Where is the Republic of Korea? Most of the people who are reading this article probably know the answer to this question. However, people living outside of East Asia may not be so sure. I personally have met many people who could not point out Korea on a map. A decent guess would be anywhere from inside China to the Kamchatka Peninsula.

So should we be offended by their indifference or ignorance? What if a similar question was presented to you? Where’s the Republic of Kyrgyzstan? What’s the capital of South Africa? Where’s the UN headquarters located? Of course, not many people can be an encyclopedia memorizing every fact about every country in existence. However, keeping your mind open and aware can be an invaluable asset for meeting and working with people from other parts of the world.

"Global awareness” is the broad term often used to promote the understanding of events, cultures, and facts about people and nations all over the world. At a time when all borders and barriers are being rapidly dissolved and even the word “international” is becoming old fashioned, our exposure and responsibility to the global society seems inevitable. The problem is that most people are only interested in issues closely related to their own country. They have limited awareness of the world accessed through a self-centric portal of information.

I am a strong believer that students today are more aware about the rest of the world than in the past. I also carefully predict that people willing to pick up and read a newspaper, which is also fully in English, are more likely to be aware of the rest of the world. However, if you’re like many other people in Korea, recent surveys suggest that you get more than 80% of your news from television and Internet portals. There is nothing wrong with these sources, until they become your only sources. News in most countries mainly focuses on local issues, and the few world issues, hiding beneath political corruption and celebrity gossip, can easily be biased toward a local perspective. I am not saying they are incorrect, but they do hold the risk of being unbalanced. People in Korea might view protestors at the G-20 summit as a riot, but people in Ethiopia might view them as heroes.


So, what can you do to approach global awareness? Well, once you have the desire to be aware, there are numerous ways to achieve it. Here I will only suggest the ones that I have been using, hoping it may work for you as well.

First, in order to keep up with world events, gather information from a wide range of sources: BBC, Reuters, CNN, Naver, blogs, Wikipedia, Google, etc. Do not trust their decisions; make the final evaluation for yourself. If you hit a place, person, or event you don’t know, then dig up some more information on that topic as well. You will be surprised at how many interesting issues do not surface on your local news.

Secondly, go out and meet new people from diverse backgrounds. Students at Keimyung University are very fortunate in their opportunity to learn and experience diversity. There are nearly 20,000 non-Korean residents in Daegu with 35% in Dalseo-gu, and the school has over 2000 international students and faculty. Go out and explore, make friends, extend your sincere desire to understand their basic customs and culture.

Finally, use the information to your advantage. If you’re meeting an important guest, then perform some background research so you don’t make a rude mistake. If you know people in Korea and Japan consider their business card the same as their face, you might not want to put it in your wallet and then sit on it. If you meet someone who is experiencing a huge flood in their country, you might want to hold back on your talk about how much you love rain. Otherwise, you may find yourself being isolated from the world around you.