Outreach program

Outreach Program visits to schools

Monash Korean Studies has been actively engaging primary and secondary school students in an outreach program that educates students on the Korean language, culture and history and introduces the possibility of studying engaging in studying Korean at a university level.

This program gives local school students the opportunity to experience a range of interactive programs and activities across the study areas provided by Monash University Korean Studies.

Due the COVID-19 social distancing restrictions outreach programs in 2020-2021 were postponed as the safety and wellbeing of the community is our top priority. With the current ease in restrictions, we were able to continue our outreach programs this year. Our experiences of teaching via ZOOM allowed us to extend our reach to international schools as well.

2026 Program to Hampton Park Library

Monash Korean Studies was pleased to return to Hampton Park Library this semester to deliver weekly Korean language and cultural classes for the local community. The program ran from 2nd April to 28th May and consisted of 8 lessons. The program was coordinated by our hub coordinator Sandy Nguyen and in-class support students Sandra Binoy and Sharee Zhang, who developed and delivered the lesson materials.

The weekly lessons covered a range of Korean language and cultural topics, including:

• Introduction fo Korean language (Basic greetings)
• Hangul (Korean alphabet)
• Reading basic Korean (Soundshift rules)
• Essential phrases and vocabulary for travelling & asking directions
• Essential phrases and vocabulary for ordering food
• Introducing adjectives
• Introducing Korean culture
• Course review

The program received positive feedback from both the library and participants, with many noting that the lessons were well structured, easy to follow, and effectively built upon content from previous weeks. Attendance averaged between 9-14 participants per week, with attendees ranging in age from their early 30s to late 50s. The cohort reflected a diverse mix of ethnicities and professional backgrounds, including stay-at-home parents, retirees, undergraduates and PhD students, as well as library staff members connected to the program.

Below, Sandra and Sharee reflect on their teaching experiences at Hampton Park Library this semester:

“I had a really good experience teaching Korean at Hampton Park library this semester. It was a great opportunity to be able to teach adults and working professionals who all had various reasons for learning Korean, including wanting to travel to Korea or wanting to understand the lyrics to their favourite K-Pop songs. It was especially interesting discussing various parts of Korean culture, including historical and traditional elements, food, pop culture and language elements. I think these lessons at Hampton Park were a great initiative to ensure that the Korean language proficiency of Australians is increased through teaching in an informal and more comfortable environment.” - Sandra Binoy

“I really enjoyed my time teaching at Hampton Park every fortnight. I think it was sometimes difficult to think of good resources and material to use in the classes but when it would all come together after I finished preparing, it would work well and the students would engage in it. I do think that my sense of uncertainty within myself faded as the weeks went by as there was a heavy feeling of imposter syndrome weighing on me in the beginning since part of me thought that I was not good enough to be teaching Korean. I think that this program not only made the students more confident in their language skills, but having to explain, answer questions and deconstruct confusing ideas within the Korean language made me more sure of myself. I think next semester I will try to implement more interactive activities in my lessons since students seem to respond to them well and I will also try to remember to make the font bigger on my PPTs.” - Sharee Zhang

We are pleased to continue the program in Term 3, which will run from 30th July to 17 September.

2nd outreach program to the Victorian Centre of Higher Education Studies

Following our success in August, Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub was honored to be invited back to run a two-hour Korean language and culture introductory workshop to year 9 students at CHES, on December 1, 2025. The workshop was led by MUKSRH Hub Coordinator Sandy Nguyen and the team of Monash Korean Studies students in-class support Sandra Binoy and Larissa Carbery. A total of 30 students attended the workshop. The students spent 1 hour in each class; in Sandra's class, they were introduced to Hangul and basic greetings, and in Larissa's class, to aspects of Korean culture. This is a relatively new program organised by the CHES, which has plans to offer after-school programs to students from their participating schools. Both CHES and Monash Korean Studies look forward to further collaborations in the near future!

2025 Outreach to the Victorian Centre of Higher Education Studies

On Friday August 8, a team from Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub gave a one-hour Korean language and culture introductory class to year 12 students at CHES (the Victorian Centre for Higher Education Studies) in South Yarra. Led by MUKSRH Hub Coordinator Sandy Nguyen the team of Monash Korean Studies students Sandra Binoy and Larissa Carbery introduced students to Hangul, basic greetings and fundamental Korean cultural characteristics. The CHES sessions are part of MUKSRH’s short courses outreach scheme funded by their AKS Core Universities grant and aim to raise interest in Korea and in Korean Studies. There are plans for a follow up session to be taught by the same team in December 2025.

(Left to right: Sandra introducing herself and basic Korean Language; group activity; Larissa introducing herself and Korean culture.)

Outreach Programme to Collingwood College 2025

Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub (MUKSRH) was delighted to return to Collingwood College to deliver a series of one-hour lessons on Korean language and culture. The program consisted of 5 after-school sessions held each Thursday from May 15 to 19 June. Throughout the sessions, students were introduced to a range of topics including soundshifts, restaurants, directions and transportation, grammar, Korean public holidays and traditional games. The program was led by MUKSRH Hub Coordinator Sandy Nguyen. Class materials were prepared and delivered by MUKSRH in-class support students Larissa Carbery and Sandra Binoy. Attendance remained consistent throughout the program, with 7 high school students participating each week.

