1. “Good Travel 1040,” one of the teams conducting the Foreign Ministry’s people-participated public diplomacy projects in 2017, carried out a project in Cambodia designed to help the country improve its educational environment and to promote Korean culture there. The project, modeled after homework Korean elementary school students had had to do during their summer and winter breaks, was organized as an education volunteer program for elementary school students in a poor educational environment, during which educational contents and culture of Korea were used.

° The project was conducted for some 200 elementary school students in Antongsor, three hours from the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, for one week from August 12. Antongsor is a remote area in Cambodia with shortages of drinking water and basic necessities as well as few opportunities for students to experience other cultures.

2. The “Good Travel 1040” team offered to 200-odd elementary school students in the region education in arts and craft, fitness, science, healthcare and sanitation. The team also taught the children about the Republic of Korea in terms of numbers, active volcanoes and Jeju Island, and similarities and differences between cultural heritages of Korea and Cambodia, using homework books and diverse other teaching tools from the ROK. In the classes, the team told the children about traditional Korean holidays, such as Chuseok (thanksgiving day) and Seol (new year’s day); enjoyed Tuho (arrows-throwing game), Jegichagi (shuttlecock-kicking game) and other traditional Korean games; and shared with them the ROK’s hosting the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

° Pen Nimol, a ten-year-old participant, said, “I made a pinwheel with a Taegeuk pattern on it, but the paper sagged in the humid air. The Korean teacher taught me that if two straws are glued on the backside of the pinwheel to support it, the paper would not sag. I did what the teacher told me to do, and the pinwheel spun well. The teacher praised me for it, which made me feel good.” A 21-year-old teacher Houerng Mails mentioned, “Studying with Korean students’ homework book translated into the local language of Khmer was educationally effective to a great deal.”

° The leader of the “Good Travel 1040” team commented, “Diplomacy, not being an area that ordinary people can easily access in their daily lives, seemed so unrelated to me. However, by carrying out the project, I came to see that every single citizen can serve as a public diplomat and that people from various walks of life can together play a role in the production of diverse, creative contents.”

3. The Foreign Ministry is conducting public diplomacy projects actively participated by people. Going forward, it will carry out cultural diplomacy in a way that uses Korean soft power and wins hearts of people.


* unofficial translation