140 Learners of King Sejong Institute from 47 Countries, Enjoyed Korea’s Tasty, Beauty, and Affection at 「2019 Invitational Workshop for Outstanding Learners of King Sejong Institute」

- October 2~11, held 「2019 Invitational Workshop for Outstanding Leaners of KSIs」
- A leaner from KSI, Tashkent, won 「2019 KSI Korean Speech Contest」

「2019 Invitational Workshop for Outstanding Leaners of King Sejong Institute」 taken place for 10 days from October 2 was successfully finished. 140 learners of KSIs from 47 countries participated in the workshop hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by King Sejong Institute Foundation. They visited Jeonju and Seoul, communicated in Korean, and experienced Korean culture.

Visited famous attractions such as Jeonju Hanok Village, Muju Taekwondowon, and Seoul Namsan The participants experienced wearing hanbok, making Hanji, making Bibimbab in Jeonju Hanok Village for two days from October 3(Thu) to 4 (Fri). And they also visited Choi Myeong Hee Literary Museum and had time to write a letter to their beloved one. The letters will be sent to their home within November. After that, they visited Muju Taekwondowon on October 5 (Sat), watched Taekwondo performance and learned Taekwon Gymnastic. They had programs in Seoul from October 6. The participants had fun time experiencing Korean cultures that they wanted to do in Korea such as taking a cable car at Namsan and eating chickens at Hangang River.

「2019 King Sejong Institute Korean Speech Contest」, a learner from KSI Tashkent won the grand prize
On October 7 (Mon), the final of 「2019 King Sejong Institute Korean Speech Contest」 held at National Museum of Korea. The participants were 12 learners who came through the competition rate of 138:1 from 113 KSIs from 47 countries all over the world. They showed off their Korean speaking abilities with the theme of ‘Korea’s Beauty, Tasty, and Affection’ for four minutes respectively. The grand prize went to Bekmizaev Azim from KSI Tashkent. Mr. Azim presented the theme of the beauty of Korea, and he said ‘the Beauty of Korea is Korean language’, and that is it gave him, who played games all the time at the internet café during his school days, a dream of ‘studying abroad in Korea’. Mr. Azim won the two awards, the prizes of grand and popularity with his fluent and witty presentation. He attributed the honors to his father who sent him to KSI to make him ‘learn anything’ because he did nothing but playing in his school years.

In addition, Trachta Angel from KSI, Iowa City, USA and Mr. Sahar Tavakoli from KSI Tehran, Iran won the excellence award. The 12 finalists will receive the fellowship training of Korean language from the sponsored universities which are Korea University, Kookmin University, Dongshin University, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Seogang Universities, Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, and Ewha Womans University.

Korean Culture learned from experts, showed off practice results for 10 days at the closing ceremony
The participants chose one out of Samulnori, K-Pop Dance, Korean Dance, K-Pop Song, and Taekwondo and had time to learn from the experts of each field. They boasted their skills at the closing ceremony on 11th. They showed excellent stages with their affections and passions for Korean Culture even it was a short time to practice. Laura Bekere from KSI Riga, Latvia, who participated in the workshop, said, “9 nights and 10 days in Korea is like a dream. I’ll come back to Korea with my future husband on my honeymoon.”

“The learners of KSIs who have different languages and cultures have become one with Korean language and culture through this workshop. I hope that the invitational workshop for outstanding learners can be more developed as a venue of exchange for the Korean language and culture learners all over the world.” Said Kang, Hyun-hwa, the president of the foundation which organized the event.