Meet Kadishi

Kadishi Olise is a Korean enthusiast, a graduate student studying economic history, a writer and researcher. Her interest spans across Korean culture and lifestyle. From Korean history and heritage, K-Drama, Korean literature, with a touch of K-pop and K-beauty. She also shares available Korean opportunities by researching, writing, creating visual and audio content about Korea not just as an honorary reporter for Korea net but as an influencer across her social media pages.

Can you tell us more about your love for Korea?

Speaking about my love for Korea, there are two sides of the story.

Yeah. I always differentiate it because I want people to understand that there are different aspects of Korea. My first interest in Korea was through Korean movies and Korean drama, and I remember the first Korean movie I watched was in 2007, “Seducing Mr. Perfect”.

It was a very nice Korean movie after which I got introduced to K-Drama. Although I can’t remember the year precisely, that was like my first introduction into Korea. However, as an undergraduate student, I took a course on Asian Tigers, and my group work was on ‘the development of Korea after the Cold War’.

Studying Korean development after the Cold War kind of piqued my interest to want to know about Korea beyond K drama, beyond K pop, beyond the Hallyu wave. So, we can say the introduction to Korea began with the hallyu wave in 2007, but then my academic interest in Korea began in 2014, thereabouts, through my school participation as a history student. The academic aspect inspired my writing, while the Hallyu aspect has inspired my YouTube videos and stuff like that.

You write and create content about Korean food, music, history, and even literature. Which area are you most passionate about and why?  

I call myself a cultural diplomat or cultural enthusiast. I'm interested in practically all of them because they are all interrelated. But if I'm talking about what I work on more, I work more on Korean history, Korean traditions, and Korean food. I like to cook Korean food a lot, and I watch K-dramas a lot too. So if we are going to rank the top three activities I do regarding Korea, it's going to be maybe Korean history, Korean food, Korean drama, and Korean literature based on my regular activities. And maybe K-pop too. The first ones are like the top four I do. But I kind of enjoy the culture, the lifestyle generally.

Top 3 activities will be food, history and literature. Right?

I can't rank it. That's the problem. But the funny thing is, they're all related. For example, I was watching one of BTS' interviews and one of the members mentioned that their favorite book is ‘Almond’ and because they mentioned that ‘Almond’ is their favorite book, I requested for Almond when I won a Korean literature competition by LTI (Literature Translation Institute). They had asked what Korean literature I’d like to receive, and because I had seen one of the BTS members mention Almond, I picked it. It's like they’re all related. But like I said earlier, based on my activities, my regular interests start from Korean history, Korean food, Korean drama, K-pop, and Korean literature. Those are the top five I regularly do stuff on.

You also create visual and audio content. How do you use these forms to tell Korean stories in a way that connects with a global audience?  

Okay, so when talking about visual and audio. For the audio, I was basically talking about podcasting. On my podcast channel (I haven’t posted in a while), it was just me exploring Korean drama. I just talk about Korean dramas and Korean travel. I was opportune to visit Korea in 2023, and that was when I won the K-Influencer Award (Best K-Influencer Award). On my podcast, I kind of shared the experience, like how to go about the process, as a foreigner in Korea, how the first few days go, and how to acclimatize yourself. In doing that audio, I’m kind of situating my situation from a local level to a global level. Anybody interested in finding out how to acclimatize to the weather in Korea, and all will find that useful. Also, K-Drama is a global thing. When I talk about current K-dramas or ones that I’ve watched and think people should watch, anybody interested in Korea, not just Nigerians, can tune into the podcast.

Now, for my video, how do I situate myself globally?

You have to start from the local to get to the global. People want to find out what’s happening in Korea, what’s happening in other countries apart from Korea? And that’s what gave me the idea for my name, "Nigerian Korean Lover". Because everybody puts Africa in a box. But Nigerian Korean Lobver shows that I, as a Nigerian, am exploring Korean culture. I try to show Korean culture and activities happening in Nigeria. I do videos on Korean opportunities that anybody around the world can participate in. Some of those I even turn into blog posts on my website. Also, when I create content related to Korean opportunities, it goes beyond the local; it’s attending to the global. It’s the same thing with Korean food-making. When I’m making Korean food here, I’m making it based on ingredients I can find in Nigeria, even though most of them are still from Korea. One of my top videos on YouTube, with over 15,000 views, is on gochujang. That video has gone beyond the local; it’s attending to the global space. When you pick a culture, or an area of culture you’re interested in, try your best to be factual about it and also respect the country’s culture, and just create the content, people who are interested will find it and watch it. That’s how I feel the channel, both audio and visuals, podcast and video, situates itself globally.

Being a Korea.net Honorary Reporter is no small feat. What has the experience taught you so far, personally and professionally?

I applied for the Honorary Reporter position in 2022, and that’s when I started. My first year was not so easy because I had not really figured out how to use the Honorary Reporter website. That is the part where we have to log in and write. That first year, I think I only published maybe one article and one picture story. But in the second year, I picked myself up, and I studied how to go about it. As a student of history and as a researcher, I write because it is like I have to carry out research. Yes, it just spilled over into being an Honorary Reporter. When I figured out how to use the website in 2023, that is when I fully committed. What I have learned, basically, is just to put yourself out there. Apparently, some of what I have written as an Honorary Reporter is more of my experience and trying to show the cultural relation between Nigeria and Korea.

