MANILA -- About 20,000 students from seven high schools have benefited from the Korean Culture Caravan this year, Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines (KCC) Director Lee Jincheol told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Wednesday.
With the goal to inspire Filipinos while also encouraging them to love their own culture, KCC holds the cultural caravan in selected schools that hold Korean classes and those that offer Korean language classes.
In every caravan, there was a booth, where teachers and students got to experience wearing Hanbok, a book exhibit, and a photo booth.
There were also film screenings, lectures, traditional Korean art class, K-pop dance class, and cooking class.
Attendees were entertained with song and dance numbers.
"I would like to give my greatest appreciation to the school principals, teachers, and DepEd (Department of Education) for their consistent support on our events. We are closely coordinating with them while preparing this caravan, and I can see their interest in hosting this kind of events in their schools," Lee said.
Last year, KCC signed a memorandum of agreement with DepEd to select 20 schools that offer Special Program in Foreign Language - Korea (SPFL-Korea).
Among the 20 schools, Lee said seven schools were selected for this year’s caravan.
From Sept. 21 to Dec. 7, the Korean Culture Caravan visited the Kalayaan National High School (September 21), Las Piñas National High School (October 12), Boot National High School (October 19), Tanza National Comprehensive High School (November 9), Pasay City National Science High School (November 16), Gov. Feliciano Leviste Memorial National High School (November 23), and Maligaya High School (December 7).
Lee said that in the past four months, he enjoyed the experience with some 20,000 students, whom he described as "very fond" of Korean culture and K-pop.
"I was lucky to meet thousands of Filipino students, who are proud of their own culture, throughout my lectures and other activities," he added.
Lee narrated that he felt the students' strong passion and interest in Korean culture during the Korean Culture Caravan.
"I am also surprised to see that most of the students know the K-pop songs, Korean actors, Korean movies and dramas, and even the Korean words that we are introducing to them whenever we visit their schools," he said.
Meanwhile, Lee said that nothing has been finalized yet with regard to future caravans.
"But with the successful outcome of this year’s caravan, we will definitely host another caravan project for the next year," he noted.
He said students can look forward to more Korean cultural immersion activities and surprising performances.
"I am hoping to continue hosting this Korean Culture Caravan to the schools that are offering the Korean Language as an elective subject," he added. (PNA)
