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네이버 공유 카카오 공유 트위터 공유 페이스북 공유

Broadening the Base of Korea-Vietnam Exchanges

The first Korean Studies Workshop for Vietnamese Local Government Leaders was conducted in Vung Tau, about 125 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh City (December 4-7, 2007). Hosted jointly by the Korea Foundation and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (USSH), and with assistance from the Korean Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, the workshop was attended by about 60 department officials from 16 provincial governments in southern Vietnam.



Learning about Each Other
Korea and Vietnam established formal diplomatic relations in December 1992. In the 15 years thereafter, the volume of bilateral trade has expanded ten-fold while Korean investment in Vietnam has increased by some 60 times, making Korea one of the leading foreign investors there. It is estimated that the Korean community in Vietnam numbers more than 60,000 today.
Although economic relations between the two countries have seen drastic growth in a very brief period of time, most of the regions in Vietnam remain in the dark, in regard to information and materials on Korea, in comparison to Hanoi, the country’s capital, and Ho Chi Minh City, its business/economic center. Considering the active economic exchanges between Korea and Vietnam, it seems rather belated to initiate efforts to introduce Korea’s culture and history and to discuss matters of mutual concern with senior officials of Vietnamese provincial governments.
A total of nine informational lectures were presented by Consul General Min Young-woo; three consul officials, of the Korean Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, in charge of visa issuance, labor matters, and culture/public relations; and a representative of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), along with Vietnamese speakers, including USSH Cultural Studies Department Chair Tran Ngoc Them and Vice Chair Phan Thu Hien, who compared the cultural characteristics of Vietnam and Korea. Thanks to his extensive teaching experience and knowledge of Korean culture, Professor Them’s discussion of the similarities and differences of Vietnamese and Korean cultures generated keen interest among the participants.



Korean-Vietnamese Marriages
The participating provincial government officials were especially interested in topics directly related to their work area, including international marriage, dispatch of Vietnamese workers to Korea, and the attraction of Korean business investment into Vietnam. Of note, the issue receiving the most attention was that of marriages between Korean men and Vietnamese women. Currently, the number of Vietnamese women married to Korean men, and who reside in Korea, amounts to some 20,000, second only to the 80,000 Korean-Chinese marriages.
The issues related to international marriage have become a matter of mutual concern that call for proper attention from both Vietnam and Korea. Moreover, the Vietnamese public has recently expressed a negative attitude toward Korean-Vietnamese marriages due to a case of domestic abuse, in which a Vietnamese woman was killed by her Korean husband. Because of this unfortunate incident, which was widely reported by local newspapers in August 2007, international marriage was a sensitive issue that required a cautious approach.
On the other hand, the participants were shown a Korean TV program that featured a Vietnamese woman’s everyday life in Korea, “Love in Asia,” produced by KBS and subtitled in Vietnamese. This program sought to have participants take a fresh look at Korean-Vietnamese marriage, of which mainly negative situations have been publicized, by showing a Vietnamese woman who was enjoying a happy life with her family, despite various difficulties related to her Korean husband and adjusting to her new homeland. Many were favorably impressed by this program, beyond our expectations, including those who found it emotionally touching and some that requested a DVD so that they could share this uplifting program with their fellow staffers.



New Focus on Regional Areas
It is noteworthy that the provincial government officials at the workshop unanimously appealed to the Korean government and the Korea Foundation to pay more attention to and support further exchanges with the provincial regions of Vietnam. It is typically the case that Korea will focus on the capital and major cities when implementing exchanges with foreign countries like Vietnam. Such a practice is of course natural; however, this means that exchanges with provincial regions are often neglected. This is the unfortunate reality of Korea’s international exchange activities at this time.
Although more active exchanges between Korea and foreign countries at the provincial-government level are being undertaken nowadays, such exchanges are often limited to certain regions, rather than encompassing a broad range of areas. The Korea Foundation’s Korean Studies workshops for secondary school teachers from various regions in North America, Europe, and China, as well as Vietnam, are especially significant for helping to expand the scope of international exchanges to regional areas. Hopefully, these efforts to target regional areas can be continued and diversified, so as to expand the influence of the Foundation’s activities.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to those at USSH who contributed to the successful hosting of the workshop, and the Korean speakers who took the time to present informative lectures. I am confident that a second workshop will attract even more officials from Vietnam’s local governments, and thereby reinforce mutual understanding and friendship between our two countries.

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