The problem we want to solve in this project: How can we help immigrant children learn English and remember their hometown? It is mainly aimed at the cultural differences and lack of memory between second-generation immigrant children and first-generation immigrant parents.
Since all of our group members are from Asia, we came up with some very Asian snacks, and we found that no matter what country we come from, we must have an unforgettable candy in our childhood, such as ice-cream gourd, Dalgona cookies, puffed rice, sugar figures .... All of these candies were shaped to be played with, and sweetness and play are an integral part of our memories. Seeing them again brings back the sweetness of our childhood. We hadn't even seen these sweets in London.
The final format we decided on was a play video, similar to the ones that are shown on children's channels, to teach children how to make food and play with toys with their parents.
The process in the video will show the making of a Korean candy called Dalgona. Dalgona is a Korean candy made from melted sugar and baking soda, popular since the 1960s.
We hope that through the video and the game, we can connect and pass on the childhood memories of the previous generation and the next generation.
We also introduced an immigrant poem written by Lee, an immigrant poet, about her and her grandfather's apple orchard. We created scenes and elemental graphics based on the poem, with the characters made up of simple geometric patterns.
We designed an Apple, a Black Dragonfly, a supermarket, a girl and her grandfather.
Each scene has a verse that echoes the poem.
The first scene is about boarding a plane, the second is about memories of an autumn orchard, the third is about getting through customs, the fourth is about various apples in a foreign country, and the fifth is about the sweet taste of childhood that can never be found again.
After making the geometric Dalgona biscuits, the children can use the biscuits to make a pattern on the drawing board, learn shapes and colours, play games, and learn poems.
We hope that as immigrant families watch the video together and get access to our moulds, tools and drawings, children will become curious and want to try them out! They want to try the flavour of Dalgona; they want to know how to make it; they want to know where the game comes from. Parents, suddenly awakened by the sweet memories and taste sensations of their childhood, will make Dalgona for their children and will tell them stories of their own childhood and everything that happened in their hometown. At the same time, children can learn English to overcome language difficulties, learn images, and build their own cultural identity and recognition by drawing puzzles.
