Hallyu in Toronto - Toronto All TV project in Korean documentary "feel"

Toronto : the largest city in Canada. It's the city that holds a world class film festival and hundreds of other art performances throughout the year. It's the city of multiculturalism where almost the half of the population is born outside Canada. Toronto means a 'meeting place,' and as its meaning suggests, Hallyu is meeting new people every day. In various areas of Toronto, Korea is becoming popular. Canadians who had no knowledge of Korea have now become huge fans. What makes Hallyu so popular? How far could it go? Toronto City Hall K-pop fans have gathered It was because of a flash mob protest asking SM Town to come to Toronto, after they held a concert in Paris. The K-pop fans sing in fluent Korean and dance following K-pop songs. K-pop artists have captivated their hearts. The Korean Wave is making strong splashes in Canada. 8 months later, on March 2012, K-pop stars visited Toronto. as if they heard the flash mob protest They were invited as Canadian Music Week guest performers, relieving the K-pop fans' thirst. What's so unique about K-pop? What attracts K-pop fans? K-pop is shaking the Canadian music market where American pop prevails. Simon and Martina were English teachers at Korean educational institute in Toronto. like can we need to articulate hand-painted you do your duty and in They are now living in Korea and runs the website called 'Eat Your Kimchi' promoting Korean culture. Their influence is huge and worldwide as they have more than 190,000 subscribers on Youtube and thousands of website visitors daily. They are special ambassadors of Korean culture. We asked them how they think about Hallyu, especially the impacts of K-pop sos periods that tree in korea K-pop is being spread over Toronto. Through SNSD, Wonder Girls and many other artists, K-pop has been gradually exposed in North America. Now K-pop has become one of the music genres. Last November, K-pop fans gathered at the Korean cultural centre in Toronto because of 'Korean Wave,' hosted by KCCA and Korean Tourism Organization Although there were Taekwondo and Korean traditional music performances K-pop contest was the main event. 7 finalists (out of 70 competitors), who were selected through youtube auditions showcased their talents through singing and dancing. Hallyu should always go with the 'fun' The last year we had Korean costume show and traditional music performances taekwondo and fan dances For this year, we have K-pop We thought about the way to promote Korean wave We needed some special catalyst. We targeted the young generation who are our future Korean Wave leaders In that respect, we invited the college students in Toronto ..to have a Hallyu / K-pop total event That is 'Super Wave Korea' The Hallyu clubs in colleges are the ones who play the main role in spreading Hallyu. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot for supporting me. I am learning Korean from university. I need to improve more. This year in January, the Toronto Korean consulate held 'Hallyu Lovers Night' in order to thank K-pop fans and share ideas and concerns. Even though a lot of them met for the first time, they got closer easily as they talked about Korea and shared Korean dishes They are truly the ambassadors of Korean Wave York University is located in northern part of Toronto. Here, the interest for Korean culture has grown up largely due to Korean Wave. For example, the number of Korean class is increasing rapidly. People didn't know about Korean culture or even where Korea was located. But since 5 years ago, due to Korean Wave, little by little students began to have interests in Korean drama and K-pop And interests about Korea as a nation also began to increase Along with it, the Korean language was receiving lots of attention too. Especially the beginner's course was crowded with new comers and they already had some sense of Korean culture I was surprised by that They knew some words and phrases from Korea drama They were the fans of K-pop, basically. And they knew more about K-pop than Korean students did. I realized how passionate they are about Korea. Surely I could say it was the wave of Korea. Nicole is taking Korean classes This album is Daesung (from Big ***) focused Nicole began to like Korean through K-pop. She has high interest in learning Korean; she won the Korean speech contest two years in a row Hi, my name is Nicole. I study English Literature and I started learning Korean as well 3 years ago I began to listen to K-pop and ever since then I became a huge fan of K-pop. I met this Korean friend and wanted to have conversation in Korean. That's why I started learning Korean Nicole was a huge fan of K-pop She knew almost all K-pop dances She was actually teaching K-pop dances to her friends (even Korean friends too) She self-taught the intermediate Korean class and took the high level Korean class a year later I did my hair like that of fei in fact. I want to visit Busan and Jeju Island. With my friends, I want to go to concerts and Noraebang in Korea. If I were to stay in Korean longer, I would like to teach English. When you learn Korea, you naturally learn Korean culture as well. These always go together. When students learn Korean grammar or idioms, they ask me why this is so?' which is totally unexpected question that truly shows their high interest and they go home and research on their own having more questions when they come back to class. I can say that the students are not merely dancing and singing K-pop or watching Korean drama but they are enthusiastic about Korean nation itself. I want to have more Korean friends and talk in Korean with them. i mean she was ready on I want to become really fluent in Korean because I want to go to Korea Korean Wave is influencing colleges and universities in Toronto People like Nicole are increasing in number and the name value of Korea is becoming larger If the demand keeps increasing, Korean class will be no longer just a language class. It