Speech contest fosters Korean-Jordanian cultural exchange

AMMAN — The Language Centre at the University of Jordan (UJ) was filled with cultural exchange and anticipation on Tuesday as the second annual Korean Speech Contest was under way.

Jordanian student volunteers greeted guests and participants at the entrance of the auditorium with a bow and the formal greeting in Korean, “Anyeong-haseyo”, literally translated as "peace upon you", similar to the Arabic greeting of “As salam alaikum”. 

The volunteers expressed to The Jordan Times their enthusiasm for Korean culture and wanting to share this with their fellow students, friends and family. 

One of the volunteers, a third-year Jordanian student majoring in music and Korean, said her interest in traditional Korean music as well as current Korean-pop boy bands inspires her to pursue both of her fields of study with more zeal. 

While another volunteer, majoring in Korean, and aviation and engineering, expressed his hopes of working as an engineer in Korea upon completion of his degree. 

Korean Ambassador to Jordan Choi Hong-ghi, in an opening address to the audience, stressed the poetic importance of the Korean language as the driving force behind the development of Korea’s economic, cultural and agricultural sectors. 

Tuesday's event was sponsored by the Korea International Cooperation Agency as part of Korean Cultural Week, and held in cooperation with UJ's Korean language programme. 

In commemoration of the friendly relations the two countries hold, the ambassador mentioned the $100,000 grant to the UJ Language Centre by the Korean embassy in order to enhance and encourage further language and cultural exchange. 

Bagdagul Mussa, representative of the department of Asian languages, expressed to the audience his appreciation of the partnership between the countries’ language programmes. 

As a result of this partnership, the Korean language department provides jobs for Jordanian Korean speaking graduates which ultimately foster continued strong ties in the developing of mutual economic interests. 

Speeches at the contest were judged on pronunciation, vocabulary utilisation, sentence composition, content, and overall fluency. The judging board consisted of Korean language professors at UJ, as well as the consulate of the Korean embassy in Aqaba. 

The content of participants’ speeches ranged from their love of Korean dramas, music and culture, to the difficulties and rewarding experiences of Jordanian family life.  

As one participant noted to The Jordan Times after the event, among the many similarities that connect Korean and Jordanian cultures are the strong familial ties and the general sense of respect and responsibility both cultures feel towards elders and family.