Brazil, South Korea inaugurate Korean language center

As a result of a partnership between the government of Brazil and Korea, the University of Brasília (UnB) has welcomed in its facilities the King Sejong Institute, a center for the promotion of South Korean language and culture. The institute was named after the monarch who created hangul, the Korean alphabet.

This semester, courses will only be available to UnB students, but the Instituto Rei Sejong—as it is referred to in Portuguese—is expected to offer Korean language classes free of charge to the whole community. UnB students may choose one of two groups, and the course, to cover the basics of the language, will last for 15 weeks.

“Every year, we’ve been seeing more and more Brazilians interested in learning our language and becoming more familiar with our culture. This institute will bring our countries even closer together,” said South Korean Ambassador to Brazil Chan-Woo Kim.

The inauguration ceremony took place this afternoon (Aug. 2) at the UnB’s Central Institute of Sciences. In addition to the ambassador, the event was attended by Shin-Won Choi, president of the Korea–Brazil Society (Kobras); and UnB President Márcia Abrahão.

Kobras is a non-profit linked to South Korea’s Ministry of Diplomacy and aims to promote cooperation between Brazil and the Asian country in such areas as economy, culture, and education.

Partnership

The installation of the Korean culture center in Brasília was made possible thanks to a partnership forged in August 2017 between Kobras, the UnB, the King Sejong Foundation, and Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, in collaboration with the Korean Embassy in Brasília.

This is the fourth Instituto Rei Sejong in Brazil and the first in the country’s Central-West region. The branches are located in the University of the Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos), in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul state; in the University of Campinas (Unicamp); and the Centro Cultural Coreano, in São Paulo.

Further expansion

The coming of the institute to Brazil’s Federal District means that more initiatives are likely to be implemented in the future, said Kobras President Shin-Won Choi. “We can describe the Instituto Rei Sejong in Brasília as not just a language institute, but also a powerful tool that will contribute to the introduction of an undergraduate program in Korean language at the University of Brasília in the future, deepening exchange and cooperation between the two countries. Expectations are running high,” he said.

Choi went on to say that Kobras also aims to open up new branches in the country’s North and Northeast. Today, King Sejong Institutes add up to 174 across 57 countries, where classes follow the same curriculum, standardized by the King Sejong Foundation. In May alone, 16 new institutes were founded, bringing South Korean culture closer to foreigners around the world.