As the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has declared that it will push ahead with the project to make Taekwondo, one of 10 Korean symbols, express Korean identity and dynamics, it also puts efforts to sustain and develop reputation of Taekwondo as a sy...
As the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has declared that it will push ahead with the project to make Taekwondo, one of 10 Korean symbols, express Korean identity and dynamics, it also puts efforts to sustain and develop reputation of Taekwondo as a symbol to stand for national culture by using it as a way to advertise the image of positive and friendly 'Culture Korea,' and improve the recognition of national brand, Dynamic Korea, with the slogans of Korea, Sparking in the field of tourism and Hanstyle in traditional culture.
Effects of the above project for Taekwondo, informed as a world-wide sport, would be various like this, but this study has focused on the national image because we live in the society, which stresses on image, so that it can be said that we live in the society of image. In case of impressing others with positive image, they also respond positively, while in case the appearances seen to the public are positive and satisfying then the organization, group, company and country also would have positive images. Image is considered more important in case of country. Since many countries put efforts to improve their images as more people get thinking that national image is national competition.
Based on precedent studies about national image, this study is to see how foreigners think of Korean image and how Taekwondo awareness influence on the image. The purpose of this study is to see what is needed to create positive image of Korea out of the drawn data, and to offer basic data to get a more efficient way to improve Korean image in the international society.
To reach the purpose of this study, foreign and interchanging students of K, Y and S university in metropolitan area were chosen as a population, and samples were extracted by Convenience Sampling Method among them. Questions in the studies of Lee Gyeongseon(2002), Park Seonok(2003) and Yun Seonhee(2006) were used to measure awareness of Taekwondo, and 18 were adjusted, supplemented and picked out to fit this study. 27 questions to measure the national image were extracted from the studies of Kim Myeongjeon(2005) and Oh Hyeonggeun(2007), after adjusting and supplementing to fit this study, based on consultation with relative experts. Data were processed by Frequency Analysis, Factor Analysis, Reliability Analysis, Independent Sample T-Test, One-Way ANOVA, Post-Hoc, Correlation Analysis and Multiple regression analysis, with SPSS/PC+ 17.0K Version for Window users.
As a result of the study, men perceived much about Taekwondo than women, in training factors of it. Seen the difference of Taekwondo awareness according to nationality, China was found out to perceive much about Taekwondo in low-key factors such as interest and training. Awareness was not significantly different according to age. Awareness according to living period and self-consciousness was not statistically and significantly different too, while the group with training experience showed much awareness than those with no experience in the field of low-key factors of training.
Secondly, women displayed better national image than men in the field of different image according to sex, while the U.S. showed higher awareness than any other countries as a result of seeing by nationality in every fields. According to age, the older they are the more they know about it, while according to the living period who live for less than 6months were found out to aware much about it than who lived for 1~2years and 2~3years. In the field of future-oriented factor, who lived for 1~2years, were found out to know much about Taekwondo than who lived for less than 6months. There was no statistical and significant difference in national image according to the awareness of Taekwondo, while the group with training recognized much about it than those with no training in the field of low-key factors of national image. In the negative factors also, the group with training recognized much than those with no training.
Comprehensively seeing the influences on the national images followed by Taekwondo awareness as external factors, the more they trained the better image they had. In evaluating factors for national image, the more the recognized about Taekwondo the more positive it was found out to influence on the national image. In the field of future-oriented factors of the national image, the more recognized and trained about Taekwondo the more they were found out to influence on positive image of the country. In the field of negative factors for the national image, the more recognized and trained about Taekwondo the more they were found out to influence on negative image of the country.