Woongjin offers multicultural stories via radio, Internet

By Ines Min

The Woongjin Foundation is providing traditional tales from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand and Japan for foreign residents living in Korea on the radio, all day long.

The new program is designed to support multicultural families as they overcome barriers in their daily lives since it is provided in six languages.

Additionally, a special online feature offers animated versions of each folk tale in both their native tongue and Korean, while cable broadcasts will also air.

There were more than 103,000 children of multicultural families by the end of last year, according to a survey by the Seoul Global Center. Of these, 25 percent are struggling with defining their cultural identity and tackle difficulties in normal language development.

“My Mom’s Fairy Tales” seeks to find understanding and acceptance of another person’s traditions through the well-adapted, time-worn method: storytelling.

Each tale, which runs from five to seven minutes long, was chosen for the lessons it teaches, the universality of the theme and its distinguishing characteristics.

A CD containing the diverse shows will be made and distributed to more than 100 multicultural centers across the country.

Afterwards, it will be sent to overseas locations through the U.N.’s “Save the Children” program.

The Japanese portion of the animation has been on air since November and the remaining countries’ folk tales will be on air beginning this month.

The Woongjin Foundation currently has eight foreign language radio channels, in addition to the special folk tale programs.

The broadcast of fairy tales can be seen on TV at IPTC, CATV and Skylife. For more information, visit www.wjf.kr.