2010 FIFA World CUP in Korea

Because we study in South Korea, we all cheered for South Korea. People from all over the world, were cheering for South Korea, when they had to play. When your own country had to play, you would cheer for your own country.

I remember the day that South Korea had to play again Greece. 12th of June 2010. It was the day that I celebrated my Birthday. Ofcourse it was full of people, everyone was dressed in red and cheered for Korea. At the end of the match, the people in the bar went crazy. 2-0 for South korea…This was one of the most amazing moments I have seen in my life.
It was quite an experience to be here in South Korea during the World Cup and see the citizens of South Korea being a really active supporter of their country ☺.

When the Netherlands played in the World Cup, I start organizing events to cheer for the Dutch team. It was amazing, almost everyone came in the color Orange. The Koreans were sooo excited to see the Netherlands playing. Ofcourse they have good memories of the Dutch with soccer…if you think about Guus Hiddink ☺





Some background
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. The bidding process for hosting the tournament finals was open only to African nations; in 2004, the international football federation, FIFA, selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to become the first African nation to host the finals.
The matches were played in ten stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the final played at the Soccer City stadium in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg. Thirty-two teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These sixteen teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.
In the final, Spain, the European champions, defeated third-time finalists the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time, with Andrés Iniesta's goal in the 116th minute giving Spain their first world title, the first time that a European nation has won the tournament outside its home continent. Host nation South Africa, 2006 world champions Italy and 2006 runners-up France were eliminated in the first round of the tournament.

SKKU Summer School G20

SKKU Summer School 2010 G20

In a previous post (http://anathuong.blogspot.com/2010/05/g20-in-korea-2010.html) I have written about the G20 in Korea. SKKU Summer School organized a Global Student Forum about the G20, where students can state their opinion and facts about their topic that will be discussed during the G20 Korea.

Topic introduction:
The G-20 was created as a response both to the financial crisis of the late 1990s.,and to a growing recognition that key emerging-market countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion, and the organization had been criticized – often heavily – by several other international interest groups, organizations, and governments. With this in mind, the ISS 2010 Global Student Forum aims to address topics that are important for today’s globalised society, and in relation to the roles of organizations like the G20.


The program of the Global Student Forum was;
1. Welcome by the Vice President Jun Young Kim of SKKU
2. Opening remarks by 3 professors;
a. Professor Charles Hampden Turner on Current dilemmas facing global society
b. Professor Caecilia van Peski on Human rights and democraxy support
c. Prodessor Andrea Insch on Learning from the crisis

3. Student Presentations topics
a. Regulating the global financial system; defining the role for the IMF, World Bank, and Bretton Woods, post crisis
b. Corporate social responsibility and future stability
c. The emergence of global-local governance strategies – it there a future for the Nation State?
d. Unsafe at home and unwanted anywhere else – the challenges faced by minorities, the marginalised, and the displaced
e. Defining your generation. Growing up in a globalised era.
4. Professors evaluation of the student presentations
5. Closing mark byProfessor Thomas Christiansen

Sungkyunkwan University Summer School 2010

Sorry for the late blog. I have been busy with Summer School

This is 2nd time I am joining Sungkyunkwan University Summer School. 2 years ago was the first one and now 2010 it was the 3rd one. The program that SKKU offers is very good. The courses are interesting, the program is educative but also a lot of fun. There are many different nationalities, Dutch, German, Chinese, Korean, Americans, French and many more.

Hereby about my University, the Summer School

http://summer.skku.edu/



The theme of our 2008 SKKU International Summer Semester focused on the synergy of ¡®Culture, Business and Technology in East Asia¡¯. This was followed by our 2009 SKKU International Summer Semester which involved defining the fundamental issues around ¡®Sustainable GlobalProsperity¡¯. Future International Summer Semesters will build on these foundations while continuing on the path of becoming a center of thought-leadership and diversity within both East Asia and globally.
The 2009 SKKU International Summer Semester on ¡®Sustainable Global Prosperity¡¯ enrolled over 600 students from 41 countries and 96 universities. Our professors were recruited from world-class universities. Faculty and students had the opportunity to debate and define currentissues of this theme. Overall, our program was highly successful.
Ironically, the 2009 SKKU International Summer Semester theme of ¡®Sustainable Global Prosperity¡¯ was chosen a year in advance of the worst economic crisis since the ¡®Great Depression¡¯ of the 1930¡¯s. Certainly, the very idea of sustainable prosperity became an important one for our students who were confronted with the reality of diminished traditional opportunities. In spite of this, what emerged across this diverse and global student group was a sense of hopefulness, passion and quality of intellect.
We are beginning to see signs of economic recovery albeit weak. However, given the severity of the economic downturn and the predicted slow pace of recovery, this issue is likely to remain an area of great concern for the near to medium-term. This is mostly related to the need for global society to find alternative paths to prosperity, as we should not repeat past mistakes. Therefore, we have decided to pursue the timely and important theme of ¡®Recovery and Prosperity: Post Crisis and New Future¡¯ for our 2010 SKKU International Summer Semester.

