Month of Korean Culture

A virtual festival of k-culture, which includes: K-pop, Taekwondo, K-film, K-drama and various other performances. From October 1 to November 20, 2020, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Slovakia is organizing a virtual festival “Korean Culture Month”. The event will take place online, due to the strict ban on organizing mass events in Slovakia to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Everyone living in Slovakia can participate, i. Slovaks as well as foreigners (Koreans will only be able to participate in some parts of the program). As this is a virtual event, people from all regions of Slovakia can take part.

Korean Culture Month consists of 4 main and several minor parts of the program. The main parts are: How well do you know Korea ?, K-pop competition, Taekwondo competition and me in everyday life (fun video) and Competition in movie parodies or k-dramas. Side program features include the Sejong Center Online Show, the HashTag Event, and the Korea Quiz.

This festival is not just for fans of the so-called K-culture but also for those who have not yet had the opportunity to get to know Korean culture. The annual K-pop World Festival, which was canceled this year due to COVID-19, will replace the K-pop competition so that k-pop fans can compete and show their talent, at least in virtual spaces. On the other hand, the Hash Tag Event and the Quiz on Korea can also be attended by those who have just started to get to know Korean culture. To participate in the competition in the part of the program “Taekwondo and I in everyday life (fun video)” you do not need to be master of the martial art of taekwondo, fun video is ok. The online performance of the Sejong Center will be available to everyone, without the need to register. The program also includes a category for fans of Korean cinema or Korean series.

The winners of the main parts of the program will be awarded various Korean products, such as Samsung smartwatch, Galaxy buds, LG blootooth speaker, or a voucher for Korean restaurants in Slovakia. The additional gift will be given to the fastest registered participants in the main program.

In addition to the cultural parts of the program, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea will organize a campaign called Stay Strong. This campaign has a logo that shows hand washing and says “Stay strong, fight COVID-19.” For the Embassy, ​​this logo also represents the mutual overcoming of difficult times and mutual encouragement for Korea and Slovakia. Ambassador Byung Hwa CHUNG will also present this logo in his speech at the opening of the festival. The condition of participation in the video competition will be to show this logo in your video and to share the hash tag #StayStrongCampaign when logging in.

The Embassy is also planning an offline exhibition of “Friends of Korea on Social Networks” on the occasion of Korean Culture Month. On the outer wall of the Embassy building at Štúrova 16, different contributions dedicated to Korea and its culture will be displayed every week from 12 October to 15 November 2020.

Details of the event are available on the official website of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea or on the embassy’s website. If you have any questions, you can also get information via e-mail at infoslovak@mofa.go.kr.

[Program details]
How well do you know Korea? (registration by October 25) In this part of the program, participants can introduce Korea through a 1-minute video or photo along with text on various topics.

Example topics: why do I like Korea? Korea in my daily life, my favorite Korean food / snack / tourist attractions, what do we know wrong about Korea ?, planning a thematic tour of Korea for a week, the first contact of parents / grandparents with Korean culture (k-pop, products, photos, cuisine etc.) and their reactions …. but also other topics of their own

Competition in parodies of k-films or k-dramas (registration by November 1) In this category, they compete by sending a 1-minute video-parody of their favorite scene from a Korean series or film in Slovak, English or Korean. In the case of participation in Korean, the participant has a chance to win a special prize for language performance.

Taekwondo competition and me in everyday life (fun video) (registration by November 8) This part of the program is dedicated to the Korean martial art of Taekwondo. Just shoot a 10-second engaging video that shows basic taekwondo techniques such as kicks or punches during the normal activities of your daily life. All videos will be published on the Embassy website and the one who gets the most reactions will be the winner. On the occasion of this competition, the Embassy will also publish videos of member clubs of the Slovak Taekwondo WT Association.

K-pop competition (registration by November 8) Since 2016, the Slovak qualification for the K-pop World Festival has been held every year, but this year this popular event was canceled due to COVID-19, which disappointed quite a few k-pop fans. Therefore, the program could not miss the online competition in K-pop.

Place: online
Date: until November 20, 2020
Admission: free

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