Sungkyunkwan University (President Jung Kyu Sang) has announced that it held the 4th Central & Eastern Europe Sungkyun Writing Contest on November 9th at the Auditorium of Korean Cultural Hall located in Vienna, Austria.

About 30 students from 14 different universities in Austria, Germany, Russia and Turkey had passed the preliminary stage to compete their Korean writing skills. The subject of the writing contest was “Living Together”.

Milena NOVY from the University of Vienna (Austria) was the Gold prize winner of this Writing Contest. In her award speech Milena said, “During my days in Korea as an exchange student I couldn’t tell anyone that I’m struggling. I cried endlessly when a teacher approached me asking, ‘You look very frustrated. Is everything alright?’. I was able to finish my study without lonesomeness because the teacher was by my side.” She also said, “It’s been my dream to become a good teacher who teaches such a beautiful language like Korean and I’m very delighted to win such a big award. I’m currently in my senior year at college and I’m very happy to be able to study in Korea.” Silver and Bronze prize was awarded to Domenic PFOERTNER from University of Tübingen and Anna BIGUN from Moscow State Linguistic University.

“The Sungkyun Writing Contest hosted by SKKU is the only Korean writing contest in the European region. It contributed greatly toward the popularity of the Korean language along with the fad of Korean Wave.” “SKKU will strive to expand the Korean Wave which began with K-POP and K-Drama.” said SKKU Prof Kim Kyung Hwoen, the judge of this contest.

SKKU had hosted the Korean Writing Contests in various regions such as China, Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia to communicate and spread the excellence of Hangul in the global community for the last 10 years. The winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes are exempted from the entire tuition fee at SKKU’s graduate school program.