Spanish Hub Korea startup aims to connect 2 nations

Sara Porta López, founder, and CEO of Spanish Hub Korea, poses for photos holding a Spanish traditional hand fan, April 28. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

On a fine spring Sunday noon, Sara Porta López, founder and CEO of Spanish Hub Korea, was delighted and busy welcoming guests as she launched her platform on April 28 at Luke's Seoul bar in western Seoul.

Spanish Hub Korea is a platform for sharing everything related to Spain found in Korea, ranging from Spanish language classes, cultural activities and public events to restaurants and business products. It helps people who are passionate to know about authentic Spanish things from a native perspective and is a place to promote Spanish products and create business networks, as well as organize public meetups in Korea.

López came to Korea for the first time in 2022 for a vacation and loved the country and its culture. Half a year later, she decided to take a working holiday and came back to experience Korea for a year. Born in the Catalonian city of Reus, her passion for her native culture started at a young age. When she was 8 years old, she enrolled in Spanish dance classes at the Centre de Lectura de Reus as well as became part of the traditional dance group in her hometown, el ball de Valencians de Reus. She studied biochemistry and graduated with a molecular biotechnology master's degree in 2020 from the University of Barcelona, and she has been working on product development for Freshly Cosmetics, a skin care startup based in Spain, for two years.

"As a startup, my business uses an online-based digital platform for marketing and events. Almost all my work experience has been in startups so I have always been fast and adapting to the working environment in companies" she told The Korea Times. "I was interested in bringing new things and finding solutions to problems. But here in Korea, I found that I had challenges referring to work culture. I worked for a Korean startup in the IT and content creation field for six months, but I was not able to feel listened to and apply changes as I thought could help the business. This experience made me realize that I would like to work in an environment where my voice is listened to and I can help and be creative. So that made me participate in the OASIS program for foreigners interested in setting up their startup business in Korea."

OASIS is a free program established by the Korean government to help foreign entrepreneurs interested in founding startups in Korea.

"The information about patents and business helps to see how the startup landscape works for foreigners in Korea, but still, it was quite difficult to do until opening your startup here," she said. "There are many steps, regulations and restrictions that you need to know as a foreigner. And not all are taught in the program so having a good network of people related to startups is useful. It took me three months to decide, plan the business, and find out how to do all the procedures. It was hard, as many things are written in Korean and not translated into English. It can be difficult to do everything without help from a Korean or other people who made it before."

Dario Jose Saez Mendez, economic and commercial counselor at the Embassy of Spain, attends the launch of Spanish Hub Korea in western Seoul, April 28. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

Also attending the launching event was Dario Jose Saez Mendez, economic and commercial counsellor at the Embassy of Spain in Korea, who came to support the hub.

"We are happy about Spanish Hub Korea," he said. "We are excited about that because the Spanish community here is still quite small, and this kind of initiative of networking, of learning Spanish, approaching both countries, both peoples, is a very good idea. I'm always interested when I see Spanish people living here and working for Korean companies or just setting up their startups, bars and restaurants. I feel proud when I meet particularly these young people who are visionary, strong and ambitious, connecting two countries. I think we have a lot to offer to Korea, And Korea has a lot to offer to Spain as well."

When asked about the relationship between the two nations, he added, "The number of Spanish companies is increasing very fast in Korea. Many Spanish tourists are coming to Korea, but the number of Korean tourists to Spain is quite huge. Before the pandemic in 2019, about 630,000 Koreans visited Spain."

Kim Hye-jin, a Spanish-language meetup host, poses at the launch ceremony for Spanish Network Korea in western Seoul, April 28. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

For Kim Hye-jin, a Spanish-language meetup host in Gangnam, coming to the event was exciting because she loves the Spanish language and culture. "I studied Spanish for a long time in Korea. I have traveled to Spain as well," she told The Korea Times. "When I was little, I went to Mexico, and I stayed there for over three months — that experience influenced me a lot. I loved Mexico and the Latin culture. That was my reason for studying the language and creating a meetup, where I met Sara."

The website is functional in Spanish, Korean and English. Interested people can find Spanish language conversation and writing practices through daily guided online journaling, reading clubs, movies (with Korean subtitles), meetups, cultural events and other festivities in Korea.

Visit spanishhubkorea.com or follow @spanishhub_korea on Instagram.

Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He's also co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative and freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.