Shillong, Oct 24: To promote and facilitate intellectual exchanges, create opportunities for students with an international internship, scholarship and career opportunities in India and South Korea, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between NEHU Shillong and Indo-Korea Business Cultural Centre (IKBCC) recently.
One of the key collaborations inked on the day aims at introducing Korean language courses at NEHU, empowering students and upskilling them for better career opportunities. Prof Shukla, VC NEHU claimed that this partnership will “strengthen ties between India and Korea and offer our students exposure to East Asian culture through cultural exchanges and employment opportunities”.
The Department of Linguistics is designated as the Nodal Department for introducing various modules for training and certification in Korean language and culture of the aspiring students at NEHU-Shillong.
To this effect, both the parties agreed to introduce Korean Language Courses at NEHU and foster greater educational and cultural ties between NEHU and IKBCC, promoting mutual understanding and cooperation.
The MoU also aims to provide opportunities for faculty and students to engage in research, academic excellence programs, cultural exchanges, and employment opportunities in Korean companies.
This will also promote East Asian culture and language studies among Indian youths, offering a diverse range of language options beyond Western languages.
The MoU was signed by Col. Omkar Singh on behalf of NEHU and Dr. Zena Chung, the
Founder Director of IKBCC.
As per the agreement between NEHU and IKBCC, Prof. Streamlet Dkhar, Head, Department of Khasi is designated as an Academic Coordinator and Dr. Saralin A. Lyngdoh, Head, Department of Linguistics as the Course Coordinator for the activities and programmes of future cooperation that will form the basis for specific cooperation agreements to be executed between the parties.
Dr. Zena Chung, the Founder Director of Indo-Korean Business Culture Center [IKBCC] visited the Nodal Department and had detailed discussions with faculty members after the MoU signing ceremony. The meeting was presided over by Prof. Streamlet Dkhar and coordinated by the Head, Dr. Saralin A. Lyngdoh.
The members deliberated on preparing a roadmap for productive engagements and
implementations of the intents of the MoU. In the first phase of the implementation of the MOU, the parties resolved to work on an ambitious project of preparing a multilingual dictionary comprising Khasi-Hindi-Korean-English languages within a defined time framework.
In addition, the Nodal Department will offer a course in Korean language and Culture from the next academic session commencing in July 2025 for all those who are interested in joining this programme. The implementation of MoU will witness introduction of Khasi and Hindi language programmes in Korean institutions under faculty exchange programme. Dr Zena Chung had a long and elaborate discussion with aspirant students of NEHU, where she introduced the Korean society, culture and opportunities.