Personally, I feel like it has given me a form of confidence in my writing, and it has helped me to explore more about Korean culture and the recent happenings regarding Korea and Korean activities in Nigeria and around the world. It has also allowed me to get to meet more people and communicate with more people. Most times, I write from a personal aspect or from my experience. For example, my experience as a volunteer at a KCCN event, those are from my personal angle. Professionally, it has enhanced my writing because attending all those Honorary Reporter workshops and training programs has helped shape me to become a better writer. That helps me really understand the what, why, who, where, when and how  (the 4W and 1H). But because of the program. I have learned that you can do interviews in a way that would speak to the audience and also speak to a certain issue, which made me write one of my articles on interviewing one of the K Pop judges in Nigeria.

K-pop and K-dramas are now everywhere. How do you stay original when discussing such popular topics?  

Well, I feel like to stay original is just to be yourself. In staying original, I just stick to myself. I watch Korean dramas because I enjoy them. I listen to K Pop because I enjoy the feeling I get from it, it's a growth process. Even as I have biases, I am not interested in trying to bring down the production. So in sticking to originality, I just talk about the best part of whatever I am watching and also lessons that can be learned from the drama, from the songs, and maybe what I would have expected to see in a Korean drama. Or maybe I feel like this K Pop song, if they had toned down a little bit of coarse words or stuff like that. So originality is a personal decision. If you want to be original, be yourself. Because the K drama and K Pop fan base is a bit deep, I feel like just be who you are. Being original is from a perspective level.

Let’s talk about K-food and K-beauty. What’s one Korean dish you’d recommend to someone trying it for the first time?   

Talking about food, It depends, though, do you like spicy or not spicy? But I will start with spicy. I've tried a lot of Korean food in Nigeria and Korea. My favorite when it comes to spicy food is tteokbokki. If you want to try out spicy foods, definitely try tteokbokki. For kimchi, your first experience will be a shocker. As a Nigerian, you’ll be like, wow, why does this taste like this? But on the second or third try, you’ll like the spice. When I was in Korea, I kept ordering kimchi and rice. All the soups they were giving me, the one they made with soy sauce and I think doenjang, weren't spicy, so I always ordered kimchi. In Nigeria, when I tasted kimchi for the first time, I was shocked by the taste. But when I got to Korea and tasted fresh kimchi, I was in love. There are different types of kimchi: napa cabbage kimchi, radish kimchi, and cucumber kimchi. So try tteokbokki first. You can try kimchi fried rice. Everybody has to try ramen. There are different types of ramen. There’s Shin Ramen, Buldak, Cup Noodles. For Korean food, definitely try tteokbokki first, then kimchi and Japchae. If you want to first break into Korean ramen, definitely start with Shin Ramen. Then there’s Buldak. There are different types of buldak.

Korean food is a very broad topic. There are banchans which are the side dishes, the main course, soups, and rice. The foods I suggest are based on my personal experience.

What's your favorite K-beauty hack?   

When it comes to beauty hacks, I’m like a surface Korean beauty user. I have Korean products like face masks and vitamin C serum. As a Hallyu creator for the Korean Cultural Center Nigeria, I had the opportunity to get some Korean beauty products. My skincare hack is simple. I have very sensitive skin, so I’m careful what I put on my face. My skincare routine is simple. Wake up in the morning, wash your face with your Korean face wash, use your face mask for 15 to 20 minutes, then apply vitamin C serum. I use sunscreen sometimes when I remember. I use more face masks, eye masks, and the basic Korean beauty products. You’re good to go. This is my personal perspective. There are over ten steps on how to use Korean beauty products. I have a video on the ten steps on the Korean Cultural Center Nigeria YouTube channel, but I personally just do four out of ten.

What’s your biggest goal as a cultural storyteller   

 So I have plenty of goals, but I think the top of my list is to be, or rather learn and have the opportunity to be part of a Korean organization. Like I said, apart from being a creator, I am also a researcher, so most of my goals are more academic. I would definitely love to leave a positive impact on people. That’s like a broad overview, but personally, my goal is to be part of a Korean organization. It can be a cultural organization, it can be an academic organization. Being part of these organizations will become a way for me to become the best version of myself.  

Another personal goal is to learn the Korean language. I really, really want to learn the Korean language. My top three goals are to impact people, to educate people, to be a positive landmark or a positive personality with regards to promoting Korean culture, to be a cultural ambassador, the second one, which is more academic or more professional, is to be part of a Korean academic organization or body. Like for example, Korea University, maybe as a student or a researcher or even a staff member. Finally, my top goal is to enjoy myself because there’s something I learnt. Whatever you are doing, put a form of fun in it. When you recognize it being fun, it makes you become more productive and a better version of yourself. Yeah, I think that’s the three I can share with you. The others are in my journal.

Balance Game

Would you rather interview your K-Drama bias or eat dinner with your K-pop bias (no cameras)?

That’s a tough one…… (One decade of indecisive choices later). I want the two, but I will have to pick eating with my bias. I will eat with BTS, the seven of them. If I interview them, it's not going to make them free around me. Most celebrities really struggle with people interviewing them because people kind of do not stick to what they are trying to say. They write out of context because they want clickbait. But you see, to sit with k pop artist is very rare. So I think I'll go with them.

Thank you so much for doing this with us.