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Mongolian Sinbad explores Korea

Published: 22 Sep. 2017, 19:46

Lkhangvasuren Shinebat, from Mongolia, dreams of improving Mongolia’s cultural industry by studying from Korean counterparts. [SHIENBAT]

The former Mongolian celebrity Lkhangvasuren Shinebat started to wonder about his future when he was eighteen, just three years ago. Then he learned about Korean culture and entertainment, formed a plan and has now come to Korea to fulfill his dreams by studying Korean culture as a freshman at Daegu University.

Shinebat was educated in Mongolian Children’s Palace, a school for future celebrities, before doing a wide range of entertainment activities, such as cover modelling for the 2013 April issue of “Happy Children,” a Mongolian teen magazine, playing the role of the main MC on “Looloi’s Friend,” an entertainment program on the largest private TV station in Mongolia, TV9 Mongolia, and hosting “Shinebat’s Invitation,” making him the youngest talk show host in his country.

It wasn’t easy for him to come to Korea. Shinebat faced language barriers, career concerns and discouragement from his family members. Foreign students aspiring to attend higher education in Korea must take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (Topik) and attain at least the third out of six levels.

But Shinebat did not give in, and studied in Pai Chai Univerrsity’s Korean Language Education Center from 2015, using the money he had earned from his celebrity activities.

Last month, he received news of his acceptance to the Department of Media and Communication at Daegu University. Many of the school’s foreign students hail from Mongolia because Daegu University has hosted an office for prospective overseas students in the nation’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, since 2012.

Shinebat says his aim is to become a show host as well as a program producer. “Mongolian broadcasting seems to be losing viewership because of oversaturation in political programs,” he says. “I want to create a Mongolian cultural boom by introducing Korean content to the Mongolian network.”

The former celebrity is preparing to launch an online broadcast show that will introduce Korea to Mongolians. The hypothetical show plans to feature Korean cuisine and fashion. Shinebat also hopes to appear in Korean TV programs in the future.

“As my namesake suggests, I believe that I am an explorer of unknown grounds like Sinbad the sailor from ‘One Thousand and One Nights,’ only I explore Korean culture,” he says. “These discoveries will become an experience that I may be able to use in Mongolian media.”

BY KIM YOON-HO [[email protected]]