Pakistan 101 for Korean Middle/High School Students

Ms. Jiwon Park (Sinsu Middle School: Grade 9)

I have been working with UNESCO's Cross-Cultural Awareness Programme (CCAP) since 2004. This program was launched in September 1998 by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO in cooperation with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea. CCAP invites foreign residents in Korea to visit Korean schools in order to share the culture of their respective nations with Korean youth.

Foreigners visit elementary and secondary schools with Korean Interpretation Volunteers (KIVs) to share their culture with Korean students. Individuals of any nationality, race, gender and cultural background are welcome to join CCAP as a Cultural Exchange Volunteer (CEV).
CCAP is not designed solely to provide Korean students with knowledge of specific cultures, but rather as a means for sharpening their thoughts and attitudes in favour of cultural diversity and open-mindedness in general.

The instructional method of CCAP is not the traditional lecture style but instead, CEVs are advised to specific examples from their own daily lives, including what they eat, the way they greet and speak, how they play and interact with friends, and what they value in their lives.

CEVs are recommended to utilise activities such as singing, dancing, cooking, sewing, drawing and so on.

Yesterday, I took time out to go to Sinsu Middle School to introduce Pakistan to these 9th grade students. Their teacher came to me and said that usually, students know a country through media and mostly news and she selected Pakistan so that students can make comparison to what they hear/read from the news and what actually a country offers, what are the things that they have missed so far about Pakistan....and would hope to bridge the gap.
After having greetings in Korean and Urdu, I gave an overview of the history (old/new) of Pakistan and its geographical location. Briefly touched on creation of Pakistan and about its founder 'Jinnah'. I also covered briefly the Indus Valley Civilization, Gandhara, Taxila, Silk Road, Mounatin ranges ( famous mountains:K-2), Religions and history of Buddhism, different provinces - ethic groups, their respective food, traditions, languages and cultures (they were surprised to hear this because Korea is a monoetnic country). I also briefed them about the education system in Pakistan, uniforms of the public school for boys and girls was very intriguing for them, major exports, major crops and fruits, festivals and a Pakistani wedding ceremony including "Mehandi/Hinna culture" and its importance in Pakistan.

We learned about Urdu (the national language of Pakistan/ some call it Pakistani) and also practiced "Urdu alphabets" ( I showed them what Korean alphabets sounds we have in Urdu and vice versa) which they learned with great interest and they thought that "written Urdu" is like an art work ( I thought the same about Hangul (Korean language / I used to call it a language with a lot of zeros)! Students simply loved it. I wrote for them their names both in Hangul (Korean) and Urdu and they had a lot of fun with that.....the most interesting feature of Urdu for them was that we write Urdu from right to left. We learned a few Urdu words such as 'shukriya' which in Korean is Khamsa Hamnida, we learned the word father and mother in Urdu which goes like abba (abbu ji) and amma (ammi ji) in Urdu and they were surprised because the exact same words abbu ji and amma for father and mother are used in Korean language respectively. It wowed them!

We tried Pakistani jewellery, clothes , khussay....and girls loved it. I gave churiyan (bangles) to our model students of the day.

I wanted to make for them kebabs but due to some technical problems we switched to lassi (yogurt drink) which fit in our time limit. All students and teachers learned how to prepare lassi and also some variations of it as well as the traditional one with salt - I briefed them about the importance and health benefits of lassi.

We had a small Q&A and handed UNESCO souvenirs to the students.

The lecture composed of a PowerPoint that I prepared which included Photos of Pakistan!

Time allotted was 90 minutes but we extended it to a few more minutes.