Monday, May 18, 2009

5월 15일 그날

May 15 is Teacher's Day (스승의날) in Korea. Our class bought our teachers each a basket of flower from one of the temporary flower stalls set up outside our campus's main gate. Gift for teacher is known as 촌지 (寸志) or "an inch of gratitude" here. But as a joke, we like to call it as 뇌물 (賂物) or bribe. In return, our teachers bought us lunch. So we are even.

The 12th WKLSC (see the 3rd photo below for the full meaning) for Foreigners is also held on May 15. Our American classmate was one of the finalists. In order to show our support, our class spent about 1 hour in the morning preparing our placards. After some thought, we settled on the tagline: 꽃보다 재임스, 천하무적 재임스, 화이팅! As you can see, we are also affected by the '꽃보다 남자' 효과 (BOF Syndrome).

In the process of designing the placards.

Everyone busy with colouring and decorating the placards.


The 12th WKLSC was held at Crown Hall which has a seating capacity of about 1,000. This year, there were a total of 1,106 entries and of which only 20 were selected for the final contest. The finalists include students, workers, wives of Korean husbands and even a Buddhist monk from Nepal. Each finalist was given three minutes to present their speeches on one of the two themes -`Mother' and 'How to Enjoy in Korea'. The Grand prize went to a German student from the Korea University who spoke about his mother.

Director IIE giving the opening speech for the 12th WKLSC for Foreigners.

List of finalists and the their topics of presentation.

The pride of KHU - Taekwondo. About 30 minutes of high-octane action during the interval which was totally entertaining. Even if you are not good in Korean, watching the Taekwondo performance should be worth your trip down to KHU.

Cutie Alert! The finalist from UK.

The cultural icon of Korea - B-Boys entertaining the audience before the results were announced. Equally entertaining.

The Grand Prize winner - a German student from the Korea University.

Finalists taking group photo.

The Nepal monk spoke very good Korean but unfortunately he forgot his lines. The first 3 ladies from left in the front row are all wives of Korean. First from left, Indonesia, second, Georgia and third, Japan.

My classmate switched her loyalty after our classmate lost. The guy is the Grand Prize winner.


You can watch the Arirang news on the event below. For users of Firefox and Safari, I am afraid you will have to download Windows Media Player plugin to watch it.



1 comment:

  1. The grand prize winner looks like 1 of the representatives on 비정상회담. But he said he was from Yonsei or learn Korean from Yonsei.

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