The King Sejong Institute Foundation’s seventh annual World Korean Educators Conference kicked off Monday, inviting 180 guests committed to the teaching of Korean from 43 countries for a three-day exchange conference in Seoul.

With 90 institutions across the world, the King Sejong Institute is dedicated to establishing educational institutions where citizens of all ages can attend to learn the Korean language.

Invited as a guest to this year’s conference is Korean teacher Stepanka Horakova from Prague, who, from a time when Korean language and culture was virtually unheard heard of in the Czech Republic, has seen firsthand how the prominence of Korean culture has grown in the central European nation.

During her freshman year at Charles University in Prague in 1993, Horakova stated it was never her original intention to study Korean. In fact, like most locals, she knew next to nothing about the country or the language. 

“Honestly I wanted to major in psychology, but because the department was not accepting any new students at the time, I decided that it would be a good idea to select a foreign language study instead,” said Horakova, in an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul on Monday.

“But I didn’t just want to study any foreign language, I wanted to learn a language that was relatively unknown in the Czech Republic,” she added. “At that time, it would have been extremely rare to find at Czech person who knew how to speak Korean, I imagine there was only a handful.”

According to Horakova, in the early ‘90s the avenues of Korean culture exposure in Prague were relatively nonexistent. There were few Koreans living in the country or even visiting for travel, and the information superhighway still hadn’t yet establishment its roots.

“When I joined the department there were very few students, despite the fact the Korean Studies Department was established a long time ago in 1950 and is one of the oldest Korean studies institution in all of Europe, it was just not a popular course of study in the Czech Republic,” she says. 

“But this is definitely not the same case for today,” she added, noting that the number of students looking to join her Alma Mater’s Korean studies department has been on a sharp incline in the past few years.

After graduation, Horakova found herself marrying a fellow Korean Studies graduate and current Korean Studies Department professor. Deciding to put her work and studies on pause in order to raise a family, Horakova says she credits her husband‘s ongoing pursuit in the field of Korean language studies for allowing her to continue her involvement and exposure to Korean.

Finally after years of being away from the workforce, Horakova decided it was time to return -- only this time instead of returning as a student of Korean, she decided it was time to start teaching, becoming a professor at her university’s Korean Studies Department along with her husband.

“It’s been exciting to see the number of students who are studying Korean going way up compared to when I was in school,” she says. “Thanks to the Internet, young people in the Czech Republic get instant exposure to Korean culture -- most notably, Korean dramas and K-pop.“

“This year the country even held its fifth K-pop contest. But it’s not just Korean music and dramas that are becoming very popular in the Czech Republic, but also Korean films,” she continued. “Director Kim Ki-duk’s films are actually quite popular in the country, a number of his films have been invited to our Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.”

Encouraged by growing interests and demand for Korean language studies in the bustling capital of Prague, Horakova decided to also join King Sejong Institute Prague in 2013, where she currently teaches Korean language courses to locals.

“A lot of young people are watching these Korean dramas online and want to understand what the actors are saying, so I’m trying to play my part and help out as much as I can,” she said with a smile.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)