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Pororo the Little Penguin

This animation has three seasons of 26 episodes each. It teaches kids morals and behaviors while enjoying the adventure with the Penguin and his friends. This is the company I used to work before I went to Parsons. Everything was created in Korea about three years using 3D Max and other devices and I was inspired to create animations for young children here.

Tomokun

Domokun is a monster but has the most warm heart. He likes to help people in difficulties. There are many fans of Domokun even in the States because of his Spongebob like characteristics where his appearenace isn't pretty but the way he acts attract audiences. I would like to make characters that are distinguishable from the norm as well.

Target Audience

My target audience is preschoolers whom I believe to have the most powerful and potential to develop their linguistic skills at the stage.

My character design

These are character balloons I have created in the illustrator. Of course, I always draw them in the sketchbook first.

Research in progress

1. Find animations/games/shows made for Kid's language development
2. Look for research that is done on young children's language skills
3. Play and teach different languages to kids and observe their reactions

What have I been doing the past summer?

I spent a month in Beijing and Shanghai to participate the collaboration work with Chinghua students. I met great people and learnt a lot about Chinese Culture.

Plan for summer

For my thesis, I would like to teach pre-schoolers more than three different languages at the same time via animation or game. There are already programs like Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, etc which are bilingual but according to some research I have done so far, I believe that kids have ability to absorb three or more languages if they are taught in suitable ways. The key for my thesis project is having fun and education at the same time.