Anubhuti Kakati was the winner of the grand prize at the 2020 KSI Korean Writing Contest and at the 2021 KSI Korean Speech Contest, and completed the KSI Korean Language Teacher Training in 2020. She is currently an international student at the Yonsei University Korean Language Institute.

Hello! We very much enjoyed seeing you on . Please briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your TV appearance.

(Anubhuti) Hello, I’m Anubhuti Kakati from India. I won the grand prize at the Korean Speech/Writing Contest hosted by KSI, and came to Korea this February to study abroad. Currently, I’m studying Korean at the Yonsei University Korean Language Institute. It was my first time ever on TV, so it felt a little weird. Seeing myself on a huge TV screen was both fun and unreal, and I think I was overcome with different emotions. I was there with my KSI friends, and their presence helped me calm down and just be myself. It was fun appearing on the show with other Korean learners. Most of my friends in India didn’t get to see the show, but my Korean Language Institute classmates complimented me on how my pronunciation has gotten so much better.

Your Korean pronunciation is excellent, indeed. The preliminary rounds for the KSI Korean Speech/Writing Contest are currently in full swing. As the winner of the grand prize at the 2020 KSI Korean Writing Contest and at the 2021 KSI Korean Speech Contest, is there a tip that you can give to KSI students preparing for the contest?

(Anubhuti) Getting yourself ready for those two areas of the contest requires different strategies. As for the Writing Contest, you won’t know the topic of the contest in advance, so it’s important to think about different topics beforehand. For example, you could pretend the topic is ‘culture,’ and think about what you could write about, including which culture you wish to introduce, where that culture originated from, and so on. As for the Speech Contest, you will be given the topic in advance, so prepare thoroughly. Practice makes perfect! In my case, I could have prepared better. I was so nervous and the lack of practice made me feel even more intimidated. If you are prepared well, you will be confident and able to deliver exactly what you wish to tell the audience. Practice, and more practice. There’s really nothing that’s more important.