A foreign contestant in October 2022 demonstrates her Korean-speaking skills in the final round of the 24th World Korean Language Speech Contest for Foreigners at Crown Concert Hall of Kyung Hee University in Seoul's Dongdaemun-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Seon Ah

Recruitment for this year's World Korean Language Speech Contest for Foreigners has begun for an event featuring competitors from all over the world showing their Korean-speaking skills.

The Institute of International Education at Kyung Hee University in Seoul on Aug. 3 said it started recruiting contestants for the competition, which will be co-hosted by Yonhap News Agency.

The themes of this year's edition are "Korean expressions that AI can't replace" and "Secrets of living in Korea."

Foreign residents of the country fluent in Korean can enter by selecting one of the available speech topics.

The registration period is from Aug. 7 through Sept. 1 on the contest's official website (http://speechinkorean.iie.ac.kr). Applicants must also submit the scripts of their speeches when applying. 

The preliminary round is scheduled for Sept. 13-14 and the final on Oct. 19 at the university's Crown Concert Hall.

Each of the winners will receive a certificate of merit, with one first prize of KRW 1.5 million, two second prizes of KRW 1 million, three third prizes of KRW 800,000 and three fourth prizes of KRW 500,000.

The competition was launched in 1998 to mark the 600th birthday of King Sejong the Great, who created Hangeul, and allow the world to communicate in Korean. It has since developed into a festival for foreign contestants to showcase their Korean speaking skills and share their thoughts on Korean culture.

From 1998 to 2019, the contest was held annually on Sejong's birthday on May 15. It was  suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed online in 2021. 

Last year's contest was held on Oct. 6, three days before Hangeul Day, attracting 1,025 contestants from 34 countries.

sofiakim218@korea.kr