By Honorary Reporter Laura Lopez Velazquez from Mexico

Photos = Laura Lopez Velazquez

Honorary Reporters from around the world on Aug. 27 took part in the first online gathering of such reporters hosted by Korea.net coordinators Kal Hong and Enny Kim at 2 p.m. Korean Standard Time via Zoom.

Both coordinators started things off by introducing themselves and showing a funny video of their daily work routine, from their arrival at the office and answering email to reviewing and approving articles, planning events and sending gifts to outstanding Honorary Reporters.

These are scenes from the video "A Day in the Life of an Honorary Reporter Coordinator."

Then came two workshops by Honorary Reporters. The first was "How to Write Good Articles" by Alaa Atef Ebada from Egypt with useful information including what Korea.net looks for in articles to upload to the main section. She also discussed prevention of plagiarism, dealing with image copyright, tips for doing online interviews and sharing articles. Finally, she said that because being an Honorary Reporter is not a competition to see who writes more or better articles, support for one other is important to ensure better reach.

Honorary Reporter Alaa Atef Ebada from Egypt held a workshop on writing.

The second workshop was on "How to Use Talk Talk Korea Right" that I presented. I held a rehearsal before the workshop to show the two coordinators the content of my presentation. During the gathering, I explained detailed procedures from the beginning to upload an article to the Talk Talk Korea platform. 

Because of the entry of many new Honorary Reporters, I also showed how to place web links and embed videos while stressing the citation of references. Each presentation ended with questions from other Honorary Reporters and the coordinators answered those most frequently asked.

Screenshots from my workshop from Mexico

Later, the coordinators prepared fun games of guessing the names of K-pop singers and songs from their faces. The first to post a comment with the correct answer on the chat won a prize. Another prize was given for posting the first selfie of the gathering. 

Finally, they announced the Honorary Reporter missions for September, with the first being writing comments on our experiences at the online gathering. I immediately performed this mission with my compatriot peers Iran Tavera and Ivana Alzaga from Mexico. The second mission with a deadline of Sept. 15 is to create a literary magazine as a team. Details of this are on the page of Official Honorary Reporters on Facebook.

Three Honorary Reporters from Mexico -- Laura Lopez Velazquez, Ivana Alzaga and Iran Tavera -- wrote about their experiences in the online gathering.

Through this gathering, I met many of my fellow Honorary Reporters from all over the world and the two coordinators. I am proud to be part of this community of Korea lovers and look forward to the day when we can meet in person.

enny0611@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.