[Interview] Park Gi Tae, founder of VANK, introduces Korean history and culture all over the world.
He educates students to be public diplomats, and raises up the value of Korean history and culture
http://cafe.daum.net/weeklymonday/iSZz
Mr. Park Gi Tae is the founder of VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea), a cyber-diplomacy organization with about 130,000 members. Its purpose is to introduce Korea to the world properly and to promote cultural exchange through international friendships. This huge organization actually started as a small pen pal site. While managing the website, he found out that Korea was not well known internationally, and many international friends had incorrect information about Korea. From then on, he started the work of letting the world know about Korea by educating students to become public diplomats.
Q: How did you start VANK and what is your mission and vision?
A: I started it in 1999 as a young man who wanted to start an email exchange with a foreign friend. I was shocked to find my foreign friend knew very little about Korea, or possessed incorrect information about Korea. So I thought I should do something. I thought, “If one Korean has 5 foreign friends and is able to teach them correct information about Korea, someday, 6 billion friends around the world would have a holistic understanding of Korea. Then, Korea would be able to be a ‘friend’ to the world, with close relationships with other countries.
Our members have a special mission to create friendships around the world, and at the same time, let them have correct information about Korea. As civil representatives of Korea, we are now creating the past, present, and future of Korea.
Q: What is your most memorable moment as director of VANK?
A: The most memorable moment is when our member students whom I taught achieve more than what I can do. Last year, one 3rd year middle school student sent a letter to an American history book publisher site and she corrected its error that Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible (1455) was the oldest movable metal type print. She persuaded the researchers and succeeded in getting them to add that Jikji (1377) is the oldest. She did this by herself. This is the happiness I feel in working for VANK. Our members achieve what I myself cannot do. They really endeavor to promote Korean culture and let the world know in every possible way that Dokdo has been and is our territory. I am very proud of them and I love them.
A: I think patriotism is not something special. During the March First Movement in 1919, 200,000 people went into the streets in front of the guns and swords of the Japanese military regime. I think just about the entire nation participated in the movement in one way or another. I think they joined the movement because they were Korean, rather than because they had special love towards this country. I think if you are Korean, naturally you love Korea, which can be called patriotism. It just reveals itself at some important or necessary moment. I’m afraid I didn’t know about patriotism when I developed the website for pen pals. To be honest, when I started the pen pal exchange program with my members first, I didn’t know why Dokdo should be called Dokdo. However, I had the feeling that I didn’t want my American friends to learn that it is not Dokdo, but Dakesima. I think, every Korean has the feeling of love toward Korea, and that is called patriotism. Patriotism is, so to speak, just something like air. It’s not tangible, but it’s real.
Q: What is your plan or priority this year?
A: Well, first of all, I’d like to tell you about students’ role models. I realized that their role models are mostly western heroes. Everyone might understand what I mean. I’m sure the Korean heroes who fought for our independence are as great as those western heroes. They deserve that recognition and admiration. They dedicated their lives to Korea, sacrificing everything that they had. So we are planning the ‘365 Independence Activist Project.’ We will have students choose a role model from 365 heroes who contributed to the independence of Korea. We will help the students find their dreams through this project. The students will make their dreams as Koreans come true by following their role models. This will be a kind of career education for the students. This is our priority at the moment.
Q: What message do you want to give to our readers, who think you are their role model?
A: Danjae Shin Chae-ho is known to have regretted that when Confucianism came into Korea, it didn’t become Confucianism of Korea, but Korea became the country of Confucianism. I think he meant that we are used to receiving other cultures without thinking deeply about our national identity. I think we should try to make use of other cultures to spread ours, too, but unfortunately we tend to be overwhelmed by them or immersed in them at the expense of our own culture. I think readers of this newspaper are definitely good at English. Then, I strongly recommend that we all use our language abilities as tools for enhancing the value of our culture and our history as diplomats of Korea, rather than blindly pursuing other cultures and their history.
9호2017년7월17일자(인쇄본).pdf