App magazine to promote Korea

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sat, September 30, 2023 | 05:03

App magazine to promote Korea

Posted : 2011-04-08 18:22

Updated : 2011-04-08 18:22

By Han Sang-hee

A smartphone app named ``The K Magazine,’’ to publicize Korean culture and history in English has been launched.

The app was created by Rick Ji, alongside activist Seo Kyoung-duk as one of the advisors.

Ji studied visual design at Pukyong National University and moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2005 to work as an intern at a visual design company. There he found out about an exhibition and lecture on Korean textiles at the museum of the University of British Columbia.

After seeing how foreigners were interested in Korean traditional craftwork Ji realized the need to introduce Korean culture to the world. He returned to Korea to decide on the content and to plan how to promote it with his own money and finally launched the app magazine this month.

The app of the monthly magazine includes information on entertainment, food, tourism as well as art and design.

Ji said it includes some of the most famous, yet very frequently mentioned and easily found, themes such as popular television drama ``Secret Garden,’’ Korea’s representative side dish kimchi, and templestay, the Buddhist program.

``We may only have an English version, but we are also planning to bring the application out in Japanese, Chinese and Spanish. It would be great if we could get some support from the government, but if not, I would like to continue the application with my own money,’’ Ji told Yonhap News.

But the app also has some grammatical mistakes and typos, including ``VSIST KOREA’’ and not capitalizing certain words such as nations and names. Since the stories are written by different writers, it also lacks a coherent tone.

To download, type ``The K Magazine’’ at the Apple App Store for an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch for free.

sanghee@koreatimes.co.kr