Korea within the World, the World within Korea

강주연

The world today is no longer divided. It is no longer divided into strict boundaries that separate cultures, customs, and people. Thanks to scientific developments, we are now able to exchange all sorts of information and objects everywhere around the world, and people move to live hither and thither. This phenomenon is what people call globalization.

Before moving on, what is ‘globalization’? Globalization indicates worldwide integration and extension to all parts of the world. Actually, there is quite of confusion between globalization and internationalization. Internationalization is different from globalization in that it involves a clearer concept of countries. By this, it means that while globalization is widely connected to the world becoming a whole, internationalization is more related to countries recognizing differences among others.

Not everyone has a positive view towards globalization, though. People fear that their countries may lose their identities and traditions that had remained within their people for hundreds of thousands of years. Korea is not an exception in this case. We remembered ‘candle demonstrations’ against importing American beef and against an American investment company’s taking over Korean Exchange Bank. Then, in order to prevent this from happening, what steps should we Korean take?

First, to gain more competitiveness in the world, we should spread our traditional cultures. Based on research done by the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies in 2012, the actual value of Korea was ranked 9th place, but our image was reported to be ranked 19th. This means that there is no vivid image that foreigners have towards Korea. Especially because Korea largely relies on international trade, we should keep this point in mind and try our best to introduce the marvels of Korean tradition.

Also, we should share our literature. There are numerous authors and poets such as Hwang Seok Young, Kim So Weol, and Park Kyung Ri whose works are still considered best of best. Yet, because it is so hard to translate Korean into English, they have only gone as far as the nominees of the Nobel Literature Prize no matter how inspiring their works are. The English version of ‘Please Look after Mom’ has already proven that Korean literature has high potential. If more people who are fluent at English contribute to the translation of those works, Korea will become a more respected country.

In a bigger picture as well, Korean globalization may be better achieved by the contribution to the world as a global goodwill citizen. This means that Korea has to play a more important role in fighting against global problems such as poverty, starvation, and environmental destruction. According to a report by Korea Herald, Korea has met less than 20 percent of its ODA portion to Africa, which is the abbreviation of ‘Official Development Assistance’ since 2007. This figure is significantly lower than that of America’s 52 percent, China’s 43 percent, and Japan’s 25 percent. In order to take a better position in the globalized society, Korea has to take more responsibility.

In sum, there is nothing we can do about the whole stream of globalization as individuals, because it is already happening so quickly and so broadly. However, there are things we can do in order that Korea could become a better part of it. These steps are not as complicated as most people think. If Korean people keep this in mind and take even simple, everyday steps, Korea would be able to prosper more and more within the era of globalization.

#강주연