The 'Buddy' team, part of the K-Connectors operated by the Korean Studies Dissemination Research Center at Inha University's Institute of International Relations, organized a Korean studies tour project in August, targeting international students.

 The theme of the tour was modern and contemporary Korean culture, with the aim of providing international students with a deep understanding and hands-on experience of the regions in Korea known as cultural "hotspots."

 Team leader Kwak Dohyun (majoring in Political Science and International Relationship) pointed out that many current tour programs are one-off events and often lack sufficient information about the tour locations, leading to a lack of understanding of these areas.

To address this, the Buddy team divided their activities into three steps. The first step involved recruiting international participants and providing them with educational sessions on the target areas, Seongsu-dong and Jongno-gu, which they would visit during the tour.

▲ Part of the pre-tour educational materials provided by the 'Buddy' team.

 In the second step, they conducted the tours to these locations, reinforcing and internalizing the knowledge shared during the educational sessions.

 The final step involved producing a video of the entire tour activity, which was then uploaded to social media to allow as many people as possible to experience the tour indirectly.

 Additionally, the team created pamphlets summarizing the tour results and shared their experiences at an open booth, where they also conducted in-depth interviews with booth participants to gather detailed impressions and discuss issues related to Seongsu and Jongno.