KSIF holds “2023 Korean Cultural Experience Program for King Sejong Institute Learners”

> October 5 - 11. Korean culture experience at Gyeongbokgung Palace, National Hangeul Museum, etc.

> October 10. The 2023 KSI Korean Speech and Writing Contests

> The Grand Prize for the speech category goes to Srija Paul from KSI Korean Cultural Center, India, and the Grand Prize for the writing category to Enkh-uils from KSI Ulaanbaatar 2, Mongolia

From October 5 to 10, the King Sejong Institute Foundation (hereinafter referred to as "KSIF"), together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, hosted the 2023 Korean Cultural Experience Program for King Sejong Institute Learners” to celebrate Hangeul Week for the 577th Hangeul Day (Oct. 4-10).

The Korean Cultural Experience Program for KSIF Learners, which celebrates its 14th anniversary this year, is a representative scholarship program for Korean language learners around the world. The preliminaries for the Korean Speech and Writing Contests were held at KSI locations worldwide from May this year, and 168 outstanding learners who won the preliminaries at each KSI location were invited to train in Korea for seven days. Through this visit to Korea, the learners had the opportunity to experience and understand Korean culture that they had only encountered through books and videos themselves.

The experience program this year consisted of a Korean culture experience traveling back and forth between the past and present of Korea. The participants had the opportunity to experience traditional Korean culture, visit Gyeongbokgung Palace and Korean Folk Village, watch a Namsadang Nori Performance, and attending the Hangeul Week event. They also had time to experience modern culture, such as K-pop culture, visit Cheongwadae, and an aquarium, and take a Hangang River cruise tour.

On October 10, the day after Hangeul Day, the final rounds for the 2023 KSI Korean Speech and Writing Contests were held in the Korean Broadcasting Center. In the preliminary contests that were held at each KSI location around the world, 2,447 persons participated in the speech category and 1,726 persons participated in the writing category. Among them, 10 persons from the speech category and 10 persons from the writing category were selected through the preliminaries and competed in the final round.

The contest was held under the theme of “The dream I want to achieve through Korean, my challenge.” The Grand Prize in the writing category went to Ms. Enkh-uils from KSI Ulaanbaatar 2, Mongolia, who wrote “My dream of studying abroad in Korea finally come true” in a structured manner. Ms. Enkh-uils wrote about how she finally achieved her goal of studying in Korea in September, after studying consistently at KSI for her dream to study in Korea since middle school, and about her dream of promoting Mongolian culture and lifestyle in Korea in accurate and relatable Korean sentences, and received good responses.

In the Speech Contest Final that was held in the afternoon, participants wore their countries’ traditional clothing and gave five-minute presentations in front of outstanding learners from 2023. During the screening, they had time to listen to Alberto Mondi, a television personality who is one of the honorary ambassadors of KSI, about his experience of overcoming differences and adapting to Korean culture.
After the heated competition, the Grand Prize for the speech category went to Srija Paul from KSI Korean Cultural Center, India, who gave a presentation on the topic “I want to become a singer in Korea to express my heart in beautiful songs in the Korean language.” “When the charm of Korean language is combined with beautiful melodies, it sometimes caresses me like gentle waves and sometimes captivates me like a giant wave.” Ms. Srija’s sincere speech received shouts of encouragement and applause.

The grand prize and first place winners of the Korean Speech and Writing Contests in each category received the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Awards and the KSIF President’s Awards, respectively. In addition, the winners in each category were given the opportunity to study Korean for about six months from next year, with the support of KB Kookmin Card, Hancom Group, Korea University, Dankook University, Duksung Women’s University, Dongguk University, Sogang University, Seoul National University, Sungkyungkwan University, and Ewha Womans University.

Lee Hai-young, President of KSIF, remarked, “I hope that, through the Korean Cultural Experience Program for King Sejong Institute Learners, the outstanding learners of KSI will become culture producers and professionals of Korea, and further pursue their dreams. KSIF will continue to support them so that the learners of Korean language and culture will realize their dreams.”