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2021-11-22
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On October 8, the King Sejong Institute Foundation (hereinafter KSIF, President: Lee Hai-young) held the “2021 KSI Outstanding Students Contest” at EL Tower in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, through an online platform.
The event was arranged to commemorate the 575th Hangeul Day and to meet and communicate with the outstanding learners of 2021, drawing the participation of 244 outstanding learners of KSI around the world selected through KSI Korean Speech and Writing Contests, as well as by KSI staff.
The opening event was a Korean traditional music performance, which was followed by a history lecture on the topic of “Blue-eyed Koreans.” The outstanding learners showed great interests in the stories of the first foreigners who learned the language in Korea and helped disseminate it globally.
Next, the most important program of this contest, the final round of the “2021 KSI Korean Speech Contest” was held. The ten finalists gave free presentations on the topic of “The challenge I want to take on” and answered the judges’ questions. The judges gave their overall review, saying, “The presentations were excellent, but it was very surprising that the answers to the questions were so sophisticated.”
Prior to the judging and awarding, there was a time for watching the videos of encouragement together. The warm words of encouragement and support from the last year’s outstanding learners, staff of KSI, and other students touched the hearts of the participants.
The heat of the final presentations grew further in the congratulatory performances for the outstanding learners. Seeing the outstanding learners waving hands in response to the performance of Kim Bum-soo, the first singer to introduce K-pop to the world, one could feel the power of Korean culture leading the Hallyu ("Korean Wave")
As the result of the judging, Anubhuti Kakati from the Korean Cultural Center India won the Grand Prize presented by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the 2021 Speech Contest. The Grand Prize of the Final Korean Writing Contest held on September 27 went to Drozdovska Ksenia from KSI Minsk. A total of 16 outstanding learners, including the grand prize winners of each sector, will be given an opportunity for language training at a university in Korea in 2022.
President Lee Hai-young remarked, “It was most impressive to see the other outstanding learners, who unfortunately did not make it to the finals, giving applause to the finalists,” and gave words of encouragement to all outstanding learners of Korean worldwide who showed such good achievements in Korean language and culture. She added, “KSIF will further promote the speech and writing contest, and also put efforts to develop scholarship programs for Korean learners around the world.”
