In the afternoon on August 26th (Sat.), with a theme of “Won’t you try Korean culture?” the second international understanding course this year was held in the big meeting room of the Chigasaki Center for Promotion of Gender Equality by the Chigasaki City Gender Equality Promotion Department and joint sponsorship. The lecturer was Lee Jung-hee, a Fujisawa-resident member of this organization, who is a lecturer for the youth international understanding courses for junior high schools, and in July lead an event through the kids event group at Tsurumine Community Center.
With the fierce heat day after day, Lee was worried about the number of participants, but 42 people took part– including 18 members of this organization and many women. The course started with an explanation on the differences between Japanese and Korean cultures, and in learning how to write their names in Hangul, was flooding with people hoping to come up and have their name written on the whiteboard.
For the intermission, participants enjoyed yuzu tea, yucca, and caramel Japanese squash.
After that, it got more exciting with a discussion on the cultural differences on children’s games like ohajiki and otedama, with the best part being with 10-odd men and women raising their hands to try on the lecturer’s collection of hanbo (Korean clothing). As it was a big success, with participants also including men, it seemed participants were able to get an ample experience of Korean culture.
Furthermore, while from this year there is a call for international understanding course lecturers to foreign citizen members, this was a course that allowed participants to really get a feel for and feel close to its topics.
Written by: T.S. ＆ Zachary Hillenbrand
Photos by: T.I.