The 2010 International Summer Semester at Sungkyunkwan University is unique in that this is the only summer program in Korea to focus on the theme of ¡®Recovery and Prosperity: Post Crisis and New Future.¡¯ We will offer participating students the chance to understand the local, regional, and global interplay involved in shaping the problems and opportunities that confront global society in the post crisis era. Our ultimate intent is to deliver to our students a world class program which is recognized as being internationally competitive.
Of course, presenting an integrated perspective remains a core goal of our program as it did in our previous summer semesters. This will be achieved through our professors¡¯ commitment to approaching problems from an interdisciplinary perspective and context based analysis on the main theme ¡®Recovery and Prosperity: Post Crisis and New Future,¡¯ and the 5 sub-themes: ¡®Recovery,¡¯ ¡®Post Crisis,¡¯ ¡®Prosperity,¡¯ ¡®The Future,¡¯ and ¡®East Asia.¡¯ Such a perspective is necessary given the fact that the post crisis¡¯ dilemmas severely threatening the prosperity of global society do not fit within the confines any one discipline.
In both the 2008 and 2009 International Summer Semesters, we actively sought to encourage diversity amongst our students and faculty. In doing so we created a learning context that allowed students to understand first hand how diversity can lead to new ideas if harnessed properly. Given the cultural dimension of problems facing global society, we will again seek to increase the level of diversity both to enhance cultural awareness and to understand its role in shaping the various dilemmas we face.

Nuffic Neso in Korea

For my MBA in South Korea I got a small scholarship. This scholarship is a start to pay my tuition.
I got this scholarship from Nuffic.
Nuffic: Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation. It is a non-profit corporation for the Higher Education and Research in The Netherlands. Nuffic is based in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Nuffic was established in 1952 for the reason of the benefit of International academic cooperation. On behalf of the Dutch government and some public and private organisations, they are promoting the internatiol mobility of students through scholarships and grant programmes. This is for them to attract students from all around the world, who want to study abroad. It is a way to promote higher education in the world.

Nuffic is specialized in several areas;
Scholarships programmes for international mobility and for grant programmes
Promotion of the Dutch higher education
Public information of the Dutch higher education
Public information on studying abroad
Credential evaluation
Research

Nuffic is not only in The Netherlands. They have several offices around the world. There are 8 offices in Brazi, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Tapei, Thailand and Vietnam.

Nuffic has a office in South Korea, Seoul. To promote Dutch Higher education in South Korea.

http://www.nuffic.nl/home/nuffic-offices/neso-korea



he Netherlands education support office in Korea provides information for Dutch organizations. One of the core activities of Neso Korea is to enhance cooperation between Dutch and Korean higher education institutions. Here you can find more information about the promotion activities of Nuffic Neso Korea.

Address
Nuffic Netherlands Education Support Office (Nuffic Neso Korea)
3F, C2 Square Building, 61-21, Taepyeongno-1ga
Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 100-101
Phone: +82 (0)2-735 7671
Fax: +82 (0)2-735 7675
Email: info[at]nesokorea.org
Website: www.nesokorea.org

Nuffic Neso recently organized Queensday in Seoul. Queensday in The Netherlands is every year on the 30th of April. All the Dutch people who are living in South Korea are invited by Nuffic Neso to celebrate it with them. They organize an activity around it.
This year, they invited the Prime minister of The Netherlands to the event.



One of my friends with JP Balkenende

G20 in Korea 2010

Last week I had to present in my course: Asia Regional studies, about the Asia Financial Crisis. During my study in The Netherlands, I have heard about the Asian Financial crisis, but we havent really discussed it more detailed. I think they should educate on this. It is very interesting and by presenting it, I thought it would nice to give you some information about it. Also because the G20 will be soon in Korea.



From the website: http://www.g20.org/


Welcome from the Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea is honored to chair the Group of Twenty in 2010.

The G-20 was established in 1999, in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, to bring together major advanced and emerging economies to stabilize the global financial market. Since its inception, the G-20 has held annual Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meetings and discussed measures to promote the financial stability of the world and to achieve a sustainable economic growth and development.

To tackle the financial and economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the G-20 members were called upon to further strengthen international cooperation. Accordingly, the G-20 Summits have been held in Washington in 2008, and in London and Pittsburgh in 2009.

The concerted and decisive actions of the G-20, with its balanced membership of developed and developing countries, helped the world deal effectively with the current financial and economic crisis. The G-20 has already delivered a number of significant and concrete outcomes. It committed to implement the unprecedented and most coordinated expansionary macroeconomic policies, including the fiscal expansion of US$5 trillion and the unconventional monetary policy instruments; significantly enhance the financial regulations, notably by the establishment of the Financial Stability Board(FSB); and substantially strengthen the International Financial Institutions(IFIs), including the expansion of resources and the improvement of precautionary lending facilities of the IFIs.

