As Hallyu is sweeping the world, it is easy to assume that Korean soap operas and idol singers are the only active means to introduce Korean culture to foreigners. However, there is an ambitious student who believes otherwise.
Kim Seul-ah, a training intern for Korean National Commission for UNESCO, believes that she can introduce Korean culture by studying Korea as itself. She is currently working in the department that publishes Korea Journal, a quarterly journal for domestic and foreign scholars in the field of Korean Studies.
"The field of Korean Studies is an interdisciplinary study that covers extensive areas from Korean history, language, economics, to even trivial subjects as pop culture and folklore," Kim said in an interview with the Argus. "A scholar with a focus on the areas that concerns Korea can publish his paper on Korea Journal."
Major part of Kim's daily duty as a training intern is to edit and revise the papers and book reviews to be published in the journal.
"One of the book reviews that left a lasting impression on my mind was about Korean folk religion. The author believed that Korean 'Gut,' or an exorcism by a Sherman, acted as a means to express criticism toward politics," Kim said. "Even though I lived in Korea ever since I was born, there are many fascinating traditional cultures in Korea that I have never heard of. I believe in the power of culture that can attract foreigners to be interested in Korean culture."
However, Kim was not always interested in the field of Korean Studies. "I always aspired to work as a member of UNESCO, but I was more interested in researching and introducing cultural heritage to foreigners. However, after I started working in this department, I realized that I can contribute to introducing Korea to the world by studying what Korea is by itself."
Many foreign scholars research in the field of Korean Studies. The country with the largest number of scholars is the United States with 209 scholars, with Canada and Hawaii following the lead. Korean Studies is prominent in South East Asian countries, as numerous Korean companies have stretched their businesses to the region. Yet, there are some points that need to be fixed.
"Korean Studies is not yet established into a certain category. There are many universities that deals with Korean Studies, but the definition and the fields are different in every place," Kim said. "For example, European scholars consider Korean Studies to be a subcategory of the study of bigger countries like Chinese Studies or Japanese Studies. In South East Asia, they teach practical Korean language skills for the students to get a job in Korean companies. The need to integrate and define the field of Korean studies has become pressing these days."
However, Kim is concerned that the works UNESCO is conducting are not appreciated by the general population in Korea. A group of educators gathered to found the UNESCO in the beginning, and the major goal of UNESCO is still education.
"Many people have heard of UNESCO as the name appears constantly in listing the World Cultural Heritage and World Natural Heritage, but they do not know what UNESCO exactly does. Sometimes people confuse UNESCO with UNICEF. People call us to find out where their donations are used, but there are times when their names are not on the list because they donated to UNICEF, not to us." She said.
After the term as training intern is over, she is planning to study in Britain. She will pursue the path of English Literature and politics there and widen her perspective on interpreting another culture in order to understand our own better.
1. I like who you chose as the interviewee. She is a student, just like us, but she is currently an intern and she seems to have specific thoughts about what she wants to do later, so this makes the essay more interesting.
ReplyDelete2. The title reveals the objective of the interview well and the writing was well-organized. I think all points were articulated clearly.
3. I believe the most important idea from this interview was that there are other means to introduce Korea to the world rather than just the Korean Wave. Your statement seems to be the last sentence in the first paragraph, "However, there is an ambitious student who believes otherwise." I think this sentence can be improved by stating the ideas more clearly once again.
4. The direct quotation I thought was effective is: "Many people have heard of UNESCO as the name appears constantly in listing the World Cultural Heritage and World Natural Heritage, but they do not know what UNESCO exactly does. Sometimes people confuse UNESCO with UNICEF. People call us to find out where their donations are used, but there are times when their names are not on the list because they donated to UNICEF, not to us." This quotation vividly portrays her personal experience and it is really easy to sympathize.
5. I think there are just about the right number of quotations in the essay. Since the topic requires more knowledge of the field, I think Seul-ah has done a good job informing the interviewer (readers) about it.
6. The only area you could improve on is specifying your own interview questions. I see that the writing is very easy to follow even without the questions, but I think including your questions sometimes will help the readers even more, pointing to the direction of the interview.