Open Lecture on Korean Heritage: On Nation Branding
7:30 AM. It was a bit cold this Saturday morning and I wanted to sleep more. Realizing that I should not be late and I do not know the place, I grabbed my milk and cereals before taking a hot shower.
The PCNB Office is located here at Nara Jeodong Building
As I head to the station, I met Sasha, my Korean friend who is going to a date (I suppose) Since we are heading to different directions I took the Yongsan Rapid Train and before I knew it I was already at Eujiro 3-ga. “I should’ve worn something thicker…” I said to myself, as I try to pretend that I am used to this kind of weather. Tat…tat…tat… As I run hurriedly at the sidewalk, “Where is PCNB???” All I can see are three famous landmarks, the Jongno Tower, N Seoul Tower and Myeongdong Cathedral. If the weather is fine I’ll just take time but I don’t know why I’m feeling so cold today. I called Elias (He is from Costa Rica)…
“Hola Elias! Where are you now?” I said in a somewhat crazy tone? “I’m at the bus” He replied…He gave me some directions and I was able to decode the mystery…lol. It was beside a hospital, the road going to Myeong-dong and the building has glass walls all over….Waaaaaahhhh…. As I look around all the buildings has that design. I am quite calm this morning and so following my instincts I found the building just across the street where I am standing.
As I enter the conference room, I was the only WSK student and I had a second thought if this was really the conference where I should go.
Its on the 7th floor
The conference started around 10:10 in the morning and the Chairman, Lee Bae Young, talked about Nation branding and Korean culture. According to her Korea now as achieved economic growth and industrialization and as a part of this Nation Branding Program we should be able to show to the world the Korean values of Love, Harmony and Peace which can be seen on their tangible and intangible heritage. When we hear branding, the first thing that comes into our mind will be advertisements, posters and commercials. For the Chairman, branding is equated to personality. For the individual person, how you market or project yourself to others is important for it shows one’s leadership and followership skills and one’s role to the community where you belong.
The Keywords for nation branding are: Sharing/ Contribution, Optimism, and Competence.
Chairman, Lee Bae Yong during her talk
Sharing/Contribution – we should start to think about other people and share the gifts that we have. When we are on a foreign country, we should try to be on the shoes of the locales and share every meaningful experience with them.
Positive Thinker/Optimist – We should always look on the brighter side of things, the cloud’s silver lining. A positive attitude matched with enthusiasm can help you gain and learn more. One should never give up and focus on your strengths and try to develop your weaknesses to strengths as well. By being a positive thinker, you can be the best that you can be.
A mother's love is being reflected on her talk.
Competence - Being competent is being confident on what you are doing. You have self esteem and can face any challenges.
All WSK posed for this photo for posterity
She also added that this characteristics springing from Love can be clearly seen on a person’s smile. At present, the government is active on educating multicultural families to make their lives comfortable here in Korea. Together with other government agencies like the Seoul Global Center, they conduct cooking seminars and lectures on Korean History and Culture. They also give courses on Korean Language. The second half of the lecture was about Korean tangible Heritage which will be dealt on the next post.
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