Lining the outside of the Korean embassy is a gaggle of women, patiently awaiting in the sweltering Thursday morning heat for the commencement of honorific festivities.
The embassy’s doors are open once again, welcoming devoted GKS alumni, SNS representatives, and this year’s nine newest Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) recipients who have been chosen to pursue advanced studies at the graduate and doctoral level in South Korea.
While accepting 1300 candidates globally as a whole, due to allocated quotas for each country, only two out of twenty-three Moroccan candidates were selected for the undergraduate track, and seven out of forty-one candidates were hand-picked for masters and doctoral degrees.
According to the Korean Embassy, many of the successful candidates not only had an academic GPA of over 95%, but also showed “a strong commitment to contributing to their communities fostering relationships between Korea and their own countries.” This, as the embassy explained, also aligns with the GKS objective to “enhance international education exchange and deepen mutual friendship between Korea and participating countries.”
Korean Ambassador Keeyong Chung elaborated that these GKS scholars play a “bridging role,” between South Korea and Morocco, which Chung says are “geographically very distant, culturally, linguistically very different.”
Chung notes that despite these differences, these scholars have decided to go against “the current” by immersing themselves in Korean language and culture through this opportunity; additionally, he reflects on the immense benefits and potential these scholars can have by utilizing their experiences in South Korea to also be “interlocutor between and among different cultures.”
Conversely, Chung establishes and notes the predominantly female recipients’ potential positive impact on South Korean society: “Dynamic, modern Arab women making an inroad to this unknown society will have a really positive impact on Korean society. To see that there are people from different parts of the world that are not that different from us…I hope these brave young students can have some educating effects on the populace.”
Surrounded by screen dividers adorned with Korean folk art and a banner declaring GKS in bright letters, the GKS alumnae (Ilham El Haraoui, Mohammed Boussarhane, Mohamed El Bouchikhi, Amal Ezzanega, Mariame Chabi, Hikmate Fahl, Fathi Haffsa, Soumaya Ezazaa, Zineb El-Fathi, Oumaima Latrech, and Yasmine Ouhmad) recount their lived experiences studying in Korea during the 1990’s— the struggles of finding Halal food and personal anecdotes about the importance of immersing oneself in the language for small things such as calling an electrician.
In turn, the newly awarded GKS scholars and the Korean Embassy’s SNS supporters (Heba Hlou, Samia Elhoussni, Samia Rgana, Meriem Sellami, Jihane Benkarka, Wafae Snina, and Wiam Sengraoui) discuss their personal experiences learning Korean via pop culture and the internet, as well as new apps and technologies that enable acclimation to Korean society (i.e. MUKFO-an app which scans barcodes of food products to screen for halal foods).
Suhyun Park, an intern with the Korean Embassy and co-organizer of this event, notes that “Through this event, our goal is to create a space and enable not only the people who already have an established interest in Korea, but also people who’ve only heard a little bit about Korea and have garnered more interest to go abroad, study (in Korea), and simply enjoy Korean culture.”
After a quick photo, these scholars and Korean language enthusiasts converse casually in Darija, French, and Korean over Korean fried chicken, rice, bulgogi, tteokbokki, and japchae and leave in hand with minimalist GKS tote bags.
The GKS scholarship recipients (Samia Rgana, Sophia Rahmouni, Imane Laarouch, Hanae Ezznati, Zahira Eljouali, Soufiane Bahou, Ahlam El Ahmadi, and others) will be actively attending undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and research programs at higher educational institutions in South Korea. The upcoming newly selected students will spend a year studying the Korean language before proceeding to their respective programs.
Mohammed Boussarhane, Vice President of the GKS alumni and scholar of Kyunghee University and Seoul National University and worked in South Korea for eight years at Samsung, assures that there are many “ongoing projects,” concerning potential business and career opportunities for Moroccans in Moroccan-Korean economic relations.
Boussarhane says that the GKS program as a whole is a “very good opportunity,” which allows for exposure to other “foreigners, Koreans, Korean ways, and Korean technologies.”
For hopeful Moroccan applicants, the Korean Embassy underscored that the selection for the undergraduate track occurs in September, while the selection for a graduate level program occurs between February to June; they’ve also announced the opening of the registration period for TOPIK exams to be held this October in Rabat.
Supplementally, according to the 2023 Global Korea Scholarship guidelines published by the National Institute for International Education, the Global Korea Scholarship gives evaluation preference to applicants who hold a TOPIK level 3, are descendants of Korean War veterans of Moroccan citizenship, have a high fluency in English (supported by TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS, etc.), are from a low-income background, or are applying within the natural science and engineering fields in regional universities.
Heba Hlou, a English major at UM5 university and an SNS supporter for the Korean Embassy, offers a lasting piece of advice: “To anyone who’s hesitating or doesn’t know where to start, if you look around, there are so many centers that teach you Korean and there’s also UM5 University, they have Korean classes.”
“Anyone can register,” for 360 MAD annually, which Hlou notes with a laugh, “is a bargain.”
