A student dreams of introducing Korea to the world
As hally 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.
When I first asked her if I could interview her, she looked a little stunned. She and I have been getting along for quite a while, but we were not that close. Since she is not at school, I went to Myeongdong, where the UNESCO branch is located. When we sat down, she did not know what to say. I told her that she can just tell me what she does.
Major part of her daily duty as a training intern is to edit and revise the papers and book reviews to publish them in the journal.
"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," she said, "A scholar with a focus on the areas that concerns Korea can publish his paper on Korea Journal."
Once she started telling me about her job, her face lit up. She was always a good student, but I could tell that she liked her job as the intern more than she liked studying English literature. She could go on and on for more than an hour about her job. I asked her, what was the most impressive thing that she had witnessed in her job.
"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 shaman, was utilized as a means to express criticism toward politics," she replied. "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."
Despite her passion for her current job, she 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."
Although she has worked there for merely a few months, she conjured up her suggestions about Korean Studies. She was concerned that 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 places.
"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."
Another point that concerned her was 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.
I never had a chance to have an in-depth talk with her. It was an inspiring experience for me, because I did not figure out what I want to do, and what I want to be in the future. I was impressed that someone who is not much older than me has such concrete goals and is working her way upward to achieve them.
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