Our library hosted a "Korean Wave" themed week of programs where we introduced teens to South Korean culture and celebrated teen interest in KPop, Korean food, and K-dramas. In this program post, I am going to focus on the KPop program.
KPop is the term used to describe the music scene in South Korea. Typically, groups are made up of "idols" or members of a group that have trained for years in the art of singing, dancing, fashion, being a pop culture icon, and more; it's treated like a career that you have to study for. In that regard, we decided to set up stations for teen participants to learn a different aspect of the KPop culture. The stations where:
- DJ/Dance station: teens could pick songs to dance to
- Fashion station: teens made their own paper dolls with templates and coloring pencils and markers
- Lifestyle: teens used Mango Languages to learn Korean and Oculus Go headsets to take a tour around the capital, watch KPop concerts, and more.
- Korean food: we had leftovers from a Korean Food program the day before and put out some of the other items for them to try as well.
Details on each station can be found in the Instructions section below
Type: Active
Age: High school
Optimal size: 11-20
Estimated cost: $51 - $100
Planning time: 2-5 hours
Frequency: One-time
Learning outcomes
Teens will commit to becoming open to learning about others
Teens will become aware of diverse cultures and their approach to cultural expression.
Teens will spend time participating in activities that develop cultural competence and become comfortable with individuals from other cultures.
Teens will use digital tools to broaden their perspective.
Teens will bolster self-esteem and make positive peer interactions through the artistic activities provided to them.
Instructions
Instructions are broken down by station.
Dancing/DJ Station:
Materials Needed- TV or laptop with speakers, a list of songs to get teens going if they are not familiar with KPop, space around the TV/laptop to dance.
Instructions: we used our Apple TV to access Youtube. Our teens had no problem taking over as DJs and dancing soon commenced.
Fashion Station:
Materials Needed: markers, colored pencils, double-sided tape, scissors, pre-printed templates of the dolls and their clothing.
Teens were able to design their own paper doll outfits using blank templates that I created for the program. An image file of the documents are in the Supplements section below.
Lifestyle Station:
Materials Needed: mobile devices to access Mango Languages app and headphones, virtual reality headsets.
Instructions: We accessed the app on our iPads and provided headphones for teens to use while learning Korean. Also at the station were two Oculus Go headsets. The headsets had each had KPop-specific videos pulled up for teens to just put the headset on and click play.
Korean Food:
This was more of an informal station and could be eliminated if your budget is tight. We simply provided food because there was more from a program the day before and wanted to use everything up. If you do want to provide food, I purchased the food mentioned in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfok7gnjhI4
Evaluation
Both of the staff members involved were surprised by how popular the dancing station was. We have done dance-themed programming in the past and it has always taken a lot of encouragement to get teens to participate. I think it was mostly because of who attended the KPop program that made the difference. We had a lot of outgoing new faces that did a lot to make others feel comfortable dancing. With the VR headsets, we did have to intervene in this station a few times, as some teens were spending too much time on the Oculus Go headsets. We wanted to make sure everyone had the chance to experience them, and soon realized that they were not even watching KPop related videos. So if someone was there longer than 10 minutes, we encouraged them to try a different station. The paper dolls were surprisingly popular. The teens were intrigued by the retro activity and how it was paired with a more current trend (KPop). This station was the most regularly attended, so if you host this program, make sure you have plenty of supplies.
Additionally, if you are unsure of whether or not your teens will come to the program familiar with KPop, I recommend having a playlist ready to go so they can start listening to some songs. Our group made it clear that the band BTS was the most popular, followed by a girl group called Blackpink.
Other resources
Link for clothing 1
Link for clothing 2
Link for paper dolls