Since Korea and the Philippines established diplomatic relations in 1949, the two countries have been nurturing ties to build a closer relationship. Last decade, a significant milestone was reached when Korea became the top source of foreign tourists visiting the Philippines. The Filipino community in Korea has also been steadily expanding. The Korean popular culture also invaded the archipelago and Korean products are now easily available in the corners of the country’s major shopping malls.
In spite of these positive developments, there is often this general impression that the Philippines-Korea relations have somehow been limited to the domains of tourism and business and are primarily driven by the economic leverage that Korea currently enjoys.
Along this line, the UP Korea Research Center (UP KRC) calls for essays that explore some of the ways that could potentially enrich the Philippines-Korea relations, particularly in the areas/domains that gained little or no attention from both countries. More specifically, UP KRC calls for essays that could put forward proposals on how to make the Philippines a more interesting enterprise for Koreans— not only in the domains mentioned above, and conversely, how to diversify the Filipinos’ interest in Korea apart from being a tourism or employment destination.
With the theme “Exploring new channels of mutual interests between Korea and the Philippines”, this year’s essay contest hopes to eventually be able to find channels where genuine interests between Korea and the Philippines could be pursued, mutual understanding fostered, and the relationships between these countries and their people deepened.
Guidelines
1. The contest is open to ALL Filipinos.
2. Entries must be original and unpublished. Plagiarized entries will be automatically disqualified.
3. Entries must be 1,000 – 1,250 words in English (excluding list of references, if there is any).
– Must be in MS Word file format
– Text should be double spaced, 12 pt, Times New Roman, with one-inch margin on each side of the page
3. Entriesust be submitted with the completed application form.
4. Winning essays will be published online.
Grand Prize: 5,000 plus Korean souvenirs
Deadline: 20 May 2018, 23:59 PM Manila Standard Time
Email entries to pkrc@up.edu.ph with subject “UP KRC 2018 Korea Essay Contest”.
Download appication form and guidelines: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HdttRk0bZAWBgXvTA9ldNZLbb87Elx0TdbMu6LK_y1A/edit?usp=drivesdk.
