SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY (SKKU), SEOUL, KOREA
The 4th Central & Eastern Europe Sungkyun Writing Contest was held on November 9th in the auditorium of Korean Cultural Hall located in Vienna, Austria.
About 30 students from 14 different universities in Austria, Germany, Russia, and Turkey passed the preliminary stage to compete with their Korean writing skills. The subject of the writing contest was "Living Together".
Milena Novy from the University of Vienna won first prize. In her award speech Milena said, "During my days in Korea as an exchange student I couldn't tell anyone that I was struggling. I cried endlessly when a teacher approached me asking, 'You look very frustrated. Is everything alright?' I was able to finish my studies 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." The second and third prizes were awarded to Domenic Pfoertner from the 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 has contributed greatly to the popularity of the Korean language along with the Korean Wave. SKKU will strive to expand the Korean Wave which began with K-pop and K-dramas," said SKKU Prof. Kyung Hwoen KIM, the judge of this contest.
SKKU has hosted 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 the first, second, and third place prizes are exempted paying for their entire tuition for graduate courses at SKKU.
