Images of South Korea and Russia in the Mutual Representations of the Student Youth of Both Countries

Abstract

The perspectives of modern South Korean youth on Russia and perspectives of Russian youth on South Korea respectively are reconstructed and interpreted in this article. The research was conducted on the basis of analysis of 100 in-depth interviews with Russian and South Korean student youth (50 students in each group), specializing in Russian-Korean relations, intercultural communications and language of the country studied. Natural and geographic factors, historical and cultural associations, the image of the countrys citizens are found to be the main South Korean students perspectives on Russia. Economic system, the image of the countrys citizens, historical and cultural features of the country represent the main Russian students perspectives on South Korea. In general, mutual images of each country contain many stereotypes which are mediocre for common perception. Such stereotypical thinking and the lack of knowledge about modern socio-economic realities among future specialists in Russian-Korean relations may be a serious obstacle that places under risk effectiveness of further cooperation between the two sides.