10 finalists selected in the 2020 KSI’s Korean Speaking Contest

10 finalists selected out of 113 contestants from 46 countries around the world
Finals to be held through an untact method in the beginning of October under the theme, ‘Koreans whom I have met’

▲ Second main round of 2020 Speaking Contest held in the form of online video interview.

10 finalists have been selected in 2020 by the King Sejong Institute’s (hereinafter referred to as KSI) Korean Speaking Contest.
The King Sejong Institute Foundation (hereinafter referred to as KSIF) conducted the second untact evaluation of the ‘KSI Korean Speaking Contest’ on the 7th floor of the King Sejong Institute Education Center for 2 days from the 11th to 12th last month and decided upon 10 finalists.
Among the 10 finalists, 6 of them were from Asia, 2 from America, and 2 from Europe. The 10 finalists will be taking part in the contest based on the theme, ‘Koreans whom I have met (will meet)’ in the finals that is going to be held in the beginning of October.

The ‘KSI Korean Speaking Contest’ is KSIF’s model scholarship program. Every year, the winners of the speaking contests from each KSI around the world have been invited to ‘King Sejong Training’ held in Korea in October to participate in the finals. However, due to COVID-19, it has been decided that the finals would be held untact.
Kwak Jiyoung, the President of Yonsei University’s Korean Language Institute 2, who participated in the second evaluation as the Chair of Evaluation Committee, delivered through her evaluation report, “Despite the difficult circumstances due to COVID-19, the majority of the participants demonstrated passion for learning Korean language,” and that, “I was able to witness the extent of KSI learning’s understanding of the Korean language.”

The preliminary round of the 2020 KSI Speaking Contest was held from April to July in the 90 KSIs in 46 countries around the world. The participations of the preliminary round chose 1 theme between ’Korean culture that I love’ and ‘My future that I dream of with Korean language’ for the contest. Despite the fact that the majority of KSIs held the speaking contests online, 1,918 foreigners participated in the preliminary round.

113 winners from the individual KSI Speaking Contest made it through the main round. By continent, 60 people from Asia, 26 from Europe, 21 from America, 5 from Africa, and 1 from Oceania made it to the main round. By country, 18 people from Vietnam, 9 from China, and 8 from Russia ranked the highest.
In august, KSIF conducted the primary evaluation based on scripts of diversity, fluency of expression, accuracy of grammar of scripts, and videos of 113 main round participants. 37 people qualified for the second main round evaluation. The second main round evaluation was held in the form of online video interviews and the finalists were determined based on their actual Korean proficiency.

[ List of the 2020 Korean Speaking Contest Finalists ]