Nine Questions for ...

They live in a divided land, so many Koreans are particularly interested in reunified Germany. Raimund Wördemann, director of the Goethe-Institut Korea reports on opinions of the "Berlin-Bonn Model," traps in hotel rooms and party-crazed Koreans.

What concerns the people in Seoul most right now?

Wördemann: There is a fierce debate going on about whether some government offices and authorities really ought to be housed in newly built Sejong City, away from Seoul, as the last government planned. Since the German Berlin-Bonn model is often used as a particularly cumbersome and expensive negative example, many critics wish to avoid something similar happening in Korea. They want to keep the entire government in Seoul and establish Sejong City more as an economic centre. Additionally, there is fierce speculation about whether the country will come to a complete standstill in the summer of 2010 when for the first time the South Korean and the North Korean teams take part in a football world cup.

What question about Germany do you hear particularly often?

Around the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the wall, every German in Korea was recently asked what they were doing (and thinking) on 9 November 1989. Some of us don’t even remember. All in all, I hear more friendly words about Germany than I do questions.

What is your favourite place in Seoul?

I like to have a good view from further up. There are a number of high-rise view opportunities for that as well as the lovely and sporty mountain Namsan, which sits directly opposite the Goethe-Institut and is presently being extended as a national park. It has nothing to do with my keenness for working when I also admit that my workplace at the Goethe-Institut Seoul has a certain attractiveness. On the one hand it’s because it really is lovely. On the other hand, it offers a view of a primary schoolyard, and when you hear the kids running about there squealing and singing, you are reminded daily and hope that the youth of the country, as well as its young artists, have good reasons now and in future to deal productively and critically with Europe and with Germany in particular.

What can we learn from the Koreans?

You can learn just as well from "the Koreans" as from "the Germans." Yet, I notice that conversations and encounters with every Korean, female and male, are always refreshing. Especially when, from the other, the Korean culture, they make traditional western ways of thinking and certainties seem somewhat strange – though this is not a judgement.

What was your biggest "culture shock?"

We Goethe people ought to be, at least after a few years, somewhat culture shock-resistant. Yet, I was somewhat surprised, if not perplexed, when once at three thirty in the morning in the dark bathroom of a Pyongyang hotel the bathroom door fell shut behind me, the doorknob fell off completely, I was apparently locked in, the telephone next to the basin didn’t work and I asked myself how on earth I would get out of there by five thirty to catch my flight back to Beijing.

What is the most difficult aspect of the Korean language?

Whoever takes the time to open themselves completely to the Korean language, at best in preparation and in seclusion, will very soon no longer have any difficulties.

Photo gallery: Life south of the wall

What cultural highlight should visitors to Seoul not miss?

Visitors to Seoul ought to arrive as visitors to Korea and stay mobile. If you don’t come especially for one of the many festivals, you ought to take a few weeks off during one of the peak periods and dive into the busy urban and rural culture. In October, for instance, which leaves many breathless. Goethe people are lucky enough to go seamlessly from the Pusan Film Festival to the Seoul International Dance Festival and from there to the Seoul Performing Arts Festival. To be continued.

What would you like most to still experience in Seoul?

I am not in the condition that there is something that I "must" experience. Yet, from Seoul and in Seoul I wish to continue to follow how the East Asian-Pacific cultural region continues to move closer together and discover and present its strongly contoured similarities. If this occurs in a fresh and free dialogue with other world regions, for obvious reasons with Germany and Europe in particular, then we will be able to develop many exciting projects together.

What is your dream project?

I am cautious with dream projects, mainly because they at first pursue one’s own ideas. It always fulfils a dream when we, besides our representative duties, are able to bring together the young people of our nations and political communities, the artists and people in the cultural sector as well as those active in society, in a stimulating way and thereby help to boost new, joint actions that leave lasting traces. It would be somewhat exerted and even hackneyed to evoke Korean unity here, the legendary peace concert at the (falling) border or something like that. Nonetheless, on 9 November 2009 together with a German and a Korean DJ, we happily celebrated an expectable, politically charged party under the motto "Dancing down the Wall." Otherwise every project that we use to intensify a joint Korean-German interest is like a dream. For 2011 we are planning "The Troubles of the Young."