Hub for Korean language

New institute at UKM to offer educational and cultural lectures

THE establishment of the King Sejong Institute at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia aims to contribute to a better understanding of Korean language and cultures in Malaysia.

According to King Sejong Institute at UKM director Professor Ryu Seung Wan, through the collaboration Korean language education will be offered to students and staff as well as communities near UKM such as in Putrajaya, Bangi and Kajang.

“We have received a fund from King Sejong Institute Foundation, a central public institution supporting the King Sejong Institute (KSI).

“The Korean language courses have been taking place at Permata Pintar since July and UKM since September,” said Ryu.

KSI is an educational institution which offers various Korean language and culture classes.

There are about 130 KSIs serving Korean learners and educators in 50 countries.

Sponsored by the South Korean government, its purpose is to spread Korean language and culture.

Ryu said the lectures, which contain various subjects such as History of Korea, Education System in Korea, Korean modern culture, Korean foods and Hanbok (traditional costume), will also be extended to government and university staff.

“After a meeting with Ministry of Education earlier, it was decided that the lecture on Education System in South Korea will be offered by next month,” he added.

Ryu said two classes of standard curriculum (based on Sejong Korean 1 textbook), which include Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking, are conducted at School of Languages and Linguistics’s Cinema rooms.

To ensure the quality of the class, the number of students for each class is limited to 20.

“A large number of students applied for the Korean language courses, but I could not accept more than the limit.

“At the moment, students are only from UKM but in the future, these classes will open the doors to the public in Bangi, Kajang and Putrajaya.

“I hope to get more funding from the foundation, so that more stu- dents will get to learn Korean next year,” he said.

There are also six students for the Korean language programme in Permata Pintar, which is a short course on Korean conversation.

“Earlier, I could not extend more courses because of the lack of lecturers. With the increased number of them to conduct the language programmes and cultural lectures, it is now possible.

“In addition to this, there are also many Korean government institutions and private institutions that are sending teaching materials such as textbooks, cultural books and DVDs.

“This is an enhancement in networking between South Korea as well as other King Sejong Institutes with other countries all over the world.

“It will also contribute to UKM students and staff in exchanging information and sharing future researches with other universities and research centres,” Ryu added.

He said the K-pop phenomena in this country contributed to the number of students interested to take up the Korean language.

“Compared to five to six years ago, the number of Malay students has tremendously increased and as a result, the numbers of Korean language learners increased two to three-fold.

“Of course in the past, too, there were many university students and companies who wanted to study Korean.

“But it was difficult to entertain the demands due to the lack of qualified teachers and lecturers.

“This is the main reason that I applied to a foundation for funding support.

“Now I can say that I have taken one small step forward to contribute to Malaysia. It is interesting to note the change in racial ratio of students.

“I hope KSI plays its role in helping UKM become a hub for Korean language education and culture for other universities, and for all Malaysians in the near future,” he added.

Ryu, who has 20 years’ experience in Korean language education, joined UKM’s School of Language Studies and Linguistics in October 1993 as the Coordinator of Korean Language Courses.

He has conducted research and published papers on Korean language, Korean language education and Korea-Malaysia related subjects such as culture and educational system.

He is also the author and coauthor of Bahasa Korea untuk Warga Malaysia (Korean language for Malaysians), which is written in Bahasa Malaysia, and History of Cultural and Educational Exchange between Korea and Malaysia (written in Korean, English and Bahasa Malaysia languages) respectively.

School of Language Studies & Linguistics chair Professor Dr Siti Hamin Stapa lauded the establishment of the KSI at UKM.

“This is timely as we are seeing more Malaysians who are keen to learn Korean.

“From this collaboration, the foundation will not only cover the administrative expenses but also part-time lecturers for the classes, as well as teaching materials like books and audio videos.

“UKM will provide lecture rooms and language labs, a room for the foundation’s administration and lecturers visa if necessary.

“All are in the implementation stages and we hope to have it ready by next year so the classes can be conducted comfortably,” said Siti Hamin.