French government honors 3 Koreans

By Kang Hyun-kyung

French Ambassador Jerome Pasquier presented three Korean scholars with the Order of Academic Palms for their respective roles to promote French culture and education in Korea.

They are Im Hye-gyong, professor of Department of French Language and Culture at Sookmyung Women’s University and president of Korea French Language and Literature Society; Wu Jeong-weon, professor of Department of Natural Sciences at Ewha Women’s University; and French linguistics professor Pak Man-ghyu of Ajou University.

The three professors played key roles in academic exchanges between Korean and French scholars, contributed to the development of their areas of study by submitting articles and papers to the internationally-renowned academic journals and raised the profile of French language and culture through their academic activities.

Pasquier honored them with medals on May 8 at his residence in Seoul, detailing the French government’s selection criteria and how they were chosen for the prizes.

Pak was selected because he organized several academic seminars and forums with French scholars and played a key role in holding the French speech contest for high school students.

The competition encouraged some high school students to learn French.

Every year, some 100 to 150 high school students compete in a French language contest hosted by Ajou University.

Pak said most of the high school students joining the competition demonstrated their high level of French fluency, adding that their language skill wowed the French people in the selection committee.

“I heard from some of those French people that they were surprised by the Korean high school students’ French language skill,” he said.

Pak said high school students were motivated to learn French and obtain proficiency certificates because these experiences would pave the way for being accepted by universities.

He noted the number of adult French learners in Korea has been increasing since 2001. The French linguistics scholar pointed at youth unemployment as a key driving force to college students’ learning French as second foreign language following English.

“Employers are looking for globally competitive workforce and a foreign language skill is one of the core credentials that can make or break job seekers in the recruitment process,” he noted.