Outreach Programme to Collingwood College 2024 

Continuing our successful short course outreach programme which aims to bring Korean language and culture into the wider Melbourne community earlier this year, Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub (MUKSRH) ran a Korean Language and Culture class at Collingwood College from 24th October to 12th December 2024. This course followed on from previous successful Korean language and culture classes organised by MUKSRH at Hampton Park Library and on the Monash MBA programme. The class materials were organised and taught by our MUKSRH student teaching assistant Larissa Carberry and MUKSRH Hub Coordinator Sandy Nguyen. A total of five classes were taught during this program, covering a range of topics including Sound Shifts, Restaurants, Directions and Transportation, Present Tense of Verbs, Calendar dates and Korean Public Holidays. With a variety of fun activities (including role plays, Kahoot quizzes, heads-up, matching cards) students were able to memorise essential vocabulary and phrases. Most popular was the restaurant lesson and the students can now order food at Korean restaurants 100% in Korean with phrases like: “두 개 주세요.” The feedback was enthusiastic and the classes saw an incredibly consistent number of 10 high school students in attendance each week.  MUKSRH looks forward to continuing its short course programme into 2025.

This work was supported by the Core University Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2023-OLU-2250001).

On September 9th 2024, Monash Korean Studies Research Hub was invited to lead a session on ‘South Korean language and culture for business people’ to Monash University MBA Students at Caulfield campus. The aim of the session was to introduce South Korea and Korean culture to students who are preparing for a business trip to Korea where they will be working with Korean business partners and Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University. This session was led by our Hub Coordinator Sandy Nguyen and our teaching Assistant Larissa Carbery. It involved an introduction to Korean language, business etiquettes, and essential phrases for travelling (i.e. greetings, restaurant/shopping/emergency phrases) followed by several activities where students were given a scenario and had to work in pairs to act out the role play. These role plays aim to prepare the students for possible situations that they are likely to encounter during their trip, such as bowing, greeting and exchanging business cards during meetings, dining etiquettes for company dinners, and taking public transport. To wrap up the session, Larissa and Sandy shared some travel tips based on their experience of Korea and recommended travel locations that students could visit during their stay. Students also got a travel guide booklet to take home, which contains other additional information about Korea. The session was a success with positive feedback from the MBA students who really appreciated the materials that were prepared for them. They were also immersed in their role plays and were actively asking questions throughout the session.

In-class Student Support Assistant Outreach Programme to Hampton Park Library 2024

As part of our short courses outreach scheme Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub has been running weekly Korean language and culture classes at Hampton Park Library throughout term 3 (July-September) 2024. The classes have been set up, designed,  coordinated and taught by MUKSRH Hub Coordinator Sandy Nguyen in collaboration with MUKSRH student teaching assistants Farzana Afzali, Larissa Carberry and Pick Kulbul. Each week the team prepares a class with a different language or culture focus and the response has been enthusiastic with an average of 15 students in attendance. The majority of students are members of the public with an interest in Korean language and culture thanks to the popularity of K-drama, K-pop and K-culture in general.

(Left to right: Larissa teaching a class on levels of formalities. Farzana is covering sound shifts and pronunciations.)

This work was supported by the Core University Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2023-OLU-2250001).

Korean Cultural Teaching on Monash MBA Programme (7 September 2022)

On September 7, Associate Professor and Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub Director, Andrew David Jackson, led a session for Monash University MBA students at Caulfield around South Korean business culture. As part of the MBA Programme, students will be travelling to South Korea to increase their awareness, understanding and knowledge of businesses and companies in South Korea. On their trip, they will have the opportunity to directly interact with Korean employees and attend site visits to various locations. To prepare for the trip, Monash Korean Studies taught the session ‘Cultural situations for business people dealing with South Korea.’ This involved presenting Korean-related scenarios and having students work in groups to answer questions. The situations ranged from drinking and food etiquette, exchange of business cards, business meetings, bowing and showing respect, and negotiations. The MBA students actively engaged in learning about Korean culture through the scenarios and the session was successful in giving them insight into Korean business culture. Korean culture may not have been familiar to many of them but by the end of the session, the MBA students had developed greater awareness of the peculiarities of Korean cultural practices and looked forward to their trip to Seoul.

Kyle Han-Menz (Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub Student Teaching Assistant).

Visit to Huntingdale Primary School (9 October 2019)

On October 9 2019, Associate Professor Andrew David Jackson and Dr Adam Zulawnik visited Huntingdale Primary School; a public, bilingual English-Japanese school that currently has approximately 700 students.

Dr Adam Zulawnik first gave a short presentation on Korea, the Korean language, and the Korean Studies department at Monash University to the grade 5/6 students (aged 11-12) who study Japanese as a second language through the school’s bilingual curriculum. Dr Zulawnik noted the linguistic similarities between Korean and Japanese (e.g., word order and Chinese character compounds) and that a number of our Korean Studies students at Monash choose to complete a double major in both languages.

Dr Zulawnik went on to emphasise the significance of Korean Studies and important role that South Korea plays in popular culture (K-Pop) and business globally.

All of the student showed great enthusiasm during the presentation. Many were already well informed about topics such as K-Pop and South Korean brands and cultural items such as taekwondo, hanbok, and kimchi. The presentation was followed by an interactive Kahoot! Quiz which student completed in groups.

All of the students were very excited and showed a fantastic level of engagement with the presentation. The outreach visit was concluded by exchanging Korean greetings that had been learned during the session.

Monash Korean Studies welcomes inquiries from schools in the Melbourne Metropolitan area. Please contact us for further information about the program.