This year it is the first time when King Sejong Insitute organizes Korean language summer courses which begins in July 11th and ends in August 26th in Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius. About these language courses we will be speaking with King Sejong Institute in Vilnius Korean language teacher and coordinator Jin Yang Kim.
Korean language teacher Jin Yang Kim thinks that Koreans and Lithuanians have a lot of similarities in communication, thus she is comfortable with Lithuanians
What is the concept of Korean language summer courses? What is the difference between ordinary classes of Korean language and these summer courses?
Jin Yang Kim: Essentially, we are suggesting Korean language courses in eight different themes and courses that will be taught with the connection to popular Korean culture aspects like food, travel, pop culture. Participants also going to learn some useful phrases in Korean language, which are also valuable in order to communicate with native speaker. Even if in our courses the main participants are students from 18 to 20 years old, I would like to emphasize that there are no age limit and everyone are welcome. I also think that the ideal number of students should be 7 or 8, however, if there will be a bigger number of participants, thus me and my colleague’s task will be to motivate them to study and to concentrate their attention as much as possible (one class is 1 hour and a half).
We want to invite people who have interest in Korea and Korean language, but they do not know what are the first steps to learn this language. In addition, we are waiting for people who are too busy during their studies and cannot find enough time to study this language. We want to be sure that we provide all possible opportunities to learn through Korean culture.
Sometimes, in various courses we can notice a problem: in the same language courses participate people who have different language skills. People who have lower language abilities are working hard, while others who have higher ones are bored. Do you have any solution to this problem?
Jin Yang Kim: Everything will depend on individual person’s abilities and how he can be focused in learning. Learning the alphabet can take a lot of time and effort, however, in speaking classes everyone can learn something new.
In the end of Korean language courses, you are planning to give the language proof certificates. What benefits it can bring?
Jin Yang Kim: There are a lot of benefits! First of all, as you know, during the study time, for 2 semesters we suggest the first and the second level courses in Korean language. In the end of these courses, there will be an opportunity to jump to the second language level courses regularly organized in MRU King Sejong Institute.
We are happy because a lot of our students already have visited Korea or have had an opportunity to study in Korea: we have a student who is going to study economy in Korea and there was a person who won Korean language contest and going to visit Korea.
We want to continue these success stories and I also want to stress that King Sejong Institute’s foundation and other big partners who are related with Korea, pay more attention to us, King Sejong Institute, and our growing community.
Having in mind, that a number who are interested in Korea is growing, MRU suggest a united bachelor studies program “Informatics and digital contents” which length is 4 years and the last 2 years are dedicated in Dongseo university in Korea. Also it is offered master’s degree study program “Informatics and visual contents”. This is a unique study program in English which can not be found neither in Baltic countries nor in Middle East counties. This study program is for students who seek to have at one time 2 bachelor diplomas, who are oriented in qualified studies in Lithuania and Korea and want to be more familiar with Asian market sector. From 2015 autumn MRU has established “English for specific purposes and the second foreign language” bachelor study program and students who have this diploma can become Korean language experts.
For those who want to participate in Korean language summer courses please register vilnius.ksi@mruni.eu before July 10th. The registration form you can find in King Sejong Institute in Vilnius page on Facebook.
Korean language courses schedule you can download here.
