South Korea Goes Viral

1. Set Focus
Pose this essential question to guide discussion: In what ways does entertainment have the power to bring about change?

2. List Vocabulary
Share with students some of the challenging vocabulary words in this article (below). Encourage them to use context to infer meanings as they read.

• cascading (p. 7)
• mainstream (p. 7)
• turbulent (p. 7)
  
• plundered (p. 7)
• combativeness (p. 9)
  
• visuality (p. 9)

3. Engage
Ask students if they like any K-pop groups or South Korean TV shows. Have them share their favorites. Then have them discuss why they think South Korean entertainment has become extremely popular around the world.   

4. Read 
Have students read the article, marking the text to note key ideas or questions.

5. Discuss
Distribute or project Up Close: South Korea Goes Viral, a close-reading activity for students to work on in small groups. (Note: The questions on the PDF also appear below, with possible responses.) Follow up with a class discussion. If you’re short on time, have each group tackle one or two of the questions. Collect students’ work or have each group report its findings to the class.

• What is the author’s main purpose in the first three paragraphs of the article? (Author’s purpose, text structure) 
  (The author’s main purpose is to set up the central idea of the article—that South Korean entertainment is experiencing huge success around the world. The author does this with an anecdote about how more than 1 million people watched a live video stream of the South Korean boy band BTS performing at the United Nations, and afterward the video had 6 million views in a few hours.)    

• Why was Korea divided in 1945? What is life like in each country today? (Sequence, compare & contrast)
  (At the end of World War II, in 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States took control of the Korean peninsula from Japan. The Soviet Union set up a Communist regime in what would become North Korea, and the U.S. supported a military government in what would become South Korea. Today, North Korea is ruled by a dictator and isolated from the rest of the world, and its citizens often face food, water, and electricity shortages. In contrast, South Korea is a democracy, has close ties to the U.S. and the Western world, and has developed a robust economy.)

• What connections does that author make between turbulent times in Korea’s history and the success of South Korean pop culture today? (Cause & effect)
  (Through a quote from Inkyu Kang, the author makes the point that for Koreans the turbulent times in Korea’s history served as a muse or an inspiration for expression and art. The author also explains that the role music and art played during the push for democracy in the 1970s and ’80s inspired many young Koreans to enter the arts.)

• How does the author support the claim that the internet has played an important role in making South Korean entertainment a global phenomenon in the past few years? (Evaluate claims, cite text evidence)
  (The author supports this claim with details about how streaming platforms Netflix and YouTube made Korean entertainment more accessible around the world. The author also supports the claim with a quotation from Inkyu Kang about how K-pop’s “focus on visuality” quickly catches your eye and makes the entertainment more powerful on social media.) 

• Based on the article, why do you think North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un considers South Korean entertainment a “vicious cancer”? (Make inferences, word meaning) 
  (He likely worries that if North Koreans become engaged by South Korean entertainment, they might try to leave the country to live in South Korea. He may also be aware of how music and art played a role in the push for democracy in South Korea and be concerned the same might happen in North Korea. In addition, he probably does not want his citizens listening to music that focuses on wealth inequality and depression when his own people sometimes starve.)

• What do the map and statistics in the “South Korea at a Glance” sidebar add to the main article? (Integrate multiple sources)
  (The map shows the long border between North Korea and China, helping to clarify how goods could be smuggled into North Korea. The statistics for per capita GDP, with South Korea’s being lower than that of the U.S., help explain why South Koreans have some economic frustrations.)

6. Writing Prompt
Research Japan’s rule over Korea. Then write an essay comparing Japan’s tactics for dominating Korea with Joseph Stalin’s tactics for crushing dissent in Ukraine (see this issue’s Times Past).

7. Video
Watch the video about North and South Korea. What does it add to your understanding?

8. Classroom Debate
Should the members of BTS have to pay income taxes in South Korea?

9. Quiz & Skills
Use the quiz to assess students’ comprehension and Be the Editor to review grammar skills.