Korean and Japanese Youth: "Uniting Through K-POP Dance Beyond the Language Barrier"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jeong Jun-seong] At the 1st National Korean Language Speech Contest for Japanese High School Students, titled ‘A Future Opened Through the Korean Language,’ held in Tokyo, Japan, a joint K-POP dance was performed as a celebratory show, greatly broadening the scope of international exchange and cooperation between Korean and Japanese youth.

According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education on the 9th, this event was part of the Ministry of Education’s ‘Project for Revitalizing International Exchange Based on Korean Language Education,’ and was a cooperative project carried out with the ‘Saitama Korean Education Center,’ one of three Korean education centers linked to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education. On July 1, the Provincial Office of Education dispatched one local public official to the Saitama Korean Education Center, establishing a permanent cooperative framework.

Held at the Shinjuku Campus of Mejiro University in Tokyo, the contest was hosted by the Council of Directors of Korean Education Centers in Japan and organized by the Saitama Korean Education Center. Local non-Korean high school students, participating as representatives of 15 Korean education centers in Japan, took part.

The highlight of the day was a solo stage by 10 students from ‘Wannabe,’ the dance club of Gyeonggi Province’s Samil High School, and a joint K-POP performance with 18 students from the dance club of Saitama Prefectural Soka Nishi High School.

Since July, students from both countries selected the music for their joint performance (aespa’s 'Armageddon') and practiced by discussing their choreography and sequence online in advance. The day before the performance, they completed a final check through an in-person rehearsal on site, successfully bringing the joint performance stage to completion.

The Provincial Office of Education plans to cooperate with the Saitama Korean Education Center so that this exchange does not remain a one-time event. Starting in the second half of the year, it plans to connect local schools that have adopted Korean as a second foreign language with schools in Gyeonggi Province, supporting continuous international exchange and cooperation activities and enhancing the global capabilities of the Gyeonggi education community.

An official from the Provincial Office of Education stated, “We will continue to discover content with high demand among local students, such as K-POP dance, and diversify our international exchange and cooperation programs,” adding, “We will actively strive to help young people communicate and cooperate across national boundaries and grow into independent leaders.”