Winning the Gold Prize at the Korean Essay Contest...fulfill the dream of studying in Korea”

“Thanks to Korean, my dream of studying in Korea has become possible”

Aktorgin Vibekova(20, Female), a senior in Kazakh University of International Relations & World Languages, shouted out in joy. She, on Nov. 28th, won the gold prize, for top standing  in ‘The 7th Central Asian Sungkyun Korean Essay Contest’ held at the Grand Mir Hotel in Uzbekistan’s capital of Tashkent, In this contest, 60 participants recommended by 20 universities were gathered from 4 Central Asian countries. The winners were given gold, silver, bronze prize and received graduate scholarships(2 years) provided by Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU).

This year’s essay topic was ‘Trust.’ Ms. Vibekova received high scores from all 4 judges with her own story and her father’s who could not care for his family owing to his business failure. The head of the judging panel, SKKU Prof. Kim ho in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, said “Despite the difficult topic, there were a number of outstanding works which showed completion in the matter and style of writing. 

Jahongir Rahmachoda(17), who won a silver prize, wore a look that seemed like he could not believe that his dream to study in Korea came true within a year after beginning to learn Korean. Rahmachoda, a high school senior, went to Sejong Hakdang a year ago, to follow his two elder brothers who are studying in Korea. In order to participate in the contest, he took a taxi for 13 hours from Tadjikistan. He was favorably reviewed with his emotional writing on farewell and reunion with a homeless dog he met when he was a child. Rahmachoda said “After hearing the stories my brother told me about Korea, I began to dream of studying in Korea” and “right until the contest started, for several days, I hardly slept at all to prepare for it.” 

Lee Suke-kyu, the vice president of International Affairs, asserted “As the contest progresses students seem to go beyond simple imitation of words and seem to be have been training to think in Korean.” There are also ‘love calls’ from Korean companies who are localized, to some of contestants. Thanks to this, learning Korean is recognized to lots of local students as a precious chance to change their life.

On this day, while the judging was being made, a special lecture by the Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics(ITKC) was given to the participants, teachers and others.

Link to media report: http://news.donga.com/3/all/20151202/75133872/1