Reflecting on these achievements and recognizing that more needs to be done to ensure a strong, sustained and balanced global recovery, the G-20 Leaders at Pittsburgh Summit designated the G-20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation. In 2010, the June Summit will be held in Canada, and the November Summit will be held in the Republic of Korea.

Building on past achievements and close cooperation among members, the G-20 will double its efforts in 2010 to help the world make a successful transition from global recovery to stronger, more sustainable and balanced growth.

We look forward to working closely with our Troika colleagues, the UK and France, and drawing on valuable experiences of other G-20 members. The Republic of Korea will spare no effort to ensure success in 2010.


The G20 countries:

* Argentina
* Australia
* Brazil
* Canada
* China
* France
* Germany
* India
* Indonesia
* Italy
* Japan
* Mexico
* Russia
* Saudi Arabia
* South Africa
* Republic of Korea
* Turkey
* United Kingdom
* United States of America

Lotus Lantern Festival

Every year the Koreans celebrate the birthday of Buddah. Every year it is on another date in May. Buddah’s birthday is held every 8th day of the month May, GEBASSEERD on the Lunar calendar. In Seoul they are celebrating it over 600 years. In Korea Buddah’s birthday is called Seokga tansinil (석가탄신일 : The day of Buddha’s birthday)
During Buddha’s birthday Korea celebrate it with the Lotus lantern festival held in their capital Seoul in Jongno. During the whole month May, the city is covered with lanterns.


This year Buddha’s birthday is on Sunday 21st of May 2010. People who are joining the festival can explore the Korean Buddhist culture.
The first activity of Buddha’s birthday is the Lighting Ceremony at Seoul Plaza. By having the Lighting Ceremony at Seoul Plaza they want to symbolize the religion Buddhism and the birth of Buddha. After this event there is a Grand Harmony festival. This is the lantern Parade that starts at Dongguk University till Jogyesa temple in Jongno. The whole day there are different activities to do and to see for visitors of the festival. About 100,000 lanterns will light up Seoul.

Overview festival





This day is not only for Buddhist in Korea, but for everyone who has interest in Buddhism. Everyone can experience the culture and the religion. With this event, there are many foreigners.




Why it is called Lotus lantern festival? The Lotus represents purity and Buddha, also is has been depicted in many paintings and scultpures in the Buddhist religion. The Lotus is a water flower. It doesn’t matter how dirty the water is, the blossoms of the Lotus will remain clean. They believed Buddha was like the Lotus, it doesn’t matter how dirty the environment and surroundings were, Buddha stayed clean. 14 years ago this started as a national event. Every year there are thousands and thousands of people joining the Lotus Lantern Festival with a lot of volunteers who take care of this whole event.





By lightning a lotus-shaped lantern it symbolizes a religious devotion to do good deeds and to bring lights enlightenment to the people who are in pain and are lost. To think about others and not only about yourself. It is also a way to bring everyone together, to make it multicultural, the Korean people and the foreigners.
During the lantern walk from Insadong to the Jogyeka temple there will be more than 100,000 people walking with the Lotus Lanters, elephants, dragons and other kind of lanters swaying along the stream and the Jongno street.

Universities in Korea

Universities in Korea are very important. The university where you will go, will decide your future. Education is very important for the Koreans. The parents want their children to have a good future prospect. From the beginning of the childhood the children are getting the best education till they finish university.

Ranking
The ranking of the universities is also very important. Everyone is trying to get into the best university of Seoul. What I know from the Korean students is that they have to make a test to enter the University.

Top 4
1. Seoul University
2. Korea University
3. Yonsei University
4. Sungkyunkwan University

It just happened that I am studying at Sungkyunkwan University. Of course in The Netherlands we look at which university is the best in The Netherlands. In The Netherlands, universities are not ranked. And there is not 1 the best of the best. Universities have several areas where they are the best in. Like Erasmus University in Rotterdam is the best in economics.
I choose my university, because of the study and the atmosphere of the school and city. Not because it was the best university or the best study.
I think it is a good thing that Korean parents focus a lot on education. You want to have a good future for your children, and why not starting when they are young.

Information about Korea & Seoul

South Korea is a country in Asia. In 1945 it became official Republic of South Korea. It is boarded next to North Korea.

Korea has a population of about 48 million people. The capital of Korea is Seoul and the 2nd largest city in Korea is Busan (the harbor city). Korean is the official language spoken in Korea. They are using Hangul for writing. About 45% of the population doesn’t have a religion. There are several big religions in Korea as Christianity, Protestant, Catholic and Buddhist.

Seoul became after splitting up North and South Korea, the capital of the Republic of Korea. It has a population of about 11 million people. With the suburban’s is has a population of 23 million people.

As you think of it 23 million with suburban’s, the Netherlands is nothing comparing to Seoul. We only have 16 million people living in the Netherlands. It is a very small country and closed populated.

Capital: Seoul
Language: Hangul
Government: Republic
Population: 50,062,00
Area: 100,140 Km2
GDP(2009): $1.364 trillion
GDP per capita: $17,074
Currency: South Korean Won (KRW)