By Umer Nangiana

This is how you make the best use of a vacation. Travel the world, meet people and explore different cultures and lifestyles. In the process, you get wiser and enlightened before it is even time for you to step into the real world of opportunities and practicalities.

This affinity with cultural exploration must begin from one’s early age. It ensures dividends for the entire society. Like many developed and developing nations, Korean people too are awake to this realisation.

A group of students from Seoul, South Korea are currently on a cultural exchange trip to Doha, using their summer vacations for constructive learning. Hosted by Sarang Plus: Korea Culture Centre, these 12 college and high school students have actively taken part in various programmes of cultural exchange with their Qatari counterparts, besides sightseeing.

Travel indeed is a fun way of learning the arts of living. “We organised lots of programmes including cooking classes and writing in traditional Korean…. We actually designed and established a [mock] travel agency where people can design their own travelling schedules,” said Sejeong Youn, a Business student from Korea while speaking to Community about the two-day Korean Cultural Camp at Sarang.

She said the main purpose of the camp was to make the Qatari students understand Korea through their interaction. “We have come to tell them how Korea is like. We got time to get to know each other. We played a lot of games,” Youn said, while describing the first day of the camp and their interaction with Qatari girls and boys from local schools. “Though we met for the first time here at the camp, all of us became friends easily,” she added.

Jay Hong, the Managing Director (MD) of Sarang Plus, said that the students were prepared before coming to Doha, specifically on talking about the Korean culture. “We also designed some programmes to enable the students to learn about the Islamic and Middle Eastern culture,” said Hong.

Hong said college and university students in Korea traditionally go out of country during their summer vacations. Most of them choose to go to either Europe or America. But he wanted to give them the chance of travelling to a different place. He said he wanted to give them an opportunity to explore other destinations.

The trips were either self-sponsored or funded by their educational institutions. “It was an opportunity to broaden their vision. They would learn that here too they can find good jobs and business opportunities,” said the Sarang MD.

He said some of his Qatari friends arranged briefings for the visiting Korean students on the local culture and lifestyle.

The touring students also went sightseeing. They said they were particularly inspired by the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), which they said opened the gates for them to understand the Islamic ways of life and the Middle Eastern culture.

“At MIA the tour guide explained it really well and I go to know more about the Islamic culture. Also, the view from the museum was beautiful. We witnessed the sunset from there and it was beautiful,” said Dasom Kim, a college senior.

She also purchased scarves from Suoq Waqif, which she said was also a "very nice place" to visit.

Dasom said she found many things common between their Qatari hosts and themselves. The urge to know about the Korean culture also brought the two peoples together, she added. “Since we all are in the same age group, we talked about what we wanted to do with our lives and other similar interests,” added the young student.

Kwanghyun Kim, another Korean student, said this was his first visit to Qatar. Initially he said he was surprised by the hot weather and certain cultural traditions. “I was not familiar with the culture here in Qatar but now I am getting used to it,” said Kwanghyun.

At Sarang Plus, the students participated in many Korean and Qatari games. They also dressed up in the cultural attires of the other country: A Korean student would come out wearing a toop (traditional Qatari male outfit) and the whole group would go up in cheers.

It was also a perfect opportunity for the students from both sides to take some memorable pictures. The group said they particularly enjoyed learning to write Korean traditionally. “[The traditional way of writing] is actually writing with black ink on a very thin paper. We know how to write our names in Korean, but this was the first time we got a chance to write the names traditionally,” said Youn.

The Korean students also set up a mock travel agency, where their Qatari hosts could plan out their visit to Korea, learning about the different tourist destinations and the culture of the East Asian country.

“We also gave them travel tips on Korea — like how to negotiate on prices and get a discount there or how to get the best services. These are practical tips for when they actually visit Korea,” said Youn.

She said it was her first trip to Doha and like some of her colleagues she was initially put off by the hot weather. However, all of them settled down quickly and got acquainted with the conditions to enjoy their visit.

Youn liked the cafés and beaches in Doha in particular. She was happy that the Korean visitors were able to ignite interest in their Qatari hosts about Korean culture. “They loved how we prepared things for them. They were asking me about my Facebook address and our Korean messenger. I think we are going to keep in contact for a really long time,” said Youn.

“There are people who want to visit Korea so if they come, maybe I will greet them because I am going to be in Seoul then,” she added.