Writer홍보협력팀
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2022-01-17
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The King Sejong Institute met with Fabien, who is a broadcaster appearing on Korean entertainment programs, and taking part in various activities such as hosting the Korea-France Friendship Concert with BTS and the King Sejong Institute Culture Camp during the week of King Sejong’s birth week. We asked about when and how his well-known love for Korea came about.
Hello! Thank you for making time for the King Sejong Institute. Today, we would like to do an interview about Fabien’s life story. We heard that you were weak when you were young, and you started Taekwondo on your mother’s recommendation. Why did your mother choose Taekwondo, from among all the sports? And was it fun when you first started Taekwondo? What made you continue Taekwondo?I guess it was just a coincidence. The Taekwondo academy was the closest to my house. (Laughing) My friends played soccer and handball, but I really liked Taekwondo. Taekwondo was an outlet for the energy of my boyhood. I was also physically suited for Taekwondo. That’s why I continued.
I know you like Taekwondo, but I heard you wanted to come to Korea after listening to songs of Lee Jung-hyun and Kim Hyun-jung. You came as a tourist in 2007, and then came back to Korea in 2008. Can you tell us about your decision?You researched a lot about me. (Laughing) When I started getting interested in Korea in the early 2000s, there wasn’t much information available about Korea. There was not even YouTube! So to me, Korea was such a mysterious country, and I wanted to visit. After graduating from university in France, I came to Korea for travel. That’s when I wanted to learn more about Korea and learn the language. 
한국어 공부를 You wanted to learn Korean that much. I wonder if there was any other reason you were attracted to Korean, and where and how you learned it.I thought it was a decent thing to do to learn the language if I wanted to live in Korea, but I believed that I could only experience real fun by learning the language and culture. I’m a man from Ewha Womans University. I went to Ewha Womans University Language Center as a class of 2008, and learned Korean systematically. That is when I met President Lee Hai-young of KSIF. I met a good teacher and my Korean improved quickly. And I got a chance to work.
You speak seven languages: Korean, French, English, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic, and Italian. You learned many languages, how is Korean different from other languages?In Korean, there is a systematic connection between sounds and texts. I always liked learning other languages, but I could really feel that Korean was excellent, learning the language. Learning the consonants and vowels of Korean only takes one day, not matter how stupid you are. Basically, you can master reading and writing in six months. After those six months, learning gets harder. (laughing)
I am curious about your Korean teacher. Is there a particular teacher whom you remember, or someone you had helped from, while leaning Korean? And if you become a Korean teacher, what kind of things would you want to teach, and how?At first, I learned Korean from a friend I got to know in Korea. After that, the teachers I met at Ewha Womans University made me who I am today. I cannot pick just one of them, everyone was very nice, and they taught me well. K-pop helps, too, but if I become a teacher, I would tell the students to fall in love.
Falling in love with the Korean language? I was about to ask you some tips for people who have just started learning Korean.People often say the best way to learn a language is to date a person who speaks the language. I think it is the same. The reason I am good in Korea are: first, love; second, concentration; and third, time. When you fall in love, you only see that person, and you don’t feel that the time you use for that person is wasted. It’s the same for a language, too. And if you study Chinese characters too, you can learn Korean faster. There are a lot of Chinese words in Korean, so I had to look them up one by one at first. But when I got to know better, I could guess their meaning, and I didn’t have to look them up. You will learn faster by reading Korean books. In addition, translating the lyrics of your favorite songs would be very helpful.
What do you think of the things that KSIF does? What would have been different if there was a KSI in France in the early 2000s, when you first became interested in Korea?I think of the word “gyeoksejigam (feeling amazed at how things have changed.” (Laughing) I couldn’t find a way even if I wanted to learn. I asked an Argentinian friend whom I did Taekwondo with how he speaks Korean so well, and he said he learned through KSI. The number of people who want to learn Korean has increased amazingly. In the past, people wanted to learn Korean out of interest in K-pop or dramas. Now, many people learn it for business. They need it for the future in various ways. I think KSI is playing an important role in this.
I heard you are learning Korean folk painting lately. And you did calligraphy, too. What is the charm of hanji you felt, writing and painting on it?Hanji is used for recording relics at the Louvre Museum in France. It means hanji has a strong retention, and has good tensile strength. I am interested in Korean history, and I found, while learning different things, that Koreans are also excellent in science. One of them is the science and technology that made hanji.
Recently, your YouTube channel had more than 100,000 subscribers and got a Silver Play Button. There seem to be various kinds of people who want to communicate with you. What kind of questions do they have, or want help in? And what do you want to achieve through your YouTube channel?I plan, shoot, edit, and make subtitles all by myself. So it takes about 100 hours to make one video. But it feels rewarding because a lot of people like it. Foreigners usually ask how I learned Korean, and how I settled in Korea and got used to the life here. On the other hand, Korean people want to know what makes Korea attractive. My goal is to introduce interesting Korean culture to many people through YouTube.
What is the difference between the person you were when you just arrived in Korea in 2008, and the person you are in 2021? And if you could give a word of advice to the Fabien in 2008, what would you say?Now I am older! (Laughing) However, I am still very curious and work hard on things that I like. There is something that I want the Fabien in 2008 to tell the person I am now. “Don’t be a boomer!” (Laughing). I want him to say, “Know that the world is always changing, and that there are people who have different thoughts and ideologies from you.”
Lastly, I wonder what you want other people to remember you as.I want to experience as much as possible and learn new things, just as I do now. I want to be someone who can help the community with it, and disseminate Korean language as culture within my capabilities.
