(also published in Korea.net: Honorary Reporters Meet Winners of Talk Talk Korea)
The Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially launched Talk Talk Korea in 2013 as a global content contest showcasing Korea to the world. The contest has come a long way since then. This year, 2018, had the biggest number of entries. There were 32,345 works submitted from 146 countries revolving around the theme “Find Korea in your Country.” These entries were received from May 16 to June 28, 2018. Under this theme, there were five categories from which contestants could submit their entries. These were K-Food, K-Beauty & Style, K-Music & Drama, ETC (which includes Hanbok, Hangeul, taekwondo, etc), and this year’s special topic “Peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
On October 16, 2018, the first prize winners in each category officially received their awards at the Global Contents Contest Award Ceremony at Korea House. All five winners were flown in from their respective countries to receive their award and enjoy a tour around Korea and personally experience its beautiful culture and immerse themselves in the modern lifestyle. KOCIS Director Kim Tae-hoon presented the awards.
The winners were:
K-Food: Joanita Mutiara from Indonesia
K-Beauty & Style: Mariana dela Rosa from Mexico
K-Music and Drama: Piper Bo from the USA
ETC: Viktoria Moroz from Ukraine
Peace on the Korean Peninsula: Sarah Perreau from France
Joanita did a webtoon of how to cook budaejjigae stew. Mariana’s entry showed several photos of tiny Hanbok made with petals of dainty flowers. Piper made a video of herself taking the personalities of different celebrities singing and dancing and she put all these videos together to create an impressive music video. Viktoria submitted graphics of a Korean lady made of Hangeul characters. Sarah made a meaningful video of a love story between a Korean couple, one coming from the North and the other from South Korea. Their works all showed how much they deserve to be the grand prize winners in their respective categories.
It was during this ceremony for the Talk Talk Korea winners that some of the Honorary Reporters got the chance to meet them. Five Honorary Reporters witnessed the award ceremony together with the officials from KOCIS. The ceremony was followed by a special luncheon at Korea House. Afterwards, the group all proceeded to COEX for the official opening of the special exhibition of the winning pieces. Each grand prize winner happily went to their respective entry and gracefully answered questions about their work.
The Honorary Reporters were all in admiration of the details of the winning pieces as well as the talent showed by this year’s winners. For the winners, that day was just the start of their five-day journey of personally knowing and experiencing South Korea.