Fascinating Storytelling to Make Seoul Cultural Hot Spot
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
After Korean soap operas and pop idols attracted Asian fans in the 1990s, the nation saw a unique group of visitors -- culture tourists.
They are visiting Korea with the hope they get a taste in person of the land of the fascinating stories and iconic vista points.
Made-in-Korea cultural goods played a crucial role in shaping these explorers' impression that Korea is worth a visit.
These explorers, however, had to deal with "a situation" where resources that can help their deeper understanding of the culture are really scarce.
"These foreign tourists tend to experience less here than they had thought at home, mainly because few interpretation services that can quench their curiosity were available," said Park Jung-sook, a professor of the Institute of International Education at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.
Park emphasized that the nation needs competitive interpretation services to meet the expectations of foreigners.
"I think Rome, Italy became famous in part because of the hit movie 'Roman Holiday' (1953). We can position Korea as an attractive tourist destination if effective storytelling is set in place," she said.
A television journalist-turned-Korean wave expert, Park is seen in numerous positions, both in the public and private sector, because of her extensive involvement in cultural activities and public relations.
She works with the Korean International Cooperation Agency as a goodwill ambassador and trains career diplomats on a cultural diplomacy course at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Park also hosts a radio program, while continuing to work with The Korea Times as a goodwill ambassador.
Recently, she added another demanding job title -- social entrepreneur helping children from bi-racial families -- to her business card.
Bridging the Gap
In early February, her business, Asian Treasure Network, was designated as one of 110 social enterprises by the Seoul City government.
Over the past two years, the company has provided about 200 children from biracial families with music lessons, fostering care services and study tours to iconic cultural spots in Seoul.
After being recognized as a social enterprise, Park hired 10 more paid workers to push for aggressive pro-diversity programs in the near future.
"Currently, we are offering programs to help the kids from families where a parent is migrant spouse, mostly from Southeast Asian countries. Under the program titled Hope Kids, these children take part in music lessons, summer camps and gym programs on a regular basis," Park said.
Early on, the staff at the company had to deal with a tough situation because those parents were not cooperative, as they were reluctant to let their children take the program.
Park said these parents were sick and tired of some non-profit groups' "photo-shoot-oriented social services."
"I didn't blame the parents because it was understandable that they had such a negative feeling," she said.
Cross-Cultural Programs
The initial negative reaction from those families led Park and her staff to take a close look at their needs.
"I was told that our parents' generation received flour as an aid supply shortly after the Korean War. At the beginning, they didn't know how to use it because they had eaten only rice before. Soon these ingenuous people began to use the unfamiliar material to make the unique food, sujebi," Park said.
She cited the case in order to highlight the possible trouble facing recipients when they receive support from groups they hadn't expected to offer help.
"Most migrant spouses do not speak or write Korean as fluently as Koreans. So I thought they might need a helping hand from us as we can play the role for their kids," she said.
Trust was earned after Park and her staff showed that their efforts were sincere, she said.
"Our next project is to devise a program helping migrant spouses or workers assimilate with the society," Park said.
In the long run Park said she plans to provide storytelling services for foreigners who visit here to experience the Korean wave.
The business plan was spurred on by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's choosing her business as a social enterprise. The mayor picked 110 other businesses providing cultural and social services for working-class families as well.
The Seoul City government has twin goals of creating jobs and helping underprivileged people.
Under the program, those companies will receive 30 million won in total for the next three years.