Similarity in History: US and Korea

I was mentioning at one point that my Korean students are very creative.  They had watched the movie Tangled based off of the German fairy tale known as Rapunzel.  In this movie you have a kidnapped princess who wants to visit the world outside her home (which is a tower) in order to better see the lanterns that always appear on her birthday.  She blackmails a thief into helping her.  They fall in love.  Her mother (who really isn't) steals her back.  He saves the day.  They go back to her real family and everyone lives happily ever after.

There are a series of characters in this Disney film that could get the students' attention.  Rapunzel is the obvious choice.  She is beautiful, kind, and has long magic hair that glows when she sings.  The thief, known as Flynn Ryder (but whose real name is Eugene), is also much loved for his caustic sense of humor.  Rapunzel's pet chameleon named Pascal really keeps the story going and is a cool, fun character.  Maximus, a palace horse and eternal nemesis of Eugene, is smart and brave in tracking down the thief but becomes a friend and helps save the day.  I figured some of my students would pick Mother Gothel, the evil lady who had kidnapped Rapunzel because she is pretty neat too.  Then there were some thugs who we all nicknamed: hook, cupid, mime, etc.  You can guess what their characteristics might be.

Some of my students really liked Eugene (the thief).  However, they spelled in their essay his name as Yu Jing or some other Korean version.  That amused me.  They took a European name and make it Korean.

My dearest twin had the amazing thought... America did that to immigrants.  A lot of people who moved to the states had their names changed "accidently" by customs.  We did it too.