By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff reporter
Twenty-two foreigners from 16 countries showed off their Korean language skills by giving a speech about their experiences in Korea, its people and culture at the 13th World Korean Language Speech Contest for Foreigners held at Kyung Hee University, Friday.
The contest was hosted by the university's Institute for International Education (IIE) and the 22 finalists were selected from among 1,119 applicants from 29 countries.
"Some 4,000 expatriates from 70 countries have participated in the contest. It has grown to become a festival of communication for the citizens of the world," IIE Director Kim Jung-sup said. "I expect all people here to be connected through Korea and the Korean language."
The themes for this year's contest were "Beauty of Korea," "Working Korea" and "Experiencing Korean Culture."
Andrew Noonoo of the United States said Korea was more interesting than any television drama. "I had high expectations about Korea by watching Korean dramas before coming to Korea in 2008.
However, the palaces and the Korean Folk Village in Yongin were much more precious than the dramas," he said. Noonoo added that he experienced the real beauty of Korea by travelling around the country with his Korean wife.
Kumarsanjay from India assosciated Korea with bibimbap. "I think bibimbap represents the taste of Korea. I found Korea through the unique taste coming from the mixture of various ingredients in bibimbap," he said.
Another participant, Bulgantamir of Mongolia, compared Korea to tteokbokki, rice cakes with red pepper sauce.
Sherpalakpa, a monk from Nepal, praised the community spirit of Koreans. "I realized that the reason of Korea's brilliant development is the Confucian spirit of 'us," he said in the contest.
Professor Baek Bong-ja, the head of the jury, said the participants were fluent in Korean as if they were Koreans. "The contest was a place to listen to stories of Korea and Korean people from the viewpoint of expatriates, including students and sojourning employees, in a multicultural society," Baek said.