Korean Program: Biggest and Best of its Kind

Hangtae Cho, PhD, Director of Language Instruction, is internationally renowned for his development of our Korean language program, which features training for non-heritage learners. It is the nation's largest program of this type, and the second largest of any Korean program in the United States. Thus, Hangtae was recently invited to the 23rd International Conference hosted by the International Association for Korean Language Education on August 10-11, 2013 in Seoul, Korea to present on "Case Study of Dealing with Mixed Language Classes for Heritage and Non-Heritage Students".

The conference gathered world renowned Korean language scholars to discuss the theme, "Developing Strategies in Korean Language Classrooms". After attending the conference, Hangtae also gave a special lecture, "Past, Present and Future of Korean Education in US," to graduate students of Korean language education at Korea University (his alma mater) during his visit to Korea.
Hangtae said that it was a great opportunity to share his ideas in an international academic arena.
Conference website: http://www.iakle.com/

ALL Students Walk Away with the Prizes

Upon invitation of the Chinese Consulate General of Chicago, the University of Minnesota hosted the annual U. S. Midwest Chinese Bridge Speech Contest. Organized by the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, with support from College of Liberal Arts, Confucius Institute and Institute of Global Studies, the event brought nearly sixty students from seventeen universities and colleges across the region, including University of Iowa, University of Kansas, University of Wisconsin, University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. The all-day event included speech and talent contest at six language levels. Judging was organized by Professor Gu Licheng of Northwestern, implementing a double-blind process.
Ling Wang, Director of Chinese Language and her colleagues, especially Chi-ping Li, worked long hours to organize the whole event and to train our students. We were kind and considerate hosts, but also fierce competitors. Our students in ALL secured a majority of the prizes, including eight of twelve first place awards! The day ended with an awards banquet that also featured professional local performers.

Back row (left to right): Peter Williams, Emily Atchison, Joshua Quinn, Alex Renner
Front row (left to right): Anthony Dodge, Grace Polverari, Molly Himsel, Allison Malmsten