will rather be about histroy society and culture as well as a 'Korean Study'... as one of the major studies in universities. Hallyu is knocking on high schools and even on elementary schools. NEKS which consists of Korean teachers, was created in order to help new Korean immigrant family. However, due to high influence of Hallyu, their work has extended to non-Koreans, and they play an important role introducing Korean culture. Students from different ethnicity and age are dancing K-pop dances. The main performers for the event promoting Korean culture were non-Koreans. I made a K-pop club in the school I teach. At Hartman Public School. There were about 10 students when the club started. And as I made announcements in the morning about the club, more students began to have interests in K-pop. Later, not only students in my class, but many others who heard through their friends the senior students they began to join the club and later The dance teacher in my school had great interest in the club. and she began to teach K-pop to younger students And now when we perform, we have about 90 members The numbers are increasing. Last year in Christmas season, we performed as a group. And when there was a multiculturalism event There were many cultural performances, encouraging students to respect cultural differences And K-pop became the one representing Korea Students who had no knowledge about Korean culture began to know about K-pop and Korea through the club. I am very proud of it. K-pop has become an icon representing Korean culture. Indeed, new immigrants from Korea make friends in school talking about K-pop. Also they find their identity as Korean proudly introducing K-pop to Canadians. It is important to share traditional culture, but through sharing contemporary culture we can introduce Korea more easily. And not only Korean culture, as Canada is mosaique of cultures. Students can find their identity and the others' at the same time through sharing their cultures to one another. And K-pop stands for Korea Korean students would feel more responsible when K-pop is being introduced because it is from their motherland. So K-pop plays a major role defining their identity. It is true that Korean culture is still minority in Toronto But it's not too heterogeneous. that makes you back off..It's not like that. It's different... from that of Japanese although they look similar Korean culture has its own attractiveness. It's different from Chinese culture It's got its own... uniqueness. On the second day of June, there was DANO spring festival in Korea town. There were performances of taekwondo, North Korean dances, Korean traditional instruments, Korean wrestling championship and Hanbok fashion show at the festival. Unlike the last year, however, this year there was a K-pop cover dance competition. (In total 33 teams auditioned through youtube. They were from all over Canada (not only from Toronto, but from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal) Some of them even flew to Toronto to participate in the event showing their passion Addictive melodies in chorus and easy-to-follow dance moves are the biggest merits that K-pop has which make the fans move and dance. The finalists passionately danced on the stage. Even though they might have not fully understood the meaning of the lyrics that did not matter at all when they were dancing. Among them, the team 'Mixed Seouls,' which consisted of 7 college students, each with different ethnical background, was outstanding. . They were from Asia, North and South America, Middle East and Europe. They received praises from the judges, as they showed not only dance skills but also unity. Their unity seemed to be representing the characteristic of Toronto where different cultures mingle together it showed that K-pop has potential to go all over the world K-pop is making people excited. K-pop community is being formed by the fan groups in high schools and universities in Toronto. They have regular meetings and fervently participate in Korean cultural events and concerts. However, as interests for Hallyu grow, so do concerns According to Statistics Canada, last year's influx of Korean immigrants and students decreased about 20% compared to the year before. This is not even the half of what it was used to be 10 years ago. . On the other hand, the total number of new immigrants in Canada is rapidly increasing year after another. If this trend continues, the second and third Korean generation will be the ones representing the Korean community, although right now it is the first generation who is doing it. In that regard, Hallyu, K-pop as the front runner, would probably become a medium that can connect Korea and Canada in many ways. It is because many second and third generations are proud of being a Korean and want to promote Korea, as Hallyu is being acknowledged and favoured of these days. Now the brand of Korea is highly deemed. Korean products, K-pop, Korean drama and when I introduce myself as Korean, people no longer consider me as some stranger in Canada Hallyu has long-term effects. It opens the door for Korean culture In that respect, we have lots of long term goals to increase the number of Hallyu fans. Each foreign K-pop fan is a precious treasure of Korea, who will lead the new Korean wave in the near future. They can reach other cultures where Koreans cannot easily reach. That is why the Korean government and Korean communities should have more interest in what excites them and what disappoints them. They should listen to what they say and support them in many ways. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Korea-Canada diplomatic ties. As we plan for the next 50 years ahead, Hallyu is suggesting a new way of cultural exchange and diplomacy between the two nations. Canada is a multicultural, multi-ethnic country. There are many Asians too. The access to Korean culture is easier because of that reason. So we will do our best to combine the traditional culture with Hallyu to promote 'Korea'