Just dream of Korea and Japan getting together culturally: Galavi Sharma

It is the time for the Asian soft power to rule the world cultural scene, and if culturally-rich Asian countries like Korea and Japan join hands and promote friendship, then the sky is the limit.

Despite their history, both the countries enjoy good diplomatic, political and business relations but more needs to be done to promote their rich cultural heritage like Hallyu and Manga respectively worldwide.

And it is possible if they get more close to each other and attempt it collectively.

Galavi Sharma, the Korean language student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), is scheduled to represent India at the World K-SPEECH Contest being organized in Japan in August. She said this in her speech during the preliminary round of K-SPEECH Contest held at the university campus recently.

Galavi, who scored maximum marks and emerged winner chose a crucial topic “Measures to promote friendship between Korea and Japan”.  And the subject of her speech in World K-SPEECH Contest in Japan is likely to remain the same, she said.

“I said in my speech that Japan’s Manga culture is very well known to the world. On the other hand, Korea has Hallyu culture which has world-famous K-Pop and K-Drama with billions of fan following cutting across the world boundaries. But both countries promote their own cultures individually. If they come together and promote their cultures Manga and Hallyu together, they can show the world that Asia is one culture. They can promote Japan’s Mang and Korea’s Hallyu culture as one and this is the time for Asian soft power to rule the world cultural scene,” said Galavi adding that she quoted Napoleon Bonaparte who had said, “If you believe in your dreams, then you can overcome everything.”

Also read: World K-SPEECH Contest: JNU student Galavi Sharma to represent India

Just dream of an unknown world, where the sun rises and it spreads out the morning calm. As everyone knows, Korea is the land of the morning calm and Japan of the rising sun, and both can create history, Galavi said in her address.

And all that can happen in spite of the fact that Korea and Japan share bad history.

“Despite the fact that Korea was colonized in the 20^th century by Japan, and they have a bitter history to share, both the countries now enjoy good political and trade relations. Still, some people think that Korea and Japan cannot be friends,” said Galavi.

Not believing that Korean and Japan cannot be friends, Galavi who is in the 3^rd year of her B.A (Hons) course at JNU, said that she gave an example of Britain and India to support her logic.

Also read: The world of Korea is coming to India: Yoo Chang-ho

“Britain and India also share a bad history as India was colonised and ruled for over 200 years by the former, but both the countries came out of that bitter phase when we blamed each other and didn’t see eye to eye. India revived its relations with Britain, and trade happens between the two countries and students go to each other countries for higher education etc. Similarly, Korea and Japan also can look forward to the bright future,” she added.

Korea is primarily an export-oriented industry and needs spare parts to make finished goods, and Japan, on the other hand, is very good at these skills. Galavi said both the countries can play a complementary role to strengthen each others business interests too.

Galavi Sharma attributed her success to Anna Yang, Research Scholar (Linguistics), School of Language, JNU, who helped her prepare the content for the speech. Anna who is a Korean national, is also Secretary General of World K-SPEECH Contest.

Galavi lives in Delhi and was a science student at her higher secondary school but decided to pursue the Korean language to shape her career. Her father is a lawyer at Delhi High Court and mother a company secretary. Her younger brother is pursuing studies in law.

When asked about her decision of taking up the Korean language as her career, Galavi said as she loved K-Pop too much, opting for the Korean language was one soft reason.

While stating her main reason for opting Korean language, Galavi said that Korean is a sought after language in the Asian cluster but people didn’t have many options to learn this language. So, JNU is the only premium institution offering Korean language courses, and she was lucky to have admission here.

“If we learn the Korean language, we have better career prospects. Korean companies are coming to India in a big way, and if we know this language, we will have more chances of being absorbed by the Korean companies,” she added.