By Hong Kilju 

The recruiting season for Korea.net's Honorary Reporters has returned, with applications for this year's class to be accepted from mid-March. Korea.net is preparing more programs this year to promote Korea through a larger number of Honorary Reporters around the globe. The following three articles are about the activities of such reporters.

My connection with Korea, story as Honorary Reporter (Mariam Qazbr from Morocco in Arabic)

Mariam Qazbr from Morocco expressed her wish to bring Korean and Moroccan culture closer through an illustration of a Hanbok-clad woman wearing a hijab. (Mariam Qazbr)

As a fan of Korean culture for nearly six years, Mariam Qazbr from Morocco said she became more than just a fan in serving as a cultural bridge between Korea and Morocco thanks to the Honorary Reporters program. While taking classes in Korean cultural activities such as taekwondo, cooking and Hanbok, she realized how few Koreans were familiar with Moroccans and how her compatriots could not distinguish Korea from China or Japan. 

"After hearing of the Honorary Reporters program, I started writing so that the two countries I love could get closer," she said. "Honorary Reporters reinforced my dream of becoming a cultural bridge.

Fluent in Arabic, English and French, Qazbr is writing articles for Korea.net in all three languages. She said she hopes to collaborate more with cultural content professionals to write more articles and those that are accurate and promote Korea through illustrations.

'Honorary Reporter of the Year' winner reviews her 2021 (Yukiko Hanano from Japan in Japanese)

Yukiko Hanano from Japan poses with her friend in picture strips taken at a photo booth. (Yukiko Hanano)

Yukiko Hanano from Japan wrote 12 articles for Korea.net last year and was selected as one of the 13 best Honorary Reporters of the year. Though reporters often focus on their specific interests when writing articles on Korea, Hanano chose the latest trends in the country rather than traditional culture. 

She promoted Korea from the perspective of the MZ generation by writing about hit Korean dramas such as "Crash Landing on You" and "Yoon's Stay," four-picture strips taken at photo booths, Korean do-it-yourself meal kits and a visit to a BTS exhibition in Tokyo. Hanano cited "communicating with Hallyu fans around the world who share the same interests" as one of the biggest advantages of being an Honorary Reporter.

Meet contemporary Korean poetry in France (Charlotte Geoffray from France in French)

These collections of contemporary Korean poetry are in both French and Korean. (Charlotte Geoffray)

Charlotte Geoffray from France offers a prime example of how Honorary Reporters can discover Korea-related news abroad. Unlike K-pop, dramas and movies, Korean literature is a relatively difficult area to enter for people not fluent in the language. To remedy this problem, Geoffray introduced a bilingual collection of Korean poetry co-published by Bruno Doucey, who handled the French part, and Kim Hyun-ja, who took care of Korean. 

The idea for the five-volume series dates back to the 2016 Paris Book Fair, where Korea was invited as a guest country to mark the 130th anniversary of bilateral relations. This year, Geoffray attended a book tour event at Phoenix Bookstore in Paris to hear more from the editors and about the series. Thanks to her efforts, another Korea-related story hard to hear about unless one was in France was told to the world.

kalhong617@korea.kr