Korea.net has 3,432 Honorary Reporters from 105 countries who share news and stories on Korea in nine languages. They send Korea-related news from their neighborhoods to Korea.net and share articles posted on our site through their social media accounts. The following are last week's ten most-read stories from these reporters.
The English-language article "3 foreign cast members dish on Netflix sitcom 'So Not Worth It'" by Honorary Reporter Alaa Atef Ebada from Egypt was translated into Arabic and Spanish. The Arabic-language version finished first and that in Spanish second on the list of the most-read Honorary Reporter articles in the second week of this month. (Screen capture from Arabic-language section of Korea.net)
By Elias Molina, Lee Jae-eun, Kim Shinhyeong and Yoon Hee Young
The Arabic- and Spanish-language versions of an English-language article that topped the Honorary Reporter chart last week finished first and second, respectively, on this week's list.
The article is the first on Korea.net to be the most-read story in several languages, showing how a good story can gain reader interest regardless of tongue.
The top story for the second consecutive week was an interview with three cast members of Netflix's Korean sitcom "So Not Worth It" by Honorary Reporter Alaa Atef Ebada from Egypt.
Ebada wrote the interview in both English and Arabic. A Korea.net Spanish-language staff writer translated the article into Spanish and posted it on the site's Spanish-language section, attracting huge popularity from readers.
Two stories in Spanish and one in French rounded out this week's top five. Sixth to 10th place on the list comprised three articles in Spanish, one in English and one in Japanese, thus six of the top 10 were in Spanish.
The Korean Netflix sitcom "So Not Worth It" is about friendships and love stories of international students at a college dorm in Korea. Ebada from July 7-12 conducted written interviews with three cast members of the show: Carson Allen and Terris Brown from the U.S. and Joakim Sorensen from Sweden.
The trio shared their experiences of playing international students in Korea and hardships while filming the show, saying the series reflected real life for expats in Korea.
■ Interview with St. Sebastien Sports President Yoann Hugot (Danielle Tartaruga from France)
Third place went to a French-language interview with the president of St. Sebastien Sports, a taekwondo studio in the northern French city of Normandy. Opened in 2000 in the Saint-Sebastien-de-Morsent region of Normandy, the studio recently marked its 20th anniversary.
President Yoann Hugot assumed his post in 2012 and has run the studio since. He began training in the martial art from 1994 and is now a third-degree black belt. He said he is interested in various aspects of Korean culture including food, scenery, architecture and history.
Yoann Hugot (second from left), president of St. Sebastien Sports, poses with instructors from the taekwondo studio. (St. Sebastien Sports)
Fourth was the Spanish-language article "Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong values traditional myths through his works" by Honorary Reporter Araceli Gonzalez from Argentina. The piece introduced the Spanish-language translations of Hwang's novels "Simcheong, The Lotus Path," which came out in 2012, and "Princess Bari," which followed in 2015.
"The two works interpreted traditional Korean tales in an interesting way," Gonzalez said. "Combining social issues and historical moments that affected Korean history with traditional tales was impressive."
This is the cover of the Spanish-language edition of Hwang Sok-yong's novel "Princess Bari" published in 2015. (Alianza Literia's website)
No. 5 was a Spanish-language article on former "comfort women" Kim Hak-soon and Kim Bok-dong on the occasion of International Memorial Day for Comfort Women on Aug. 14. The day in 1991 was when Kim Hak-soon first told the world of her horrendous experience as a sex slave for the Japanese military. Breaking 40 years of silence and describing the damage she suffered, she participated in protests and activism throughout her life to urge the Japanese government to apologize and come clean on the issue.
Kim Bok-dong said in a media interview that she was taken to a "military comfort station" at age 14 and returned to her motherland at 22 in 1947. "To avoid a recurrence of this cruel and shameful history, disclosure of the truth and compensation for the damage are essential," Fernandez said.
Former sex slave and human rights activist Kim Bok-dong on Oct. 28, 2018, speaks in an interview with the YouTube channel Asian Boss. (Screen capture from Asian Boss' YouTube channel)
| Rank | Title | Writer & nationality (language) |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Exhibition of Korean Argentine sculptor opens in Argentina | Milena Florencia de Bilbao from Argentina (Spanish) |
| 7 | Joseon doctor fights pandemic | Ivana Alzaga from Mexico (Spanish) |
| 8 | 10 K-pop acts whose songs were heard at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics | Veronica Zuniga from Mexico (English) |
| 9 | Dakjuk: alternative to samgyetang for last day of heat wave | Murayama Kimiko from Japan (Japanese) |
| 10 | Gama: transportation for upper class in ancient Korea | Paola Corpus from Mexico (Spanish) |
