The Korea Foundation, K-pop powerhouse Big Hit Entertainment’s education business unit Big Hit Edu and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies are working together to develop and provide Korean language learning programs. As their first project together, they will provide a program for KF‘s e-school lectures for universities overseas, including Middlebury College in the US, Ecole Normale Superieure and EDHEC Business School in France this year. The organization has been providing con

Culture Aug. 11, 2020

The National Intangible Heritage Center in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, is holding the K-Intangible Heritage Festival from Thursday to Saturday. Under the theme of “Re:Heritage Connect,” the inaugural festival will offer one-day classes for foreigners living in Korea to learn and experience intangible heritages of Korea. Performances of “Daechwita,” a genre of traditional Korean music that was performed at parades of kings and other military ceremonies, and Korean t

Culture Aug. 10, 2020

On July 30, the Indian government announced the selection of Korean language as one of the foreign languages taught at secondary school level. Following the announcement from India, the Korean Culture Ministry on Thursday claimed that the Korean Cultural Center in India and the Korean Embassy in New Dehli played a crucial role in appealing the need to have Korean on the list. “Since last year, we had asked that Korean language be listed on the foreign language list. We were expecting t

Culture Aug. 9, 2020

Hip-pop artist Simon Dominic will be performing in the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts’ Sejong Grand Theater in central Seoul on Sept. 8. The Sejong Center for the Performing Arts said it was special for a hip-pop artist to perform at the center, which usually holds classical music performances. “Rapper Beenzino once performed in our concert hall as a guest singer, but other than that, no other hip-hop artist has performed at the Sejong Center,” the center said in a s

Performance Aug. 9, 2020

The 14th Grand Mint Festival will take place at Olympic Park, eastern Seoul, on Oct. 24 and 25 with a limited audience due to the spread of COVID-19. The festival organizers said they will sell less than half of the tickets sold in previous years. Last year around 40,000 tickets were sold. There will be no standing room entrance. Attendees will be able to enjoy the festival in the picnic zone apart from each other to comply with social distancing guidelines. The organizers added that they

Performance Aug. 7, 2020

“I am using YouTube Premium to skip advertisements. Little did I know back then that I was only avoiding the advertisements to watch another 10-minute-long advertisement video,” a subscriber to popular YouTube channel Eat With Boki commented. “I’m beyond disappointed. Here, I thought she’s a nice genuine person,” another subscriber wrote. These comments were posted after Moon Boki, the YouTuber behind the self-titled Eat With Boki meokbang channel, which

Culture Aug. 5, 2020

An online exhibition of artifacts from the Sinan shipwreck opened Tuesday, showing the vessels and coins, among other items, that were dug up from the ocean floor during an eight-year underwater salvage operation. According to the National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage, which organized the online exhibition, the ship, which is estimated to weigh more than 200 tons, sunk while carrying priceless cargo in 1323. The ship left from the port of Ningbo in China and was headed for

Culture Aug. 4, 2020

JEJU CITY -- “Please turn off all the flashlights,” Ki Jin-seok, a curator of Jeju World Natural Heritage Center, said during a press tour of a restricted section of Manjanggul. Unlike the section of the cave that is open to the public, this area does not have a single light installed. The cave soon became pitch dark. 　 “Even after a while, your eyes will not get used to this darkness, because there is no light at all here,” Ki said. Manjanggul is a 7.4-kilometer-l

Travel Aug. 2, 2020

The Cultural Heritage Administration on Thursday said that approximately 10 meters of the Gongsanseong Fortress have collapsed due to heavy rain during the last two days. The 2.5-kilometer-long fortress was built during the Baekje Kingdom (18 BC-AD 660) and lies along the mountain ridge and valley near Geum River in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province. In 2015, eight ancient Baekje historic areas, including Gongsanseong Fortress, were collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, be

Culture July 30, 2020

The Korea Communication Standards Commission on Thursday issued a warning to SBS TV series “Backstreet Rookie” for airing provocative and inappropriate scenes. The KCSC noted scenes such as underage female high school student character Saet-byul kissing an adult male stranger while asking him to buy a pack of cigarettes for her are against its regulation on maintaining integrity and also using language fit for broadcast. “In the process of producing an R-rated webtoon into

Television July 30, 2020

  The National Palace Museum of Korea on Wednesday opens an exhibition titled “New Era of The Royal Ceramics - Embracing the Western-Style Porcelain in the Joseon Royal Court,” which will run until Oct. 4. “This is an interesting exhibition where visitors can see how the conservative country challenged itself to become a modern country and also how it embraced ceramics in the process,” head of CHA Chung Jae-suk said during a press conference held at the National

Arts & Design July 28, 2020

The second part of 2020 World Heritage Festival, jointly hosted by the Culture Heritage Administration and North Gyeongsang Province government -- which will run until Aug. 30 -- will start Friday with an opening ceremony at Hahoe Village, Andong. This is part of the three 2020 World Heritage Festivals which are being held in three different locations. The first festival celebrating the nine seowon, or Confucian academies of the Joseon era (1392-1910), that are inscribed on the UNESCO World H

Culture July 27, 2020

“I used to checkout sets of Harry Potter audiobook tapes from the public library and listen to it with my brother when I was in elementary school. Now I listen to audiobooks while commuting to work by bus and sometimes it reminds me of my childhood,” Kim Jung-yeon, a 34-year-old office worker, said. For Kim, who spent most of her childhood in Canada, audiobooks are a familiar form of content that she has enjoyed since she was young, but for many Koreans, this is not the case. &ld

Culture July 25, 2020

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that 2020 Museum Week will take place in August. Organized jointly with the Cultural Foundation of the National Museum of Korea, the week will feature diverse events highlighting diversity and inclusion. The week runs Aug. 14 to 23 and will involve online and offline events at 15 museums and art galleries. An exhibition and related educational programs at the Lee Art Museum in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, will focus on the five sens

Arts & Design July 25, 2020

The National Museum of Korea is reopening on Wednesday with its largest-ever exhibition of national treasures. The Cultural Heritage Administration and the National Museum of Korea have jointly organized “The New National Treasures of Korea” running through Sept. 27, showcasing cultural artifacts that were designated as treasures and National Treasures from 2017 to 2019. Online streaming of the exhibition will kick off on Tuesday, as originally planned before Sunday’s announ

Culture July 20, 2020