KOICA fellows share their experience in South Korea

AMMAN —The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on Thursday held talks with officials at the Talal Abu Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum in Amman, sharing Jordanians’ experience of living in South Korea through the agency’s fellowship programme. 

The meeting focused on three main topics including the economic development policies of South Korea, the impact of the Korean experience on the development of Jordan’s agricultural sector and the sharing experiences on learning the Korean language and culture. 

South Korean Ambassador Lee Bom-yon, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Group (TAG) and President of KOICA Alumni Association of Jordan (KAAJ) Bahjat Aladwan attended the discussions.

Founded in 1991, KOICA is a governmental agency that seeks to transfer Korea’s experience, knowledge and technology through the granting of aid programmes, according to a statement from the agency.

KOICA has invited over 720 Jordanian officials to train in Korea to assist the Kingdom in developing its human resources, the statement added.

Established in 2013, KAAJ serves as a platform for participants of KOICA-sponsored fellowship and training programmes to hold activities and cultural events to share more about the Korean culture in Jordan, the statement read.

Members of the KOICA and KAAJ fellowship programmes, Khalid Al Manaseer and Israa Abu-Saif talked about their personal experiences during their trip to South Korea.

Head of the forestry deparment at the ministry of Agriculture, Manaseer completed his Master’s degree in the field of food security and agriculture in the Asian country.

“This opportunity has benefited my experience through field visits, and practice in laboratory which helped transfer those experiences to Jordan,” he recalled. 

Abu-Saif, who participated in the “Training Course for the New Generation of Korean Language” held by KOICA in 2015, said that she learned the language and how to cook popular Korean food through field trips to local companies such as Hyundai and Samsung, in addition to voluntary work. 

Some of her achievements as a student of Korean language were that she obtained a scholarship to study Korean at a Korean University for four months, getting the opportunity to work as an Arabic language teacher for Korean students in Jordan and as a Korean language interpreter for one of KOICA’s projects in Jordan. 

The ambassador commended the programme, highlighting it benefits to students and society.

“This is a very good opportunity for the alumni of the KOICA programme who train and study in Korea to share their experience. With this programme, they recall what they have learned and transfer it to others. Even a small number of people can change society and the people around them,” Lee told The Jordan Times. 

“During the process of economic development, Korea has tried many things and has made some mistakes, which is a good experience to share for Jordan’s development,” he said, adding that, in order to make some decisions, “Jordan needs to see what other countries and other people have done to share and learn from each other’s experiences.”