García Montero visits the facilities of the future Cervantes Institute in the Korean capital in Seoul
The director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, is travelling to the Korean capital from 2 to 5 June, where he will visit, on Saturday 4 June, the building that will house the future Cervantes Institute in Seoul, which is expected to open in 2023. He will also take part in the 'Hispanists in Korea' conference, in a literary meeting with Korean poets and will sign a collaboration agreement with the educational services company Daekyo.
Together with the Spanish Ambassador to Korea, Juan Ignacio Morro Villacián, the Director of Cervantes will visit the facilities of the future Cervantes of Seoul. The new headquarters will replace the Aula Cervantes, located since 2011 at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and will meet the growing demand for Spanish language learning in Korea, the country with the most DELE exam candidates per inhabitant in Asia.
The agenda of institutional and cultural activities on Saturday 4 June will continue with García Montero's participation in the inauguration of the 'Hispanists in Korea' conference, which will bring together some thirty Hispanists. The symposium (at 1 p.m. local time in South Korea) will feature, in addition to the speech by the Director of Cervantes, readings by Wang-moo Yoo, President of the Korean Association of Hispanists; Youg-Tae Min, acting President of the Asian Association of Hispanists; and Juan Ignacio Morro Villacián, Spanish Ambassador to Korea.
Hispanism in Korea has a tradition of more than 70 years since the study of Spanish began in the first foreign language courses. The Korean Association of Hispanists, founded in 1981, now has more than 250 members and publishes the journal 'Hispanic Studies', a linguistic institution in Asia.
The congress will be followed by the signing of a collaboration agreement with the largest Korean educational and cultural services company in the country, Daekyo, represented by its managing director, Woo-seung Kim (2 p.m. local time in South Korea).
On the same Saturday, the programme of activities will end with the writers' meeting 'Spanish and Korean, languages for culture' (4 pm, local South Korean time) at Sonagi Village, a theme park created to commemorate the life and literary spirit of the famous novelist and poet Soon-won Hwang.
The event will include a panel discussion, introduced by the director of Sonagi Village, Jong-hoy Kim, with the participation of Luis García Montero and the exponents of Korean language poetry, the poets Seung-ho Choi and Ki-taek Kim, who will discuss the capacity of language and literature to transmit the cultural values of societies.
After the colloquium, the three authors will take part in a recital in which they will read their own poems, in the original language, and those of their colleagues, in translation.
Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor.
