Last Friday a series of activities were held under the aegis of the Russia-South Korea friendship. On this day, firstly, Korean speech contest took place at the ISU Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages and Media Communication. Later, ISU was presented at the Forum of rectors of leading universities of Russia and the Republic of Korea, where the Vice-rector of ISU Prof. Konstantin Grigorichev reported about the cooperation of ISU with South Korean partners. On that day, the release of the monograph «Korean Regional Studies: The World About Korea and Korea About the World” was announced as well.

Korean Speech Contest was held under the support of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Irkutsk and the local government of the Gyeongsangbuk-do province as part of the festival of Korean culture in Irkutsk. The guest of honor of the event was Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Irkutsk, Mr. Kim Se Woon. He emphasized that the competition is one of the most important activities of the Korean Culture Festival. The Consul General also expressed his regrets about the cancelation of the contest and other activities connected with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and the Republic of Korea due to the pandemic and the restrictive measures in 2020.

Students of universities of Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk as well as the students of language centers took part in the contest. They competed in speaking skills in Korean at three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Moreover, the participants had to demonstrate not only the purity of pronunciation, but also knowledge of Korean literature, culture and history. The performances of the participants were evaluated by teachers from participating universities and representatives of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea.

On the same day, May 28, in an online format the VIII Forum of Rectors of the Leading Universities of Russia and the Republic of Korea was held. It was organized by the North-Eastern Federal University named after M. K. Ammosov, Association of Leading Universities of Russia, Association of Korean Universities and the Korean Council for University Education. Participants discussed the distance education system during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On behalf of Irkutsk State University, Prof. Konstantin Grigorichev, Vice-Rector for Research and International Cooperation, took part in the Forum. As part of his speech at the plenary session "Challenges of the university education in the era of coronavirus", he emphasized:

- The challenge of the COVID 19 pandemic should be considered by us not only as the current agenda, but as the agenda of tomorrow. Distance and hybrid forms of education, which have been tested in the framework of epidemiological measures, can become an important new tool for expanding educational and scientific cooperation between ISU and Korean partners.

Also on May 28, the Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages and Media Communication of ISU announced the release of the book «Korean Regional Studies: the world about Korea and Korea about the world». The monograph is dedicated to the memory of the Siberian orientalist Oleg M. Gotlib, who was a head of the Department of Sinology in Irkutsk for many years.

The author of the scientific work is Olga Kuznetsova, PhD in Philology, Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages. The work was carried out within the framework of the scientific project “History and Methodology of Regional Studies in the Mainstream of Transdisciplinary Region Stusies”, supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.