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| Australian Ambassador to Korea James Choi talks with The Korea Times at the embassy in downtown Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
Korean-born ambassador to join Times' Multicultural Youth Awards on Nov. 22
By Yi Whan-woo
With an increasing number of children from multicultural homes living in Korea, the life of Australian Ambassador to Korea James Choi is an example of a cycle of benefits of an open and multicultural society.
Choi was four years old when his family immigrated to Australia, where he learned the richness of culture, perspective and thought as well as had an active lifestyle.
Serving in Korea since December 2016, Choi, who is in his 40s, participates in various programs to share his experience with a Korean society long considered culturally and ethnically homogeneous.
His latest program includes a charity bicycle ride last month to fund a school established by Insooni, an influential singer born to a Korean mother and an African-American soldier.
The Korean-born diplomat is also one of the seven ambassadors invited for the annual Multicultural Youth Awards that The Korea Times will host on Nov. 22.
The awards will be given to outstanding primary and secondary school students with multicultural backgrounds.
"Multicultural children in Korea also deserve an equal chance, just like Australia gave me, my sister and my family an equal chance," Ambassador Choi said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.
"When I went to Australia, I benefited from its openness and multicultural policies. It gave me and my family the opportunity to build a good life and to get a good education.
"And Australia's openness and multicultural policies also gave me the opportunity to come back to my country of birth as the ambassador."
He said he wanted to share what he had benefited from with Korea when he led embassy staff for a three-day, 375-kilometer charity bicycle ride along Korea's east coast, including the Baekdudaegan Mountain Range, from Oct. 6 to 8.
The funds raised will help support the Hae Mill School founded by Insooni in Gangwon Province for children from multicultural homes.
"Hopefully the messages are heard," the envoy said.
A keen athlete, Ambassador Choi has also been promoting Australia's active lifestyle. He participates in a marathon at least once every year, while going on a shorter runs more often.
For instance, he joined the PyeongChang Olympic 2018 Torch Relay and also led a three-kilometer run around Gyeongbok Palace, titled "Winter Fun Run! 2018 with Ambassador James Choi," on the same day in January.
"Australia is a country that loves sports," he said. "I played sports continually when I was growing up as a child. It was a part of my lifestyle and I kept that up during my studies but also during my career.
"The message I send to Korean university students when I speak to them is leadership, teamwork and building a sense of purpose. You don't build those skills just by reading textbooks and studies. I learned those skills by playing sports, by playing team sports especially."
Choi said he especially tried to remind younger Korean generations "to have a diverse lifestyle and try to experience as much as possible."
The envoy said Australia's strength of diversity can also be seen in its wines.
He referred to the "Australian Wine Grand Tasting 2018" in September when more than 270 Australian wines from diverse climate conditions were featured at Le Meridien Seoul hotel.
"From Western Australia through to the east coast Australia, it takes five hours by a plane. As a result, our climate is diverse ... So this wide diversity of climates produces a wide array of styles and varieties of some of the world's best wines, from pinot to chardonnay to shiraz," he said. "This diversity of wine is what Australia has to offer."
He emphasized that a mix of "a very strong heritage of wine-making culture" since European settlement combined with Australia's data-based and scientific wine-making techniques made the country's wine even more special.
Asked about the most recent Australian contribution to global food culture, Ambassador Choi referred to coffee, for example, 4B, a Melbourne-based coffee shop that also operates in downtown Seoul, and brunch.
The ambassador said the embassy next year hopes to create a digital guide map on where to get Australian coffee and brunch.
"There are a range of cafes being built across Seoul," he said.
He said this year's Australia-Korea Business Council (AKBC)-Korea-Australia Business Council (KABC) Joint Meeting, which took place from Oct. 29 to 30 in Busan, was important to cope better with change in the nature of bilateral trade and investment relations.
"It's commonly misunderstood that Australia is a resource-based economy, because of ore, coal and gas," he said, adding natural resources accounted for only 7 percent of Australian GDP while service-based sectors, such as finance, science and research, education, tourism, health and legal services accounted for 70 percent to 75 percent.
"And the AKBC-KABC meeting will help look into new areas as well, while at the same time, looking at how important our resources relationships continue to be," he said.
