MY BIRTHDAY

Korean New Year (설날-SolNal)

 In Korea, Solnal is the first day of the first month of the new year. While many Koreans celebrate the New Year on January 1st of the solar calendar, the lunar new year is still popular today. In many Korean communities, the New Year is celebrated twice.

The Lunar New Year starts on February 12 in 2002. According to the Asian Zodiac, 2002 is the Year of the Horse.

The Koreans focus on the family as they celebrate the beginning of the New Year. Children put on new traditional clothes called hanbok. They kneel and bow to their ancestors and elders. Family members wish each other prosperity and good fortune. Then they exchange gifts. Children receive lucky money, candy and fruit from the elders. The family spends time together and have rice-cake soup for breakfast. Children often take this day to play special New Year games.

In parts of Korea, people usher in the New Year with a ritual called Jishin Balpgi. Loud drums and gongs are played to scare off evil spirits of the old year. At the end of the day, friends and relatives join together for dinner to renew their friendship. Sol is a celebration of family and good friends. And for the Koreans, the New Year is about family and community.

Robots teachers invade South Korea classrooms

South Korea is one of the countries we're featuring this week on Global Connections, a segment on CNN's Connect the World that takes very different countries and asks you to find the connections.

(CNN) -- It's a typical classroom scene: Students working at their desks as the teacher calls out instructions. But, unlike your average teacher, this one is made of plastic and computer circuits.

This isn't a sci-fi movie; it's an English language class taught by Engkey, a robot teacher, in the coastal city of Masan in South Korea.

Part of a pilot program launched by the South Korean government, students in two elementary schools in the city are being taught English by robot teachers.

In high-tech South Korea, robots serve a variety of educational purposes and the government is pressing ahead with plans to expand its robot learning, or "R-learning," program.

Mun-Taek Choi is a senior research engineer at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, the government-funded research institute that developed the Engkey

International Trip to Jejudo

One week trip to Jejudo. World Camp Tour in JICC(Jejudo International Convention Center).