Korean-American runs English website to promote Korea
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Kim Min-ku
By Lee Kyung-min
Kim Min-ku, 32, a Korean-American, launched “9KOREA” (
), an English website introducing Korea, in November last year.
The site offers basic information about Korea such as weather, time, maps, exchange rate and subway lines.
Articles, photos and cultural tips in general are also available.
“Why not Google it?” One might think, but that was precisely what made him launch “9KOREA.”
Kim said that a lot of people who are interested in Korea have a hard time finding the right information in English.
“The challenge for them was the language. People who don’t speak Korean have no way of gaining any information, or anything fun, written in Korean. That was too bad, I thought. So I came up with the idea,” Kim said.
He visited several government-run websites introducing Korea, but said that he wanted to make the site more fun.
“Government websites are rather complicated for foreigners. I am not a government official whose job is to promote a positive image of Korea. I am more from a view of people asking their friends, ‘So, how was the trip to Korea? Maybe I want to go there sometime,’” said Kim.
He said Korean portal sites such as Naver and Daum are a great source of information, which he took into account while designing his own website.
“The weather, maps, exchange rate and subway services are all there. Those two are very similar to Google. Too bad they don’t have an English service,” he said.
Having lived in the U.S. for 10 years, Kim is fluent in English, so he took on the daunting work of running an English website.
“I went to the U.S. right after I finished elementary school. I can speak both Korean and English, so I thought I could do the work,” Kim said.
With daily visitors of 240, his website caters to anyone with basic English skills interested in learning about Korea.
“Data from my daily visitors shows that many of them are from Southeast Asia. Also, Korean-Americans are among my visitors, too. I have a cousin who doesn’t understand a word of Korean. Both of his parents are Korean, but he didn’t learn the language. There are a lot of people like him, and I hope they can find my website helpful,” he said.
Among other things, he teaches some basic Korean conversation through English.
“Many of my friends say the Korean alphabet is easy to learn. But what comes after that is overwhelming for them. I think it’s the general intricacy of the language inherent in Korean. I saw many of them give up. So, I tried to teach some myself. Easy, short sentences like greetings, and saying thank you, or sorry. I posted those on YouTube, too,” he said.
Kim said he is passionate about the site and hopes someday that it becomes a community website.
“I am doing it because I like it. And if people can get what they are looking for on my website, I am happy I can be of any help,” Kim said.