For this English project, we had the freedom to choose our own topics so each of us picked something that we found really interesting. I loved how we were given so much leeway for this project unlike in our other classes. I would always want to work on it in my free time because it was so interesting and I really enjoyed it. Each of us started exploring different types of topics we liked and we created a list with all kinds of different topic possibilities. Then from the lists we created, we chose our topics. My list was filled with many many things, but what I really wanted to focus my project on something related to South Korea. From there, I researched three compelling topics that I wanted to explore and write about. The first topic I thought of doing was South Korean history and culture, but I ruled this out because I thought it might get boring. The next topic I thought of doing was the rise of K-Pop in South Korea. K-Pop stands for Korean Pop which is a type of music I listen to. When I researched the rise of K-Pop, I found out many things that could work with the multi-genre structure of the project. I ruled K-Pop out because I thought of a topic that I wanted to learn more about than everything else, South Korean food. I love food with a burning passion, like Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other.
My topic combined the South Korean element that I wanted for my project with my love of food so it worked out well. I couldn’t base my project on South Korean food because that was too big of a topic and it would take more time than I was given for the project so I narrowed it down to one type of food, street food. Once I had my topic, I had to create a question that would help explore my topic. The question I made was very simple, it was “what can I learn about South Korean street food”. After I had created my question, I wrote an essay about what I could learn, give an overview of the topic and to give examples of common street food. I learned that street food is ubiquitous, is relatively cheap, contains lots of history, and helps educate us about the culture of South Korea. I also created a poem about a specific type of street food named Dragon Beard Candy. The poem describes what it looks like, what it makes me feel, what it sounds like, the colors, questions it raised and a lot of other things. It was weird writing a poem about a type of food because it felt like I was glorifying the candy and I was writing about it in an abstract way that most poets do so I felt like a genuine poet at the time.
After making the poem, I had to choose three more genres to add to my project. I chose pictures and descriptions to inform the viewers of my project of common street foods and what they are made of because some of them are not like common American foods. Not only did I look at common street foods, I learned how and where they are normally sold. I also chose a couple of youtube videos of people walking around in South Korea and getting street food so that the people who look at my website can get an idea of how street food is sold and made. I made descriptions of the youtube videos as a type of overview of the video so the people who watch would have an idea of what they are about to see. Lastly, the final genre I chose was recipes of the street foods. I included recipes for street foods that were relatively easy to make and culture specific to the South Korean so I didn’t include foods like the french fry corn dog or the potato tornado. I put all my genres and things I learned about my question on my website so that it is easily accessible to those who want to see my project and also because it was a project requirement.
My project wasn’t on something a lot of people choose, it was very specific to me. I started watching South Korean dramas on TV and I became hooked on them. I became very interested in their culture and why they did things the way they did because it’s very different from what Americans do. Their manners, language, customs, were all so different and I wanted to learn why and how they were different. I love learning about other countries and their cultures because I think the United States is boring since we don’t have that much of a history, and whatever history we had came from Great Britain which isn't that exciting. Korea has a long interesting history because it was occupied by all different types of people and even got split into two separate countries. A way I could look into South Korean culture was through their food, more specifically their street food. For some people it’s their way of life, how they support their families and make a living. For others, it is a snack option before going places for entertainment or because they are running late and didn’t have time to eat. It includes traditional foods with history behind them and also modern foods that you would see in other countries.
This topic was challenging to write about but I loved learning about it so I embraced the challenge. Choosing three genres of my own was no problem, but the research was a lot to do and very time consuming. I had to cite every single place that I got my information from and that was a hassle. I also had a hard time in the beginning finding a topic. I had to keep narrowing down things about South Korea that I wanted to do my project on and that took a long time and was pretty hard. I thought I could do the project on all South Korean foods because I want to research all of it but I had to narrow it down to street food. And even when I narrowed it down to street food, there are so many common street foods that I wanted to write about that it was hard to set a limit on how many different types of street foods I could write about given the amount of time I had for this project. Another thing that was hard was transferring all my research to my website. Creating the website wasn’t hard but there are a lot of limitations in the format and colors that made me frustrated. In all, the challenge was worth it and my project turned out very well.
My topic combined the South Korean element that I wanted for my project with my love of food so it worked out well. I couldn’t base my project on South Korean food because that was too big of a topic and it would take more time than I was given for the project so I narrowed it down to one type of food, street food. Once I had my topic, I had to create a question that would help explore my topic. The question I made was very simple, it was “what can I learn about South Korean street food”. After I had created my question, I wrote an essay about what I could learn, give an overview of the topic and to give examples of common street food. I learned that street food is ubiquitous, is relatively cheap, contains lots of history, and helps educate us about the culture of South Korea. I also created a poem about a specific type of street food named Dragon Beard Candy. The poem describes what it looks like, what it makes me feel, what it sounds like, the colors, questions it raised and a lot of other things. It was weird writing a poem about a type of food because it felt like I was glorifying the candy and I was writing about it in an abstract way that most poets do so I felt like a genuine poet at the time.
After making the poem, I had to choose three more genres to add to my project. I chose pictures and descriptions to inform the viewers of my project of common street foods and what they are made of because some of them are not like common American foods. Not only did I look at common street foods, I learned how and where they are normally sold. I also chose a couple of youtube videos of people walking around in South Korea and getting street food so that the people who look at my website can get an idea of how street food is sold and made. I made descriptions of the youtube videos as a type of overview of the video so the people who watch would have an idea of what they are about to see. Lastly, the final genre I chose was recipes of the street foods. I included recipes for street foods that were relatively easy to make and culture specific to the South Korean so I didn’t include foods like the french fry corn dog or the potato tornado. I put all my genres and things I learned about my question on my website so that it is easily accessible to those who want to see my project and also because it was a project requirement.
My project wasn’t on something a lot of people choose, it was very specific to me. I started watching South Korean dramas on TV and I became hooked on them. I became very interested in their culture and why they did things the way they did because it’s very different from what Americans do. Their manners, language, customs, were all so different and I wanted to learn why and how they were different. I love learning about other countries and their cultures because I think the United States is boring since we don’t have that much of a history, and whatever history we had came from Great Britain which isn't that exciting. Korea has a long interesting history because it was occupied by all different types of people and even got split into two separate countries. A way I could look into South Korean culture was through their food, more specifically their street food. For some people it’s their way of life, how they support their families and make a living. For others, it is a snack option before going places for entertainment or because they are running late and didn’t have time to eat. It includes traditional foods with history behind them and also modern foods that you would see in other countries.
This topic was challenging to write about but I loved learning about it so I embraced the challenge. Choosing three genres of my own was no problem, but the research was a lot to do and very time consuming. I had to cite every single place that I got my information from and that was a hassle. I also had a hard time in the beginning finding a topic. I had to keep narrowing down things about South Korea that I wanted to do my project on and that took a long time and was pretty hard. I thought I could do the project on all South Korean foods because I want to research all of it but I had to narrow it down to street food. And even when I narrowed it down to street food, there are so many common street foods that I wanted to write about that it was hard to set a limit on how many different types of street foods I could write about given the amount of time I had for this project. Another thing that was hard was transferring all my research to my website. Creating the website wasn’t hard but there are a lot of limitations in the format and colors that made me frustrated. In all, the challenge was worth it and my project turned out very well.