The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), South Korea's official development aid agency, has held a three-day event "Korea-Egypt, Let's go Together" (Yalla Maabaad) as a part of volunteers' cooperative activity in Luxor during the period from 22 to 24 April. The event was held in cooperation with EGOTH (The High Institute for Tourism and Hotels Luxor), MODLI (Ministry of Defense Language Institute), and Aswan University. The event was led by three Korean language volunteers in KOICA that volunteer in EGOTH, MODLI and Aswan University. The event aimed at providing 30 Egyptian students learning Korean language in those schools a chance to practice Korean tour guiding and exchanging knowledge and experiences among themselves through various activities and exercises. Additionally, the event offers prospects for students, particularly those who are eager to begin a career in the tourism sector. Students from Cairo and Aswan travelled and gathered in Luxor for three days to make presentations and peer reviews in order to examine their competence in Korean language skills with the supervision of a professional tour guide that speaks the Korean language roaming around Luxor's tourist attractions including Luxor temple, Karnak temple and Hatshepsut temple. Asma, a fourth-year student from the Korean language department in Al-Alsun Aswan University expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to take part in the event because she had huge challenges in taking Korean classes during the COVID-19 outbreak since her first year. She added that it was a great opportunity to improve her Korean language skills and consider the tour guide as one of her future career paths after graduation. Moung-jin Hong, KOICA volunteer who works in Aswan University and who is in charge of event planning and management of this program mentioned that the majority of Egyptian students were first-timers in Luxor, thus they researched historical landmarks beforehand and toured the sites. Some students were marveled at and deeply moved by ancient Egyptian ruins. In particular, she said that while listening to the professional tour guide's explanations and career path lectures, she could witness students asking many questions about their tourism guide jobs, and she believed this event would have been useful to students. Commenting on the event, the country director of KOICA Egypt Office, Kim Jinyoung said that it is meaningful to provide the local students who have relatively limited access to Korean language education with more opportunities to learn Korean language. She added that she expects more students to receive systematic education based on this event's result and performance and development of practical education modules as an institutional-level. Mrs.Kim stressed that KOICA will give full support to any collaboration with institutions. KOICA Egypt Office plans to continue promoting Korean language education and opportunities for Egyptian people to experience Korean language and culture through various cooperative activities in the future. Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is a Korean government agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dedicated to implementing grant aid programs. KOICA aims to combat poverty and support sustainable socio-economic growth in developing countries around the globe. KOICA Egypt Office provides vocational training education for youths in Egypt, supports digitalization of government services and systems, and carries out programs to strengthen women's empowerment and to support the vulnerable. As of January 2023, KOICA has dispatched 10 volunteers working as Korean language teachers in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan. More volunteers are expected to be dispatched to various fields including youth activities, disability, computer education, etc. KOICA volunteers will continue providing technical cooperation to Egyptian youths to contribute to the development and prosperity of Egypt.
