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Introduction

We often see that idols (K-pop celebrities) that are not known in Korea are popular abroad (Yoo, 2022), or that foreigners are smitten with Korean things that even Koreans are not familiar with. I personally learned a grammar rule of the Korean language from a foreign member of the BTS ARMY while teaching Korean to the person. The explosive interest in Korea outside of Korea has reached a point where ordinary Koreans cannot track them all. Korean movies and dramas are winning the world's most prestigious awards. The interest of people around the world is expanding to the entire Korean culture in addition to K-pop, K-dramas, and K-movies (BBC, 2020). It is impossible to confirm the extent of the world's interest in Korea precisely. What is clear is that it is outside the range of what many Koreans expect. If so, instead of trying to assess things out of scope, we can take other approaches.

There is a proverb in Korea that says, "A habit formed at age three lasts until age 80" (the Korean Language Center, 2022). I started to think about teaching Korean culture from an early age. Preschoolers cannot enjoy K-pop or K-dramas. However, what about Korean fairy tales that children can access easily across the world? Traditional Korean fairy tales not only mirror Korea's unique spirit and culture completely. They are also rich in lessons based on the clear structure of good triumphs over evil. In addition, there are similar stories in Western children's literature. In a Korean language class at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN), I asked students about this topic and discussed it.

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During the lecture in 2014, I showed my CSN students the cartoon of "Kongjwi (Bean girl) and Patjwi (Red Bean Gril)" (Seed Reading, 2013), produced in Korea for Koreans, without any prior explanation about the story. It had no Korean subtitles, let alone English subtitles. Everyone was focused while watching the cartoon. Some took notes while the story progressed. As soon as the screening was over, I asked the students if they enjoyed it. They all said that it was intriguing. They followed hardly any Korean lines as they had just begun to learn the language. Yet they said that they could follow the plot from the images of the cartoon. So, I asked them to narrate the plot they conjectured while they could pick up only very basic Korean phrases such as "eomeoni (mother)," "abeoji (father)," and "gamsahamnida (Thank you). They structured their narrative as follows: "The female protagonist was unfairly subjected to various kinds of labor by the person she called mother. She lost a shoe. A man of high status picked it up and found the female protagonist." That was what they figured out only by looking at images when they were able to grasp hardly any Korean dialogues. Next, I asked them if they found any similarities with world children's literature in terms of the plot. One of the students answered, "Cinderella." I asked why. The answer was, "I think I could figure out what was happening just from the images and I found the plot similar to that of Cinderella." Then, I asked the student to elaborate on the sequence of events that he found similar in the two different stories. The student said, "I found the Korean fairy tale and Cinderella parallel, not only in the structure of the stories, but also in the characters they feature, such as a bad mother and a mistreated daughter, animals helping the poor daughter, and a powerful man who appears at the end." I asked what other students thought. While they all agreed to the overall analysis of the cartoon, some differences between the two fairy tales were raised, too: "It intrigued me that different animals appeared in the two stories. Cinderella features mice and lizards as opposed to a toad and birds in the Korean fairy tale. Grains were different, too. I thought that these differences stemmed from the differences between East and West." "I saw difference in clothing and the type of housework," said another student. "The male protagonist did not look like a prince. Was he a ruler of the town, like a mayor?" asked yet another student. The discussion went on and on.

The screening of the "Kongjwi and Patjwi" cartoon became an opportunity to talk about what was going on during the Joseon Dynasty in the areas of clothing, tools, livestock used for farm work, geography, and the social structure. It even led to a discussion about the serfdom in Europe and the hierarchical class system of the Joseon Dynasty. American college students of the Korean language said that through "Kongjwi and Patjwi," they learned not only cultural differences between East and West, but they also gained social and geographical knowledge of Korea, feeling much closer to Korea based on the acknowledgement that the way people live is similar across the world. The cartoon of "Kongjwi and Patjwi" that lasts less than 10 minutes led to a discussion that lasted throughout the 90-minute lecture. After that, we held classes where the cartoons of Korean fairy tales were screened and discussed about every three weeks throughout the semester.

"Cinderella" is one of the most widely distributed fairy tales in the world. It is truly world literature. The core theme of the story is "Good triumphs over evil," the fundamental human morality. Rooth (1951), Pace (1982), Ashilman (1987), Heiner (2012), Cox (1892), etc. have already presented the structural analysis of Cinderella in English-speaking countries while Rooth (1951), Dundes (1982), Anderson (2000), et al. have studied the historical-geographical analysis of the story. Research has revealed that other types of analysis have been actively promoted as well. Among domestic research papers, the 2016 paper by Dr. Jajawa (Ja, 2016, p.134) found the following map, which features a cow and agricultural societies that appear in both "Cinderella" and "Kongjwi and Patjwi."

