Mohanad AboArafe
The delegation of the Korean channel KBS – the official channel of South Korea – concluded its important visit to Egypt, which extended over four days, with the aim of filming a television program in Egypt on the popularity and spread of the Korean language, in addition to highlighting the most important monuments.
The “KBS International Korean Language Competition” program raises a series of questions aimed at measuring the contestants’ ability to speak and write in the Korean language, in addition to cultural questions, which are interspersed with artistic paragraphs during which the contestants present their talents in a competitive atmosphere dominated by the spirit of fun.
The KBS delegation visited Egypt as part of a tour that included France, Vietnam and the United States, as part of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the KBS network, and the twentieth anniversary of the launch of the program, which is one of the most famous cultural programs on the KBS network, especially in light of the great spread of Korean culture around the world.
In cooperation with the King Sejong Institute for Teaching the Korean Language, which is the arm of the Korean government in spreading and promoting Korean language education, whose branches are spread in about 84 countries around the world, the program seeks to promote and encourage interest in learning the Korean language and search for the best scholars in the four countries in order to participate In the finals of the competition hosted by Korea next September. The prize for the first place winner in the competition is about $1,500.
During their visit to Egypt, the KBS channel team filmed the first phase of the competition at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, while the Korean Cultural Center in Egypt hosted the second round of the competition. 129 Korean language students applied to participate in the competition from Egypt, 68 of whom qualified to participate in the competition, and two of them were able to qualify to participate in the finals in Korea, namely Sarah Bakr and Mayar Shalaby.
The questions dealt with the most important monuments in Egypt and South Korea, in addition to the cultural similarities in both countries.
For his part, the director of the Korean Cultural Center, Oh Song Ho, said that Egypt comes at the top of the African and Middle East countries in terms of the popularity of Korean culture, whether in Korean cinema and drama or K-pop, and that the demand for learning the Korean language among Egyptian students is the largest of its kind in the world. In turn, the growing bilateral relations between the two countries witnessed important developments in recent years, the most prominent of which was the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between the two countries.
The Director of the Korean Cultural Center also congratulated the winners of the competition and praised all the participants, while stressing the important role played by speakers of the Korean language in promoting and consolidating bilateral relations between the two countries.
The Egyptian version of the competition is scheduled to be shown next September on KBS, and the finals of the competition will be broadcast on the Korean Alphabet Festival (Hangul) on October 9.
