Graduate student from Sookmyung Women's University undertook an internship at the Department of Far East

      The spring semester for students of the Department of Korean Studies began with an acquaintance with the graduate student of Sookmyung Women's University (Seoul) Park Ye Won, who underwent a pedagogical internship at the Faculty of Oriental Studies from February 11 to 24.

      During her visit our students had the opportunity to improve their Korean language skills and apply the theoretical knowledge in practice. The main purpose of this internship is to share knowledge and experience on teaching methods of the Korean language and conduct lessons together with local teachers of the Korean language. For example, for students of the 2nd year of the specialty "Oriental Studies" during the "Basic Oriental Language" the lessons were organized in the format of interview and team work in pairs or in groups. The purpose of this format is to improve communication skills in Korean, use various grammatical structures and learn a new words and phrases. Moreover, the seminar classes were held in the format of debates, which allowed each student to practice their opinions in Korean, discussing the current problems of Korean society. Park Ye Won not only helped Korean language students improve their language skills, but also shared her thoughts on the issues that Korean youth are having outside of class.

     In the process of learning a foreign language, especially Korean, attracting trainees from Korean universities and their cooperation with local teachers is of great importance and demand. In turn, students get the opportunity to get to know the culture of the country they are studying, interacting closely with native speakers, and improve their communication skills during and outside the educational process.

     The"Memorandum of Understanding" between Al-Farabi KazNU and Sookmyung Women's University was signed in 2011. During this period, our universities have implemented several joint projects. One of them is the study of 3-4 of our students every semester at Sookmyung Women's University on a scholarship basis under the student exchange program. In turn, students of Sookmyung Women's University can study Kazakh or Russian at the faculty of pre university education and undergo language practice. Moreover, last academic year, a number of Korean language teachers successfully completed an online professional development program organized by Sookmyung Women's University with the support of the Korea Foundation. At present the preparatory work for online Korean language course has been completed by the Department of the Far East together with Sookmyung Women's University, the launch of which is scheduled for the near future.

Ulzhan Kabdelova

Senior lecturer

Department of Far East