When the sounds of a choir comprising 33 kids from diverse ethnic backgrounds filled the halls of the National Assembly last week, 27-year-old mother Mun Valeriya was drawing another picture in her head. "I dreamed of having my own three-year-old child Hanna take part in the choir in the near future," she said.
The singing of the Rainbow Korea Chorus was part of an event held at the Assembly last Wednesday to draw attention to increasing multiculturalism in Korean society.
The chorus, affiliated with a corporation aggregate called the Center for Multicultural Korea, is the first of its kind, which is an indication that multicultural families are currently receiving growing attention here.
As part of the effort, a ruling Grand National Party lawmaker Chin Young is most likely to submit a bill proposing a basic law on nurturing multiculturalism sometime this week.
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Center for Multiculturalism
Cha Bong-kwon, Chun So-hee and Kim Eun-joo represent a new generation of Koreans. The youthful students, eagerly awaiting the start of their freshman year at Dongguk University next month, are like any other Korean teens their age.
Cha is set to embark on an undergraduate program in electro-mechanical engineering. Kim is working part-time and preparing to study philosophy, culture and ethics. And Chun has her sights set on international commerce.
What sets these three apart from thousands of other recent high school graduates is that they come from multicultural homes, and are about to become the first from that background to help multicultural elementary school students in one of a growing number of mentoring programs.
Chun and Kim were born to Korean fathers and Japanese mothers, while Cha was born to a Korean father and a Filipino mother. The online mentoring program in which the three will participate is run by the Center for Multicultural Korea (CMCK).
First Steps but a journey of a thousand miles begins with ‘first steps’.
Multicultural Kids hit Langauge Wall
Hong Ju-min, 7, the child of a Korean father and Filipino mother, took a vocabulary examination at a Multicultural Family Support Center in Ansan, Gyeonggi after attending an entrance ceremony at an elementary school on Tuesday. The results were not pretty.
Nearly four out of 10 multicultural children raised mostly by women from Northeast and Southeast Asia and Korean men suffer language barriers by the time they reach elementary school. By the time multicultural children reach the age of 6, only 32.8 percent were in the normal range. This compares to the 81.4 percent of 2-year-olds who were in that range. Language experts said it’s crucial that multicultural children do their best to obtain a language development level equal to their peers born from Korean parents before they enter elementary school.
These are the kinds of issues that Korea must face and deal with after they had invited Foreign workers then Foreign brides it was only a matter of time…The KWB needs to connect with this group of children, teach them some “rock in a sock” techniques…hmmm?
These are issues that pertain to Korean society’s SLOOOOWLY changing attitudes toward “Globalization” and a rejection of the Homogenous “WE are one Blood” false claims that are now only history.
With over 100,000 documented children of 164,000 Multicultural and MultiEthnic families, and One Million Foreign residents living in the Land of the Morning Calm, Korea must accept the Facts that they are becoming a nation with HonHyulAh, mixed-blood citizens.
And THIS MultiEthnic person SMILES…Welcome to the World, hopefully you will embrace them as Korean citizens. There is hope for his mother’s people as they move forward.
Dogmeat soup, called BoShinTang restaurants have steadily lost customers as in the 1990’s more and more Koreans began to keep pets, which led them to reject Eating them. But 20,000 restaurants continue to beat and eat, “for their health”.
In the Law it is “illegal” but it simply states that no English signs are allowed and no regulations exists for safety standards on consumption of Kae Go Gi (dog meat). For if laws were made to regulate safety, then it would be ‘legal’ to consume. Loopholes everywhere…
Yet, like many other things in life, it takes time to bring CHANGE. Some say it is only a certain breed of dogs that are used, but you can see many breeds of stolen or abandoned pets in the cages. The dog markets still stand to this day. The KWB understand “traditions” but refuses to accept the cruel treatment, overcrowded cages, and inhuman method of slaughter.
In another generation the owners of pets may abolish this traditional food, that is done with cruelty that now Korean PET OWNERS cannot condone. As the children grow up into adults it is they who may stop the practice.
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