Celebrating teenagers’ multicultural heritage

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Celebrating teenagers’ multicultural heritage

A slightly different color of skin does not mean anything to Jo Min-hui, the daughter of overseas Koreans in Uzbekistan, who has a dream of becoming an interpreter. Rather, she sees her special background as a merit.

“I can speak three languages: Russian, Uzbek and Korean. I did not realize this was a good thing,” said Jo, 13, who came with her family to Korea four years ago and was attending Korea’s Future Global Leadership Camp.

The Korea Foundation is holding the camp for teenagers of multicultural families from Dec. 13 to 15 at the Daekyo HRD Center in Siheung, Gyeonggi.

About 100 teens in Seoul and Gyeonggi and 30 of their parents and teachers were taking part in the three-day event.

The camp’s goal is to instill self-respect and a sense of vision in the children of multicultural backgrounds.

The children were seen as not needing “help and sympathy” but were guided in becoming “global leaders and the human capital” of Korea, according to the values of the camp.

Six categories in particular were being stressed: setting goals, continuing learning, opening up oneself, challenging bravely, taking action and linking networks.

Kim Byung-kook, president of the Korea Foundation, said, “We will work hard to turn the camp into a long-term project, offering a venue to bring up would-be diplomats who can make a contribution to exchange programs in the future.”


By Shim Seo-hyun [enational@joongang.co.kr]
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