Sungkyunkwan Univ. holds Korean writing contest in Vienna

The 3rd Central & Eastern Europe Sungkyun Korean Writing Contest hosted by Sungkyunkwan University took place Tuesday at the Korean Culture Center located in Vienna, Austria. Around 40 students from 18 universities in 16 Middle Eastern and European nations participated in the contest. While they came from different countries, they were all enthusiastic fans of Korean language, with most of them majoring in Korean Studies or Korean language.

The subject of the writing contest was "sharing." "Sharing is a value that should always be underlined and exercised in our daily lives," said Professor Sung Jae-ho at Sungkyunkwan Law School who led the panelists. "You can go beyond the idea of sharing tangible things, and reflect experiences and thoughts on various meanings of sharing."

The gold prize went to Kilerresku Alexandra from Babes-Bolyai University. Alexandra first learned Korean after falling in love with Korean dramas during her high school years, and wants to become a Korean language professor in Romania. In her writing, she linked sharing with caring by writing that it seems that we tend to disregard the importance of caring for others, as more people want to live independently and think only about themselves. However, one can understand how others feel only when they share tasks with others." The silver and bronze prizes went to Bulgarian and Turkish students, respectively.

"The subject seemed easy at first, but still tricky," said panelist Han Young-gu. "It was very encouraging to see foreigners understand not only the Korean language, but also the Korean sentiment."

The event wrapped up with various events and training sessions on the Joseon Dynasty culture and classics held by the Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics. CEO Park Gwang-joon of Seoyeong Engineering also visited the venue to give words of encouragement to students. "We will make more efforts to expand this event with full responsibility as citizen diplomats promoting the excellence of Korean language and culture." said Professor Lee Seok-kyu, head of international affairs at Sungkyunkwan University who led the event.

노지원기자 zone@donga.com