Camp teaches children about Korean culture

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As Yoonhee Choi explained how to use Korean musical instruments, such as the handmade harp, her husband, Sangjun Lee, an agriculture, food and resource economics graduate student, taught groups of children ages five to 18 about modern Korean culture.

Choi and Lee are volunteers at the annual Korean Culture Camp of Eastern Michigan, which began Monday at St. Thomas Aquinas School, 915 Alton St.

The camp is a five-day program featuring classes in Korean traditions and culture, including art, music, language and Taekwondo classes. The program is geared toward educating adopted children who have Korean backgrounds, although it is open to all children interested in learning about Korean culture, camp co-coordinator Mitch Segel said.

The camp is in its second year in East Lansing, but has been in Michigan for 21 years.

The volunteer instructors bring the camp diverse perspectives to learn about Korea in creative and child-friendly ways, Segel said.

“The teachers keep coming up with new ideas and new ways they want to reach out to the kids and the campers to give them flavors of Korea,” he said. “(The instructors) have a wide variety of modern language, drumming and Korean games.”

Veteran volunteers like Choi and Lee have taken on various tasks throughout the years.

But this year, the couple became class instructors, both introducing a small part of their unique perspective on Korean tradition.

While the couple present different parts of the culture to the campers, Lee said teaching Korean-American children is a continuous learning experience for him and his wife, who are in the U.S. on visas from Korea.

“Introducing Korean culture all over the U.S. is a very interesting experience,” he said. “Not only (do) we teach (the kids) Korean languages, but we also learn a lot of U.S. culture and the way they educate their kids. We are interacting (with) each other.”

Choi, who also heads a Korean musical instrument class in Detroit, said teaching her culture to children is important.

“That’s my own Korean culture (that) I brought out in the United States,” she said. “It is very meaningful for me.”

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