To celebrate the official opening of the Metaverse King Sejong Institute (http://ksif.zep.site), an event was held on February 7 at Multi Content Testbed in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea. The event was attended by officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, representatives from KSIF, and honorary ambassadors of the foundation, including television personalities in Korea, Daniel Lindemann, Alberto Mondi, and Lucky.
During the event, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Park, who was selected as an Excellent Teacher at the institute. In this article, we will share her story with our readers.

It is my pleasure to meet you, Ms. Hyo-won Park. First of all, congratulations on being selected as an Excellent Teacher of the Korean language at the Metaverse King Sejong Institute. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to work as a Korean language teacher at the Metaverse King Sejong Institute of KSIF.

Hello! My name is Hyo-won Park, and I currently teach Korean at the International House in London and run the YouTube channel “Korean with Hyoni.” The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 has led to a surge in online classes. We were looking for an alternative to online platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams that could overcome the limitations of interactivity. To our delight, we found Metaverse King Sejong Institute and applied for it.

Metaverse King Sejong Institute is a new challenge for the foundation. How did you like the Metaverse King Sejong Institute experience? And I'm also curious about your role in it.

Metaverse King Sejong Institute was literally a new world to me. Within the Metaverse, students can explore the classroom on their own. This makes it a great platform for driving self-directed learning. Teachers not only create classroom materials and impart knowledge, but they also design each space.

While preparing for the Metaverse class, I felt like a game developer or designer. It wasn't easy, but it was also very rewarding to develop a variety of activities.

Please explain in more detail the features of Metaverse King Sejong Institute's Korean classes compared to existing online and offline Korean classes. I'm also wondering what the difference is in terms of learning effectiveness.

As an extended virtual world, the metaverse is characterized by its spatiality. Within this virtual space, students can move their avatars and interact with different objects on their own. For example, you could approach a book-shaped object in a classroom and activate it to reveal reading material. Inside these objects, you can put a variety of materials, including reading material, pictures, quizzes, audio listening, and more. You can use this characteristic to create endless learning activities such as escape rooms, quizzes, mazes, and more. Students also need to be proactive in seeking out information, not just passively sitting through lessons. In the Metaverse classroom, students were highly engaged and performed well academically.

How did the learners who participated in the Korean class at Metaverse King Sejong Institute react? Can you share any special experiences or interesting anecdotes you had in class?

Students commonly described the experience as "like a game!", "real fun!", and "let's do it again after class!” I shared the link of each class with their students, and foreign students were even online for reviewing lessons at the crack of dawn in Korean time. Unlike other online platforms that close once the class is over, the Metaverse classroom is always accessible through the link. As a result, I often ran into students in the classroom outside of class time

Lastly, I would like to ask about your experience as a Korean teacher at Metaverse King Sejong Institute and your plans as a Korean teacher.

Teaching Korean at the Metaverse King Sejong Institute opened up a new chapter in lesson design for us. The Metaverse has inspired me in many ways, and I am slowly incorporating it into their own teaching. As a Korean teacher, I will continue expanding the range of activities that can be implemented within the Metaverse. Looking ahead to 2023, I plan to work harder on their YouTube channel. I hope to introduce the Korean language and culture to people around the world who are interested in Korea in a fun way!

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