College students make mobile app for kids’ multicultural education

Korea University students have released a mobile application for multicultural education for children, the school said Monday.

A student group named “Dawoolim,” which means harmony among a variety of people, made the application introducing the Japanese holiday Setsubun, a day before the start of spring on the Japanese lunar calendar.

“We made the application so that children can learn about other cultures easily with smartphones. I hope they will feel closer to different cultures and be rid of prejudices against them,” said Choi Won-jin, a member of the group.

The application is available on Android market and costs 1,000 won ($0.80).

The group will also release a series of other apps introducing the Chinese New Year and Korea’s Daeboreum, the day of first full moon of the year, they said.

The applications consist of brief explanation about a holiday and games that children can play to experience the holiday’s traditional rituals.

Children can experience some traditionally performed rituals on Setsubun as the application guides them to visit shrines and throw beans to chase away evil spirits at the start of spring.

The group plans to donate some proceeds from sales of the application to organizations supporting multicultural families in Korea and make books and videos for multicultural education and distribute them to schools, they said.

They have also made another mobile application that tells a story about a girl from Mongolia settling in Korea, titled “A girl from Mongolia, Anodari.”

By Lee Woo-young
(wylee@heraldcorp.com)