Activities
Below are the activities the Korea Office carries out with which we seek that the academic community and the city of Malaga can enjoy the Korean culture in a closer way.
The mentioned activities are language exchanges, the Korean Week, the Essay Contest, the realization of Korean festivities, seminars and mobility talks.
Mobility Talks
Through the academic year there are a series of mobility talks to Asia organized, through the UMA Call or summer scholarships,
with a program of recreational-academic activities for students interested in doing some mobility to Asia. From the Office we organize these talk in various faculties to inform as many students as possible about this magnificent opportunity to train as a professional in partner universities.
In these talks, our volunteers: students from the University of Malaga that completed any mobility in Asia, and native Korean students that are in a mobility program in the University of Malaga, explain first-handedly the offered programs in their universities, their mobility programs and how to function there, always under our close supervision. What differentiates these talks from the rest is that they are informal, direct and personal, the opportunity to ask and get answers to specific questions to people who have already lived that experience, in a relaxed atmosphere.
On the other hand, we strongly recommend attending the Mobility Information Assemblies organized by the International Relations and Cooperation Service
of the University of Malaga, to be informed of all the bureaucratic procedures and requirements for academic mobility.
Essay Contest on Korean Literature
Korean literature is a great unknown in other countries, either due to the lack of translations or the lack of knowledge of the world and its importance in the Asian country. Even though it is a different and distant culture, through Korean literature you can see its vision of the world and social relations, giving us at the same time other perspectives on life, useful for our own experience in it.
From the Korea Office and thanks to the collaboration with LTI-Korea (Literature Translation Institute of Korea), annual essay contests are geld on Korean literature. The objective of this contest is to present and spread Korean culture through its literature among the members of the academic community of Malaga, Seville and Granada, cities with universities linked to studies of Asia in the community of Andalusia. It promotes knowledge of the works and their authors that are selected each year and organized by the UMA through the Vice-Rector of Culture and Sports and the Vice-Rectorate of Strategic Projects.
Last Call: XII Essay Contest on Korean Literature
Korean Festivities
The coincidences of the academic calendar with some Korean national festivities create the perfect opportunity to bring their culture closer to our community. From the Office we take advantage of these moments to organize some of the most representative Korean events. For example, the beginning of each academic year coincides with the Korean holiday called Chuseok (추석), similar to the American Thanksgiving Day, in which Koreans commemorate their ancestors with the family. Another important festivity is the Lunar New Yeat (Seollal, 설날), celebrated annually by the Office, which makes linguistic exchanges with this theme in which participants can enjoy typical and traditional games and activities, as well as try the characteristic Korean food served in this important event.
The celebration of these festivities are also for Korean exchange students at the University of Malaga to make them feel at home and, on the other hand, to share their culture with Spanish students who participate in them so that they can learn fist hand how to relate socially in this type of events.
Language Exchanges
The purpose of the Language Exchange that we organize from the Office is that both Spanish and Korean students can carry out a reciprocal cultural and linguistic learning of each nation. We propose two types of exchanges for them:
Linguistic Exchange 1:1 :
In the 1:1 program we open a call for those interested in the language and Korean culture and belong to the UMA community. In this type of exchanges couples formed by a Korean and a Spanish students who have the same language level are assigned. After putting them in contact in a first exchange organized by us, they can meet periodically to practice. We also organize recreational activities that serve as a trigger for conversations for our students.
Through this modality of linguistic exchange we create an opportunity to learn the language in an environment of natural conversation in which both can learn expressions and vocabulary about the subjects they want to talk about with their partner.
Two Linguistic Exchanges 1:1 are organized through the academic year, each semester.
General Linguistic Exchanges:
In this type of exchange modality, we open a call to all those interested in the Korean language and culture. In this exchanges the Korean level does not matter because we organize group activities so each participant can develop according to their aptitudes.
This way, we put in contact a large number of people with similar interests and tastes. These exchanges are organized in the spaces of the University that promote a closer and relaxed environment for all participants.
General Linguistic Exchanges are usually organized several times throughout the academic year, we recommend following our social networks to be informed of all our cultural programs.
Korean Week
The Week of Korea has become the clearest sign of identity, in a cultural programming level, of the Office in Malaga. This event aims to bring Korean culture to the whole community of the University of Malaga and the city of Malaga itself, through a wide variety of cultural and academic activities.
There are numerous artistic, cultural and academic activities throughout a week, with guests mastered in their field arrived directly from South Korea, in which the students of the University of Malaga can participate completely free of charge. Thanks to this event and its programming, the Korean culture, coming from the other side of the globe, is accessible to us. We have the opportunity to leave the stereotypes and teach more of the cultural base of a country of which we usually know only the aspects of its present. In addition, it has become one of the most important points in the cultural programming of the office in the city of Malaga.
From the Office we try that each edition of the Week of Korea is different from the previous ones. We give a special theme according to the activities that are organized in that week or responding to the current requests in academic-professional matters.
Seminars
From a more academic point of view, during the course numerous seminars are held in different areas of study: literature, history, law, e-sports, economics, politics, art, international relations ... These seminars are the result of institutional relations with our partners.
The main objective is that students have the great opportunity to broaden their knowledge of South Korea and Asia, at the same time that they guide their professional lives in the hands of specialists in multiple sectors. These seminars also serve to connect outstanding professionals of the East Asian Studies area, creating a wider network.
The vast majority of these seminars are free and open until full capacity is reached.
