Teaching Korean music, culture abroad

Lim Jung-min, center, a member of Korea Arirang Yurangdan (KAYU) teaches how to play danso, the nation’s traditional vertical bamboo flute, to students at Cahuenga Elementary School in Los Angeles, Calif., June 19 last year. The event was part of KAYU’s 117-day trip around the world to promote Korean culture and history using Korea’s famous traditional folksong, Arirang. / Courtesy of Korea Arirang Yurangdan

Arirang Yurangdan strives to bridge cultural boundaries

By Bahk Eun-ji

Members of Korea Arirang Yurangdan (KAYU), a group of young volunteers, are teaching people around the world how to play the nation’s traditional musical instruments, practice calligraphy and understand other elements of Korean culture.

“We brought 30 danso, a traditional woodwind instrument, and 200 sheets of traditional paper to teach foreigners how to play it and how to write calligraphy. Teaching is the best way to help them understand Korean culture, we believe,” Moon said.

On March 1, 2013, KAYU embarked on a trip around the world with the goal of teaching Korean culture as well as the nation’s history using the famous traditional folk song, Arirang.

They visited primary schools in various countries to interact with young people as part of their mission. Their activities included singing Arirang, playing traditional musical instruments, teaching the pupils how to sing and play the instruments and write Hanguel, or the Korean alphabet.

KAYU’s leader Moon Hyun-woo, 28, describes his group as “Walking Korea,” spreading Korean culture across the globe.

KAYU’s members seek to use their skills and performances to expose their audiences to the country’s rich culture and traditions. The group’s members are Moon; Shin Yu-jin, majoring pansori, or Korean traditional narrative song, at Seoul National University (SNU); Lim Jung-min, playing daegeum, a Korean traditional woodwind instrument, also from SNU; Kim Dong-guk, playing janggu, a double-barreled drum; Park Joon-young, a student of the media studies department at Dongeui University; and Lee Jung-hwa, studying Korean calligraphy at Kyonggi University.

Students play a traditional Korean drum during a class offered by Korea Arirang Yurangdan (KAYU) at Democracy Prep Charter School in New York City, June 14, 2013. KAYU members visited different countries to interact with students and other people through cultural experiences during their 117-day trip worldwide last year. / Courtesy of Arirang Yurangdan

“Whatever we are doing and showing to people, we want them to get the impression that it is just Korean culture itself. We believe teaching is the best way to make foreigners become interested in our culture,” Moon said.

Moon will graduate from the College of Tourism at Kyonggi University, located in Seoul, this month. Moon’s major in tourism has been the driving force behind his passion for engaging in people-to-people diplomacy.

“One day I gathered my classmates to hold a special event for Aug. 15 National Liberation Day. My friends and I wore different types of traditional costumes and marched down the streets of Insa-dong, downtown Seoul,” Moon said.

“We attracted attention from so many foreigners as well as Koreans on the day. Wearing traditional costumes and walking down the street with friends is not very difficult work for us, but I realized that doing this makes me feel excited,” he emphasized.

This experience motivated him to initiate KAYU, after scouting around for people interested in his project.

“I wanted to make a performance team who can travel abroad with me to let people in the world know about Koreans and our culture. Although I didn’t have a concrete plan yet then, I wanted to form some kind of unique musical band,” Moon said.

He then called a handful of local universities to request for volunteers who could teach Korean traditional music overseas.

“Of course everyone who picked up the phone call at the universities thought of me as a total stranger, because my plan and my passion are the only things I had at that time. Thankfully, a teaching assistant of Korean music at SNU sympathized with my purpose of spreading and exchanging Korean culture. Then he recommended a few guys who could play some traditional instruments and sing pansori,” he said.

This marked the birth of the group and how it subsequently began a 117-day journey overseas from March 10 in 2013.

They performed and engaged in activities in Spain, Germany, Holland, Brazil, India, Jordan, Egypt, and Hong Kong.

“Many people asked us, ‘Why promote Arirang?’ I said it’s easy to learn because the song is the most popular traditional song that every Korean has heard often and sung at least once in their lifetime,” Moon explained.

Music, for him is a unique language in its own right. He initially had no plans of offering lessons as part of the group’s activities. But the group soon came to realize that there has to be more than just singing and playing instruments, he added.

“Yes, people can be impressed by our performances because they are something exotic and something they have never seen. But such performances are not what we think ‘interactive communication’ is. So we decided to do something more.”

They therefore incorporated the teaching lessons into their activities in a bid to enhance the experience of communicating with the people they interact with.

KAYU’s activity is categorized into two parts ― Arirang Concert, and Arirang School.

During the concert, Shin sings pansori, Lim plays daeguem, and Kim plays janggu. The concert serves as a platform to let people know what Korean traditional music is, and how it shows.

“K-pop is already popular in the world and I was sure there are some people who are interested in our culture. The melody of Arirang is simple so I thought foreigners can easily learn it,” Moon said.

He also credits his motivation for an important childhood experience when his family lived in Malaysia for three years from 1997. His parents run a business there.

“I was just a little boy but missed my friends and life in Korea so hard at that time. One day, I heard that the Korean soccer team came to Malaysia to play a match, so I went to the stadium to cheer them,” Moon said.

“Although many Koreans living in Malaysia came to the stadium, there were no songs or chanting. Guess what happened? Everyone started to sing Arirang in one voice,” he said. That is how Arirang became a special song for him.

“We didn’t want to say, ‘Arirang is the best song ever’ to people. We wanted to know whether we really can communicate with people in the world through the song. Because you know, Arirang has existed through the generations as the people’s song and is very closely related to the daily life of Koreans,” Moon said.

“We had one of the most impressive memories at a school in India.”

“We saw a man shed tears after listening to Arirang. I was wondering what moved him so much. I just thought that he had probably never heard the song before,” Moon said.

The man was apparently reminded of his late younger brother by the song. According to Moon, he became very eager to learn Arirang and to play danso.

Moon said that he and his colleagues realized that people can share their feelings and experiences through culture despite differences in nationality.

“Some people say that ‘I am lucky.’ Probably they are right, but I just gathered my courage to put my ideas into action,” Moon said.

He now plans to organize another project dubbed “Arirang Universe” this year.

“We plan to go to universities located in the eastern regions in the U.S. to meet students. We want to share ideas and cultural experiences with the young people through teaching the classes as well,” said Moon.