JB Life October 2016

INTERNATIONAL BEAT
Staying Global with the
As of this fall, the Jeonbuk Center for International
Affairs (JBCIA) has been in operation for a full
year. During that time, this magazine, JB Life,
has blossomed and published four quarterly issues as one of
the Center’s projects. Next year, the magazine will move to a
bi-monthly production. Besides this, the center has managed
international YouTube vloggers and world-class foreign speakers
and performers and has promoted a variety of volunteer opportunities
to connect the international population of Jeonbuk
to its local community. All in all, you could say it’s been an excellent
first year. Now, looking forward to the end of 2016 and
beyond, here are the programs the JBCIA is currently working
on to push Jeollabuk-do to be even more globally minded.
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1. NAKS (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR KOREAN SCHOOLS)
JBCIA attended the 34th annual Korean academic conference
directed by NAKS (the National Association for Korean
Schools) and sponsored by the JBCIA in July. It was held in
Denver, Colorado for three days. This conference is held every
year for Korean-American students and Korean school teachers
from all the US states, including Hawaii, and also those
from Canada.
LEFT: A photo from the NAKS ceremony in Colorado. RIGHT:
Participants in the first JISU Friends Day.
JBCIA had a booth to display beautiful Korean letters
(hangul) and beautiful Korean paper (hanji) to demonstrate
how they are used in our daily lives. Center representatives
gave a lecture for the teachers and judged a Korean speech
competition, selecting one student who will be visiting Jeollabuk-do
in December to take etiquette lessons and tour the
province.
Besides this, center representatives held a meeting with 14
branches from all the other states to broaden mutual exchange
between Jeollabuk-do and the U.S. The exchange will be mainly
between each country’s elementary and middle schools. The
hope is that students can share language, folk songs, dance, and
so on to showcase the roots of where they are from and display
the history and culture of Jeollabuk-do and Korea. The center
hopes to enjoy more of such vivid exchanges in the future.
2. “ JISU” FRIENDS DAY
On August 20th, 40 people from JISU (the JBCIA’s Jeollabuk-do
International Supporters Unity group) and Chinese
students from overseas participated in a ‘Friends Day’.
The supporters and foreign students were mixed into teams
to work on the program. They visited Buan-gun to see the West
coast and had a chance to dig out clams in the mudflats togeth-
Members of the Foreign
Students Public Relations Team.
er. They also visited Naesosa temple, one of the famous tour
sites in Jeonbuk. Here, they learned the history of Buddhism
in Jeonbuk and had a short-term experience of temple life.
There will be another ‘Friends Day’ in the middle of November
geared toward a different nationality. If you wish
to offer suggestions or to participate, please e-mail: dwkim411@jbcia.or.kr.
3. FOREIGN STUDENTS
P.R. TEAM CHANGE-OVER
The JBCIA’s 1st Foreign Students Public Relations Team,
formed from May to July to promote the province through
photos and video, recently closed out their business and
held an awards ceremony. Their work continues with a new
team, though, as the 2nd Foreign Students PR Team also
held their orientation. The second team’s activity has just
begun with more diverse countries than the first. A total of 33
students are currently signed up. They are from China(22),
Vietnam(3), Sri Lanka(2), Mongolia(2), Taiwan(1), Ecuador(1),
and Uzbekistan(1) and have been arranged into eight
photo teams and three video teams. We look forward to each
team’s photos and videos about Jeollabuk-do.
JBCIA recently held its Jeollabuk-do International Exchange
& Overseas Students Festival, and to light up the
entrance, the center put up some materials to make a gallery.
The content included an introduction of the Foreign Students
PR Team and each team’s past activities. This gallery could
be enjoyed by lots of students and community members who
visited the festival on that day, seeing how much the PR team
has worked on so far to promote the province, and many had
Attendees of the
Mock UN lead-up meeting.
a joyful time using the gallery as a photo booth. The 2nd P.R.
team’s students were also there, both enjoying their work
and planning for the next event.
4. MOCK U.N. MEETING
The “Jeollabuk-do Mock UN Meeting” will be held on October
29th for two days. It is designed to enhance the global
capacity of young people in Jeonbuk and to give a taste of
debate and diplomacy on a pending issue. Participants will
survey the steps involved in the international organization’s
decision making.
At this event, there will be both Korean-speaking and
English-speaking committees. Topics are The Future of UN
Development and Cooperation to Eradicate Global Extreme
Poverty (for Korean-speakers), and The International Community’s
Policy Responses to Threats of Global Climate
Change (for the English-speaking committee).
It took two months to gather the right university students to
chair the group (7), form the delegations (49 middle school
students, 31 high school students), and produce 20 observers
and staff, all from Jeonbuk. All involved had an orientation
on August 6th to see what a mock UN meeting is, how it
progresses, and the steps and rules they follow. After the
orientation, each delegation submitted a position paper and
working paper for the nation it represents. These delegations
have had unofficial meetings every month to practice progress
and rules of order for the upcoming official meeting.
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