Leiden University Student Repository

Burgh, Raechel van der (2023)

The Influence of the Working Holiday Programme on Dutch Perceptions of South Korea

Bachelor thesis | Koreastudies (BA)

The objective of this study is to investigate how Dutch Working Holiday Makers’ perception of Korea changes before, during, and after their stay. Obtaining knowledge about the view Dutch participants in the Working Holiday programme have of South Korea, allows for more insight into the success of South Korea’s public diplomacy. South Korea has made several efforts to promote its public diplomacy, and the Working Holiday forms important part of this. There is a current dearth of research on this topic; therefore, this research suggests an exploratory study on this subject. The research was conducted through a survey and semistructured interviews centred on Dutch people who have a Working Holiday experience in South Korea. The findings suggested that the respondents mostly faced problems in regard to the working aspect of their sojourn in South Korea, which reflected in the revalent negative perception of work in Korea compared to studying or travelling in the country. This suggests...Show moreThe objective of this study is to investigate how Dutch Working Holiday Makers’ perception of Korea changes before, during, and after their stay. Obtaining knowledge about the view Dutch participants in the Working Holiday programme have of South Korea, allows for more insight into the success of South Korea’s public diplomacy. South Korea has made several efforts to promote its public diplomacy, and the Working Holiday forms important part of this. There is a current dearth of research on this topic; therefore, this research suggests an exploratory study on this subject. The research was conducted through a survey and semistructured interviews centred on Dutch people who have a Working Holiday experience in South Korea. The findings suggested that the respondents mostly faced problems in regard to the working aspect of their sojourn in South Korea, which reflected in the revalent negative perception of work in Korea compared to studying or travelling in the country. This suggests that there could be more initiative taken by the Korean government in order to eradicate issues within the country’s working culture. Nonetheless, the respondents had an overall increased positive image of Korea, which indicates the Working Holiday Programme’s success as a form of public diplomacy.Show less

Working Holiday

Dutch Working Holiday Makers

Perception of Korea

Transnational Mobility

Public Diplomacy

Author

Burgh, Raechel van der

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

S.Y. Jang

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en