KOREA FOUNDATION

Letters from AKF 

My time with ASEAN: From unfamiliar start to scintillating finish 

By Jeongbin Lee Member of the “In My Korea” Team (4th AKF)  

As an undergraduate, I made friends from all over the world, including ASEAN, Europe, China and Japan. I became particularly close friends with a Malaysia person, which in turn made me interested in both Malaysia itself and especially the body of Southeast Asian states that it is part of: ASEAN. I had always wanted to know more about ASEAN, but it was not easy to find ways to do so in Korea. I later learned about AKF, where participating in activities made me even more open-minded about ASEAN and see the region from a much more positive perspective. 

   Of the AKF “missions” (activities) I’ve done so far, “My Little ASEAN” was particularly special because it required a team effort from start to finish. The activity required everyone in the team to do a live YouTube broadcast of videos they had created themselves. After some discussion, my team decided to use national holidays as our theme. Thanks to having members from Indonesia and Myanmar, we introduced congkak, an Indonesian game often played on traditional holidays, and learned that in Myanmar, it’s common to play by running around while spraying one another with water. We were unable to try out these games in person as a group, but I nevertheless had a unique online experience of ASEAN culture through team members sharing videos on the traditions of their countries. 

   Encountering ASEAN in this way, I found the region to be much more diverse than I had expected. There was also a human warmth that pervaded the entire process, from having online team meetings to sharing our videos with one another. I will remember for a long time how we couldn’t stop laughing because of the strangeness of real-time video meetings as well as having serious debates on how to design each video. I hope to reflect the positive emotions from this video activity in my best efforts for the rest of My Little ASEAN. There were, of course, difficulties, most of which were communication problems (due to everyone speaking a different native language) and the entire team’s lack of experience with video-making. But there is more that binds us together than keeps us apart—our passion about ASEAN—that I am sure will bring us success in all future missions. We hope to show as many viewers as possible the beauty and energy of ASEAN through videos that are specifically designed to be broadcast live on YouTube. 

   With the indefinite prolonging of COVID-19, many people are experiencing what we are beginning to call the “corona blues.” Through our live broadcast, we would like to be a ray of sunshine for people having a difficult time by making our program a fun, interesting and memorable place for viewers to find hope in their shared experiences.