K-Pop Academy [Week 11 - Homework]

Seeing as we visited the British Museum this week, our homework was based about the National Treasures of Korea. There are so many beautiful historical sites I would love to visit in Korea but I focused on Korea's intangible heritage of humanity instead.

During my visit to Korea, I saw a spectacular Taekwondo performance. From then onwards I have been in awe with Korean martial arts which is why for this weeks homework I chose to do a promotional video for Taekkyeon (택견), a form of traditional Korean martial arts. 

Here is a video of Taekkyeon:

I tried to the mimic the style of the Infinity Chanllenge's Bibimbap promotional video too:

Although I attempted to imitate various moves from videos of Taekkyeon, I added my own moves which is why I called it 'Tam-kwondo'. Check out my video below:

Mandatory Homework

In addition to the video, this week we also had another piece of homework. We visited the British Museum for this weeks class and were told there were some errors in some of the description in the Korean room.

After class, a group of us K-Pop Academy students visited the Korean room again searching like crazy for the errors. We even attempted to speak Korean to Korean visitors to ask if they had realised any errors and they attempted to help us but had no luck too.

Therefore I decided to us my best friend Google. =)

It turns out that the birthplace of the Buddha was incorrectly noted to be in India, however, the British Museum have now corrected this information.

An iron statue of a Buddha in Korean room in the British Museum
Source: KCCUK

So how could the Korean room in the British Museum improve to promote Korea's cultural heritage more effectively?

1. More about Korean traditional music

Having learnt about how Korean music has evolved, it would have been nice to see artefacts of the early instruments used in Korea. The techniques used to make the instuments in the past and now may differ a lot. Therefore it would have been great if there was more information about traditional Korean music now that Korean music, especially K-Pop, is becoming more popular.

2. More about Korean art

Although there were numerous traditional Korean ceramics in the museum, personally I would have liked to see more traditional paintings and drawings. I am aware that there are some marvellous Korean folk paintings, such as the ones below, so I would have loved to see more in the Korean room.

Painting of Taekwondo

3. More about the Korean language

Having gained a better understanding of the birth of the Korean writing system, Hanguel, through the K-Pop Academy, it would be truly amazing if there were pieces of early documents written in Hanguel.

Overall, although there were many beautiful artefacts in the Korean room, in my opinions the room would better promote Korean culture if it provided more information on traditional Korean music, art and Hanguel.

K-Pop Academy [Week 10 - Homework]

The focus of this weeks class was the Future of K-Pop. I wasn't actually able to attend this week class (because of protests in my town). Boohoo~! It felt strange staying at home staying at home on a Saturday. But the focus of this weeks class was the future of K-Pop.

So for the homework I chose to do a comic strip of what kind of K-Pop star I would choose if I was a CEO. CEO Sidika, it's got a nice ring to it. Haha. =P

The comic strip tells the story of what happens during the auditions and what the judges look for when selecting contestants.

Here's a closer look at the story:

Contestants are practicng hard in the waiting room

The judges are waiting patiently for the next act. (There's me in the pink top). Haha

The door opens and in walks..

..a contestant who is really pretty..

..but her singing is awful. So regardless of the fact that she is attractive,
which is often a must for K-Pop idols, she gets buzzed off.

The next contestant is doesn't look like a typical, doll-like K-Pop idols..

..however, she has the voice of an angel so you goes through. =)

A geeky boy walks in next. Surprisingly he has amazing b-boying skills and
since I am always amazing by b-boying he easily goes through to the next round.

The last contestant is dressed from top to toe in Indian attire. The judges don't know what to
expect but she has some amazing Bollywood moves..

..so she also goes through.

All in all, my comic strip illustrates that although I understand that beauty is seen as a must in K-Pop, there are other more important factors such as true talent~.. =) Plus, I barely see any ethnic minorities in K-Pop which is understandable since it's such a homogeneous country but a little of colour would be nice. Haha~.. =)

Hope you enjoyed my comic.. ^0^

K-Pop Academy [Week 9 - Homework]

As this week class was focused on noraebang, I decided to do a video of my singing Korean songs. For those who have witnessed my singing during noraebang, you know how terrible my singing is. But I made this video to illustrate how I bug my family with by constantly singing along to K-Pop songs. Here's my video:

Thanks to my family for getting involved and not bring afraid to make themselves look crazy like me. Haha.

Also since I love noraebang so much, I compared my experiences of noraeabang in England to Korea.

England

Korea

All in all, wherever you go, whoever you go with, noraebang is always a blast~! After going the first time, I realised why it was so popuar in Korea. It lets you release stress and sing at the top of your lungs without being afriad that you can't sing.

If you guys haven't been noraebang yet, I really recommend you to try go!

-Tamanna