Essay Contest Result

In order to understand the image of Korea that French people have, a survey was carried out between July 15 and July 19, 2020, for a period of five days. The questionnaire with 10 questions was distributed through social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and participation was voluntary. A total of 456 anonymous people participated in the survey. It is important to note that all our participants already knew and had a good perception of Korea. This article is organized into two sections. In the first section, the image that French people have towards Korea will be considered. And in the second section, the images that should be improved will be explored.

1. Image of Korea

The results of the survey to find out how the French people perceive and think about Korea was analysed. For the first contact point, we asked the following question: How did you know South Korea? (Q1).

The answers were very diverse with K-pop and K-drama having the highest percentage (57.89%) followed by friends and acquaintances (9.65%), tourism (6.14%), history and geography class (5.7%), News (2.41%) and others (18.21%). In the Others category, adoptions (1.97%), films (1.97%) and university exchanges (1.31%) were the most frequent. Although more than half of the people came to know Korea through K-pop and K-drama, we saw that there were many more reasons that made them discover the country.

Our next question was: What do you like about Korea? (Q3). The respondents were allowed to give more than one answer. The answers were, in descending order, food (81.14%), popular culture (75.87%), language (74.56%), history (69.51%), nature (54.82%), Korean people's hospitality (51.53%) and industrial products (34.65%). There were also other minority responses such as culture, cosmetics, safety, modernity and values such as respect for elders.

Regarding what they like the least about Korea (Q5), participants were free to express themselves as there were no answers suggested. Many people had a negative perspective on the social system (73 pers.). The society demanding a lot of work, competitiveness and hierarchy was considered to be one of the things they liked the least. Similarly, the importance of good appearance was mentioned several times (50 pers.). They pointed that the gender inequality is significant and that the condition of women is not always good (38 pers.). They also talked about the feeling of being marginalized in Korean society as foreigners. It was difficult for them to develop relationships with Koreans. While some talked about the mentality (52 pers.), others talked about racism (26 pers.). The food, which is too spicy or strange, the pollution, the geographical distance from France, the difficulty of learning the language and the image wrongly shaped by popular culture were also mentioned.

As a way to find out the image of Korea by people who have not heard about the country yet, we asked the following question: did you have a representation of Korea before discovering its culture? (Q2) To this question, 170 people out of 456 (37.28%) answered to have had an idea about Korea before they knew its culture. For those who specified, the most common things they knew about Korea were, in descending order, a country like other Asian countries such as Japan and China (18 people), a developed and modern country (13 people), high technology, especially the Samsung brand (13 people), North Korea (13 people), the Korean War (8 people), K-pop (8 people), etc. 62.71% answered that they did not have any idea about Korea. Many responded that they simply knew the country's name. We can see that the images of Korea for those who do not know Korea are quite limited.

2. Images to be improved

When we asked what are the images that people do not know well about Korea (Q6), many people answered that the average French people do not know much about Korea. Some of our respondents mentioned history (47 pers.) and culture (42 pers.). They also indicated that for many people, Korea is like China or Japan (27 pers.) and they think of North Korea as well (19 pers.). They pointed out that sometimes its image is reduced to K-pop only (34 pers.), but people do not know much about the cultural and historical heritage, as well as the Korean society.

For those who do not know Korea, we believe that the most effective way to improve the image would be to focus on the difference between Korea and France (Q8) and its specific characteristics (Q7). According to several of our respondents, the greatest difference between Korea and France was respect, as well as good discipline (105 pers.). Korean people are very respectful especially of elders, but also of other people and of the rules of society. Then came culture, food, safety, security, mentality, education, and so on.

What characterizes Korea among French people was first K-pop and K-drama. Next were, in descending order, culture, food, history, tradition, modernity and technology. Several people emphasized the blending of modernity and tradition.

Thus, K-pop and K-drama, which were the first major contact point, were also seen to characterize Korea. The success of K-pop in France allowed more people to get to know Korea, but several people showed their regrets because they think that the image they have of Korea is not very representative and that they mainly rely on popular culture. The majority of them wanted to discover more about history (71.49%), language (71.27%), gastronomy (67.32%) and nature (56.79%). In fact, history and language are the two most important aspects for the French people. In France, French history and language are very important for defining the French identity. As a result, they wanted to learn more about Korean history and language. They were also interested in many other aspects such as culture, Koreans' life and the country. In the 10th question, in which the respondents were free to express what they want, we found that once they get to know Korea, whether it is through K-pop or friends, they become interested in Korean society in general. They talked about current issues and were especially sensitive to gender inequality, referring to the recent sexual abuse cases in Korea.

The images to be improved are not principally due to misunderstandings or stereotypes. We have understood that French people, who know Korea, have a deeper knowledge of the country than we think. To improve Korea's image abroad, we believe that if the problems within the country are solved, Korea's image will be automatically improved. At the same time, we must give priority to the cultural and historical heritage in which French people are very interested, but which they unfortunately do not know well (see Q6).

To conclude, we would like to present the image of Korea in one word (Q9) that our respondents listed. A lot of qualifying adjectives were quoted: magnificent, fabulous, great, magical, wonderful, etc. There were also proper nouns such as Korea, Kimchi and Bibimbap. Words like humanity, heart, love and friendliness were also mentioned.

We see that Korea is, according to French people, a beautiful country that is a blend of tradition and modernity. It has a lot of heritage but is sometimes idealized through K-pop and K-dramas. Although more than half of the people got to know Korea through these media, they discovered more things afterwards. Their interest broadened to Korean society in general and shaped their image of Korea through different experiences.