A New Year’s Interview with Kang Hyounhwa, President of the KSIF
“Voices of KSIs will be actively reflected to continue educational innovation”

KSI’s proficiency evaluation revealed: 2021 is an important year for completing specialized curriculums
Expecting KSI to play an important role in localizing curriculums and distributing them in the nearby areas through cooperation

2020 was a special year for everyone. The King Sejong Institute Foundation (KSIF) succeeded in the soft landing of the King Sejong Institute (KSI) on a new dimension of education in a period of upheaval, with the keywords of “active” and “cooperation”. As a result of these efforts, the Korean government allocated a budget of approx. KRW 51.3 billion to KSIF for 2021. This is a dramatic increase of 44.9% compared to the previous year.

Kang Hyounhwa, the President of KSIF, who marks the third year of her inauguration, defines 2021 as “an important year for completing specialized curriculums of KSIs”. KSIF announces the “Sejong Korean Proficiency Test (S-KPT)”, an accredited test equivalent to the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) and starts operating various programs based on local demand, such as curriculums for training teachers in local areas and Korean language interpreting and translating.

In the New Year with dramatic changes due to COVID-19, how will the KISF continue to communicate with the global community to reflect the voices of many different learners in its business? In the following interview with Kang Hyounhwa, the President of KSIF, she talked about KSIF’s achievements in 2020 and the goals for 2021.

1. What are the biggest achievements of KSIF in 2020? I think the biggest achievements were the expansion of KSI and the growth of Korean language education abroad by developing various learning materials. In 2020, KSI has branched out into 15 new countries with a total of 213 KSIs. I am very happy to present this “little Korea” that can be accessed by learners abroad who have not come into contact with the KSI. KSI has also significantly expanded online. All 213 KSIs around the world have installed e-Class for online learning. In addition to offline KSIs, more than 20,000 new learners had an opportunity to learn the Korean language and culture through the online KSI.

Another important achievement in last year is the diversification of the educational materials by developing high-quality educational materials, in line with the increasing demand for Korean language learning. New materials suitable for the trend of this era, such as materials for learning Korean through Korean culture like Korean wave contents and using new technologies such as AI are about to be released.

Last year, we also developed a variety of educational materials for teachers, especially for the specialization of teachers. I think it was very meaningful in that it contributed to strengthening the professionalization of the Korean language education field, by allowing more people other than learners and teachers at KSIs to access the materials.

2. When was your most proud moment in 2020? “KSI Korean Speech Contest” was most memorable. The topic of the speech contest this year was “Koreans I have met”. Not only the advanced level of Korean language proficiency of our KSI learners was impressive, but also their love for Korea and respect towards Korean language teachers contained in the speeches touched me deeply.

The First Lady Kim Jung-sook also visited the venue to congratulate the contest. After listening to speeches, she was very impressed by them, saying that the proficiency of the learners at KSIs is really excellent and their love for Korea seems very great. At that moment, I felt achieved and I was very proud of our KSI learners with talents and full of passion.

3. Please tell us about KSIF’s goals for 2021. In 2021, KSIF will communicate and collaborate with other various fields based on its expertise in the Korean language education field to continue the innovation.

The New Year is an important year in which specialized curriculums will be completed through the development of KSIF’s proficiency assessment system. In 2021, KSIF will announce the S-KPT, which has been developed over the years. It is expected that the S-KPT will be used as an official test equivalent to the existing TOPIK in the long term. KSI learners will be able to experience diagnosis-learningteaching-evaluation at once within the KSI curriculums through the implementation of the S-KPT.

Based on the big data generated at each stage of diagnosis-learning-teaching-evaluation, KSIF will identify the needs of learners and KSIs abroad to actively reflect back on to the next year's business. We will conduct an interpretation/translation curriculum for intermediate/advanced learners, as well as a preliminary teacher training project to cultivate locals as teachers at KSIs in areas with insufficient teachers. In addition, following this year, we plan to develop materials connecting culture and language, in cooperation with cultural organizations and prepare to teach and distribute the materials efficiently.

The development of KSIs comes from the development of the members. KSIF aims to provide a variety of educational opportunities so that each and every member of the KSI can grow, from KSIF staff and dispatched and local Korean language teachers to KSI heads and operating personnel, and to provide a place for active exchange and communication. Going beyond the KSI’s quantitative growth, we will actively support the currently operating KSIs to allow them to function as centers for Korean language education in local areas.

4. What do you expect from KSI in 2021? Reflecting the needs of learners and local KSIs can be interpreted as individualizing and localizing the education. KSIF expects each institute to utilize standardized curriculums to develop educational materials adjusted to the local situation and further create a new curriculum suitable to the local circumstances.

I believe this will be brought about more quickly through cooperation between local KSIs that share similar backgrounds. If neighboring KSIs cooperate to share information on local learners and seek ways for the development suitable to the local system, I think that the optimal educational method suitable for learners will be able to be found.

I hope that KSIs over the world are proud to be the center of Korean language education in their region and I expect that they expand to share the information and content learned through the KSI network with neighboring institutions and regions, rather than staying within the KSI. Furthermore, in addition to promoting Korea, I expect that they serve as a channel to convey the regional and local culture to Korea, thereby creating a genuine mutual exchange.

5. Business trips and invitations have become difficult due to COVID-19 in 2020 and more non-contact events have been held. What are you trying to do in 2021 to strengthen communication with local KSIs? COVID-19 gave us an opportunity and a spirit of challenge to think about what we should do in a different way. We found some ways to do things, which we had thought to be done in person only, in a non-contact way and we found that it can be more efficient in some aspects. In the future, KSIF will continue to communicate more efficiently with KSIs by using both contact and non-contact ways. In addition, we plan to strengthen support for promoting individual KSIs so that they can expand further by communicating with the local communities

6. Please give some words for the New Year to the KSI members. 2020 was a difficult year that everyone will never forget. However, it was a year where we worked together with determination to overcome such a crisis. I hope that the New Year will be a year where crises are cleared and everyone is free to realize their personal achievements. When the clock that stopped starts ticking again, we will find ourselves more grown and we will take a leap forward. Happy New Year to all members of the KSIs around the world.