Ambassadorial skill on display at CICI's culture forum

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Ambassadorial skill on display at CICI's culture forum

Published: 14 Jun. 2023, 15:52 Updated: 14 Jun. 2023, 18:29

Philippe Lefort, ambassador of France to Korea, left, shows off his Taekwondo skills during the Culture Communication Forum 2023, held at the Embassy of France in Seodaemun District, western Seoul. [YONHAP]

The Culture Communication Forum (CCF) 2023, which took place Tuesday evening at the Embassy of France in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, was a celebration of “hidden talents” and ChatGPT.

The event, hosted by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), saw ambassadors showing off their special skills — including breaking wooden boards via a Taekwondo performance or playing the piano — as well as voting in a ChatGPT contest.

Six people gave special performances which all received rounds of applause from the audience.

Philippe Lefort, ambassador of France to Korea, changed into a Taekwondo uniform and demonstrated his top three favorite forms. He has a second-degree black belt.

Next was a piano and flute ensemble by German ambassador Michael Reiffenstuel and Eugene Bang, chairman of media company Millenasia. The duo played Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20.

There was another duet, this time pansori, or traditional Korean narrative singing, by French pansori singer Laure Mafo and drummer Lee Bum-hee, who performed a song from “Heungboga,” one of five pansori masterpieces.

Finally, magician Ed Kwon entertained the audience with some magic tricks.

Attendees also cast their vote for one of seven finalists who used ChatGPT to provide interesting answers for four categories: famous Korean places, Hallyu culture, Korean food and unique Korean experiences.

The ChatGPT Question Competition was held to uncover intriguing information and recommendations to foreign visitors to Korea in the aforementioned categories.

The contest, held from May 4 to May 26, concluded with a total of 221 entries from a wide range of professions, including teachers, students, social workers, civil servants and more.

The Grand Award went to Hwang Young-seok, a student, who asked ChatGPT to give five best tourist spots and organize them into seven subcategories including name, location, brief description of each place, and rating on Google. Hwang instructed ChatGPT to present the result in a five-by-seven chart.

“Trends continue to change. If everyone is getting onto the next train but we stay behind just because we like our seat, we will eventually be left behind,” CICI President Choi Jung-wha said. “If we do not sync with the changing world we will fall behind, so we decided to hold the ChatGPT Question Competition, which uses a technology that is a hot topic globally today.”

CCF is an annual event that invites figures from all over the world to engage in numerous Korean cultural experiences. This year, some important guests participated the event to celebrate CICI's 20th anniversary, including Italian Ambassador to Korea Federico Failla, Swiss Ambassador to Korea Dagmar Schmidt Tartagli, Ekaterini Loupas, Greek Ambassador to Korea as well as CJ Group Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, Poongsan Group Chairman and CEO Ryu Jin and Hong Seok-hyun, chairman of JoongAng Holdings.

CICI was established in 2003 in affiliation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote Korean culture abroad and conducts research on Korea’s international reputation.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]