The World Still Knows Little About S.Korea > 영어토론방

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In July 2002 I received my name card from graduate school in Chicago. It gave my name and home country, South Korea. I immediately called at the academic affairs office to protest, asking why they did not give my country's official name. An official apologized and made out another card that said "Republic of Korea." As a result, I was constantly asked by my fellow students whether I was from North or South Korea. So I went back to the office, apologized, and asked them to give me another card saying "South Korea."

Eight years later, I still meet plenty of Americans who don't know South Korea or confuse the South with the North. This is the case not only in the heartland but even in Washington, D.C. Even public servants in charge of immigrants' affairs ask whether I am from the North or the South. One second-generation Korean American who works as an assistant to a Congressman sighed when I met him a while ago. "I'm upset when Americans who are aware that I'm of Korean descent ask me whether I come from the North or the South," he said.

Since North Korea started developing nuclear weapons in the 1990s, it became better known in the U.S. than the South. More than 70 percent of Korean news stories the American press handles involve North Korea. Despite its remarkable economic development, South Korea is much less well known.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs in a recent poll about the South Korea-U.S. alliance found that 40 percent of respondents believed South Korea is not a democratic country. South Korea is the U.S.' seventh largest trading partner, but 71 percent of respondents did not realize that South Korea is among the top 10 trading partners of the U.S. A quarter of respondents said it is not even in the top 20. Based on the poll, the CCGA warned that a lack of general knowledge about South Korea among Americans can be a potential weakness in the alliance.

Thanks to the efforts of corporations like Samsung, Hyundai and LG, South Korea has become better known overseas. Nonetheless, it is still an obscure country to many Americans. That the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement is still stuck in the works three years after it was signed may have something to do with that. Nor is the problem confined to America. Unless South Korea comes up with more strategic and systematic ways to promote the country to the world, it may not be able to make much progress on the world stage.

South Korea is the first Asian country to host the G20 Summit. But that does not mean the world will automatically know much more about it afterwards. The country has a long way to go.

출처 : http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/10/27/2010102700983.html

Question
1. What do you think is the general feeling about South Korea around the world? What do people know about it?
2. Do you think hosting the 88 Olympics boosted the world's knowledge of South Korea?
3. What do you think would be some good ways to help improve South Korea's reputation among foreigners?
4. What countries do you think have the most accurate international reputations?
5. Do you think that Americans generally tend to know less about other countries than other people? Why or why not?
6. How do you think hosting the G20 will affect South Korea's reputation, if at all?
 
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