Isn’t it lovely when there’s a little Korean town in the middle of a bustling city? And isn’t it even better when that town holds a festival of its own to attract attention to its little self? Welcome to Korea Day.
This is the event I went to recently on my trip to British Columbia. The place itself had a grocery store, a bunch of restaurants, and clothes stores. Oh yeah, and ninety percent of everyone was Korean.
It was interesting. It was as if I was actually in some place located in Asia; I felt out of place as an American. But after I got over that and realized that they didn’t even notice or care about me, that’s when the fun began!
We got Korean pancakes, which were filled with glorious sweet brown sugar and peanut filling. After that, me and my third cousin once removed went browsing the clothes stores while the responsible adults left us to fend for ourselves. We noticed a certain hat, maybe it’s popular in that country to have sun visors that are super long. Our time of browsing was cut short as the rest of the group were trying to find us for the past five minutes. Oops.
We went to a restaurant next, and it was so hot in there I almost melted, but that’s not the point. All the stuff we ordered were put in separate little bowls and put all together to look pretty. There were a lot of different foods. Mostly spicy foods. I have a feeling Koreans are best friends with fiery spices. My favorite foods were the ones drowned in teriyaki sauce. These were the beef and chicken dishes. We also put a bunch of the sauce in our rice, and we had no regrets.
Overall, it was an interesting experience to get out of the culture I’m so stuck in, and see the way people on the other side of the world live. And really, Korean culture is not so different from ours. They have styles and brands and good food, just like we do, but they have their own way of expressing it.
PS. My daughter Rachel wrote this blog post.
Tags: foods, geography, hands-on, high school, Homeschooling, Korea
It’s always fun to have a festival in a small town inside a big city, they’re usually the best. The food looked absolutely amazing and it looks like everyone had a great time thank you for sharing.
She had a wonderful time, tasting and experiencing the culture!
It looks like a really fun day! I love exposing my family to other cultures.
I do, too. It makes the culture much more tangible.
The food pics make me hungry! They look so good!
Rachel says the food was delicious.
Looks like it was a fun time! The pancakes sound amazing.
The pancakes sound really special; that’s for sure! I had never heard of a pancake with something inside it. It reminds me of crepes that surround a flavor, so I’m sure it was fantastic!
Very nice blog post! Very well written! I don’t particularly like spicy food but I love Korean fabrics.
Rachel noticed the Korean clothing in the stores, and realized she wasn’t that different from Koreans!
OH my that dish looks so yummy! Fun Korea day!!
I know, right? They all had a great day!
This is really cool and that food sounds AMAZING! We have an “Hola Festival” close to where I live but I’ve never been. I might need to check it out.
Sounds like a good cultural activity for your family!
I wish we had something like this around us! I’d LOVE to go!
If you google your area for cultural events, you might be surprised by similar events (maybe from different countries) that include food, local dance (like Irish or Jewish dancing), etc.
This looks fun and yummy! I love going to places like these because they have the best food!
I love interesting foods, too. What a great way to learn about a country, I’d say!
All the food looks delicious and it sounds like you had an amazing time! I’d love to take my family out to experience something just like this soon!
It’s a good way to enter into another culture.
Looks like fun! I had a blast in China Town in NYC, so different, yet still the same!
Yes, these cultural activities can be so much fun!
As part of a unit study on China we visited Chinatown in London in October. It was fun. I ordered only plain food for myself. The kids and my partner ate some tasty rich Chinese food at one of the restaurants, then we walked around and looked at the shops.
I even went into a shop which sold various Chinese oddities. We made a day out of it. It was amazing. I asked the waiter some questions about Chinese culture and astrology as well once our meal was over and I was done paying. I did not find a Chinese costume shop however. That was weird.
After that we went to a art gallery for two hours. Finally we had drinks and some nice ice cream in a nearby ice cream shop before we went to our hotel for the night. The whole two day trip was fun. This is a great opportunity to try to spice up homeschooling. We took lots of photos too.
It’s always fun to experience a different culture.
This is a great idea. You can even adapt the concept for other countries as well. For example, France or Germany. You can cook a meal typical of that country, learn dances, study the vocabulary, play games and have fun. You can even take time to prepare a very challenging math and science lesson about that country in question. Other subjects that can be adapted are history, music, art, geography and bible studies.
Yes, we have done hands-on cultural activities for a lot of countries over the years!
Heya.
We had a French Day held at school last year. We baked French foods in order to begin the day with. One of the other fun activities in question included learning the facts in question about France. I got them in addition to make some brief summary notes.
For a quick snack, we had two baked croissants. At lunch time there were pastries. We located France on a world map. We also did maths in French. I taught spelling in French. They were supposed to read the game instructions on their own in a French accent. We played a lot of fun cool games in French. It was fun.
Sounds like a great France-themed day!