The final round of the 25th World Korean Language Speech Contest for Foreigners on Oct. 19 was held at Crown Concert Hall of Kyung Hee University in Seoul's Dongdaemun-gu District, with 16 finalists from 13 countries including Vietnam, India, Russia and Ethiopia competing.
These contestants were chosen from 64 who passed the preliminary round, which attracted 1,023 applicants from 36 countries.
The themes of the final round were "Korean Expressions that AI Can't Replace" and "Secrets of Living in Korea."
Kay Zin Soe from Myanmar wowed the audience for playing an artificial intelligence (AI) translation machine to describe the difficulties of translating Korean. She called Korean a beautiful but hard language because of its difficult grammar and words.
"But that doesn't mean King Sejong the Great meant to make it complicated," she added, eliciting laughter from the audience.
Yana Deriabina from Russia, a student at SolBridge International School of Business in Daejeon, explained the appeal of Korean that AI cannot translate by mentioning the famous Korean poem "Azaleas" by Kim So-wol (1902-34).
"I'm experiencing the true taste of the Korean language with no help from an AI translation machine," she said. "In my opinion, the individuality and beautiful emotions of Korean expressions cannot be replaced by AI."
Introducing herself as a Ph.D. student in translation of Korean at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Alesia Krolova from Belarus shared stories of her foreign friends struggling to adapt to life.
"From the moment I decided to recognize myself, my life in Korea got much easier," she said.
"The key was to enjoy my identity as a foreigner, not hide it."
Ruisheng Tan of China, an eight-year resident of Korea, won the top prize for his speech on the dual meanings of Korean and its cultural aspects.
On his secret to learning the language, he said, "I listened to and repeated the pronunciations of anchors when watching Korean news," adding, "I found this method most helpful."
Daniel Jakob Lindemann, a German celebrity in Korea who was on the judging panel, said, "Along with passion, it's very important to find your own way of studying," adding, "I practiced a lot by reading vocabulary books while hiking and talking to myself when driving."
Launched in 1998 to mark the 600th birthday of King Sejong the Great, who invented Hangeul, the contest has attracted a cumulative 15,000 applicants from 70 countries as the world's biggest event of its kind. More information on the competition is available on its official website (http://speechinkorean.iie.ac.kr).
