute
Time Frame
  • Four or five 45 minute classes

If you have any questions about this lesson plan, or if you wish to contact the author, please email us at history@fpri.org