Dr. Jajawa (2016) also charted key elements common to the tales of "Cinderella" in the West (Ja, 2016, p.24). He set the unhappy (female) protagonist, the helper, the lost shoe, the shoe test, and the happy marriage as the five common key elements of "Cinderella" and "Kongjwi and Patjwi." [Table 1] in the paper shows that the five key elements are central to the "Cinderella" tales around the world.

[Table 1] Basic elements of the "Cinderella" type fairy tale

Type	Basic elements
	Unhappy (female) protagonist	Helper	Lost shoe	Shoe test	Happy marriage
(Cox) Type A	O	O	O	O	O
(Rooth) Type B	O	O	O	O	O
(Rooth) Type AB	O	O	O	O	O
Heiner's "Cinderella"	O	O	O/X	O/X	O

After reviewing my personal experiences and various books and papers, I began to seriously think about new teaching methods for the Korean language. The starting point was my discussion with American college students who knew little Korean after they watched a Korean-only fairy tale cartoon. From that time on, I asked myself the following question, "How can children around the world learn about Korea while enjoying Korean fairy tales?" "Good triumphs over evil" is the undisputable narrative of "Kongjwi and Patjwi." Kongjwi, the main character, who leads the story. Kongjwi's shoe plays an important role. She loses a shoe on the way to a feast in her maternal grandparents' house. The newly appointed county magistrate picks up the shoe and sets out to find its owner. In the end, he finds the show owner and marries her. She is buried in a pond because of her half-sister's jealousy. In line with the structure "Good triumphs over evil," the story ends with a happy story in which the main character Kongjwi, who never gave up, survives and leads a happy life. Considering the similarities of "Kongjwi and Patjwi" and "Cinderella," we have to prepare ourselves to introduce "Kongjwi and Patjwi" to children all over the world from the following angles:

1. Changes in family structures: The traditional family structure is changing. The replacement of traditional families by single-person households, single-parent families, and children living with a grandparent is a global phenomenon. Patjwi's appearance to Kongjwi enables us to naturally approach the contexts and circumstances of new family structures. The traditional Korean fairy tale actually mirrors a family reconstructed in modern times. However, referring to Patjwi and Kongjwi's step mother, it is necessary to explain and emphasize the need for harmony in a reconstructed family.

2. Amazing encyclopedia: "Kongjwi & Patjwi" features a toad, a sparrow, and a bull. Geographical explanations can be given as to why Korea has bulls instead of buffalos and how the Korean water toad differs from the American toad. Referring to different varieties of grains grown in Korea, we can introduce traditional Korean farming techniques and how grains were handled by Koreans. We can also remind them that Korea has four distinct seasons. With the story of "Kongjwi and Patjwi," we can deal with encyclopedic knowledge about world geography, biology, science, culture and much more.

3. A fairy weaving hemp cloth: Fairy tales can evolve into a genre: A Korean version of a fairy with wings that are made of cloth. The reasons Koreans are good at weaving hemp cloth. Stories of fairies appearing in other fairy tales. These can be put together for the creation of a separate genre.

K-pop and K-dramas cannot represent all of Korea's culture and history. However, it is necessary to carefully consider that K-pop and K-dramas were the triggers that made Korea look attractive to the general public around the world. So, it is obvious that producers must pay more attention to the historical truth of their dramas and that the entertainment industry and academia must join forces to achieve the goal. We must bear in mind the possibility that K-culture may fall to the precipice of distortion if the entertainment industry only pursues profits according to the logic of capital and neglects the verification of historical claims while the academia is indifferent to such a situation. Korea has already suffered confusion over its attempt at some fusion historical dramas. One of my students who were learning Korean at CSN was enthralled by the Korean fusion historical drama "Jang Ok-jung, Living by Love" (Choi, 2013). The student asked me if a fashion designer could have become a queen at that time. With the question, the lecture that day had to focus entirely on fusion historical dramas of Korea including the kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty and Jang Hui-bin (the personal name of Jang Ok-jung) in particular. It turned out that a lecture like this was absolutely necessary. The student's love for Jang Hui-bin led her to a visit to the royal concubine's tomb in Korea.

Everyone knows that it is important to promote Korean culture widely in English and other foreign languages in order to avoid such confusion over historical facts. We need to take a step further. It is a pity that our international efforts end with the translation of Korean culture into English.

Conclusion

Full of Koreans' perspectives on an array of things, Korean fairy tales are instrumental in having foreigners understand and like Korea. Due to the nature of the genre, fairy tales can easily reach children all over the world. I believe that traditional fairy tales are the summation of Korean culture as they are full of Korean history, culture, humor and emotions. In terms of characters, major events, and plots, Korean fairy tales have similarities with other countries' children's literature. The similarities ensure that children around the world may feel special intimacy about Korean fairy tales as well as instant understanding of their plots, which could lead to their frequent access to them.

If children all over the world fall asleep while listening to Korean fairy tales in their infancy and grow up reading and watching Korean fairy tales, they might as well become ambassadors for Korean culture in their countries and help lay a robust foundation for the Korean cultural renaissance.

Reference

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