Spanish Cultural Center to Open in Suwon
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Spain's Cervantes Institute will open the Class of Cervantes in Korea as early as next spring.
Director of the Cervantes Institute Carmen Caffarel was in Korea last Monday, signing a memorandum of understanding with her Korean partner Choue In-won, president of Kyung Hee University.
In her speech, the director expressed enthusiasm for what the Class of Cervantes will do in Korea. Equivalent to the Korea Foundation, the institute is a Spanish government affiliated entity with the objective to promote its language and culture abroad.
The institute currently has 72 branches in 44 countries, offering a wide range of programs targeting the general public of the host country. What will open in Korea is to be a smaller version.
Last week's decision was a big hurray for the Spanish diplomats who are and have been posted to Korea, for it was an outcome of years of unsuccessful endeavors to persuade the headquarters to open a branch.
Former Ambassador Delfin Colome initiated the effort, and incumbent Ambassador Juan Lena took it over.
Although it's not complete in services, Luis Fonseca, first secretary at the embassy in Seoul, said, ``It's a very good first step.'' This gives rise to the opening of a Cervantes Institute in Korea, and when it opens, ``they (the Cervantes Institute and the Class of Cervantes) can coexist.''
What was noteworthy was that the fact the director got to see the growing interest in Spanish culture and language in Korea, Fonseca added.
The number of applicants for the Spanish language test, known as ``DELE,'' is one of many indicators of the surging interest. According to the embassy, the number of DELE applicants has risen by 30 percent every year. In 2009 nearly 1,900 Koreans took the test.
Director Caffarel mentioned she herself could feel the interest in Spain among the Korean general public during her three-day trip.
The Class of Cervantes office will open in Suwon where Kyung Hee University's Global campus is located. The embassies and other parties involved are pushing hard to open it by next spring, the year the two countries will celebrate the 60th anniversary of entering into diplomatic relations.
The size of the Class hasn't yet been determined, but the center will have at least one staff member dispatched from the headquarters and local Korean staff.
There will be two main tasks for the center.
One is to assist Spanish language educators in Korea, mostly at university level. It will help educators develop and polish curriculum and train them to teach Spanish language.
Currently, two universities, Kyung Hee University and the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, have Spanish departments in Seoul.
The other is to supervise the Spanish language test. The test is available twice a year, in May and November, and is now under supervision of the embassy.
The embassy is hoping to use the institute's facility for exhibitions, film screenings and musical events.
With the opening of Class of Cervantes, Spain joins the list of countries that have opened separate cultural promotion offices in Korea. China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom have had centers for some time and have earned recognition. The Czech Republic opened an information center this year.