Yonsei KLI Celebrated 50th Anniversary Yonsei KLI (Korean Language Institute) celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 22. The anniversary ceremony was held at the Centennial Hall. Numbers of events including performance by AKARAKA cheerleaders, traditional performances by foreign students, and other activities were held throughout the day. An exhibition of historical materials of KLI was also held. This year’s Annual National Korean Language Writing Contest for Foreign Nationals is planned to be held on October 8, and it will be held as the 18th Global Korean Language Contest at Yonsei’s Amphitheater and 10 locations around the globe. The 5th Academic Symposium on Korean Language Education is also scheduled to be held on November 13. The KLI was established on April 1, 1959 as the first institute in Korea to provide intensive Korean Language courses to foreign students, professors, missionaries and diplomatic officials. The KLI offers courses in Korean language as well as courses in Korean culture and history. As the oldest and the most prestigious Korean-language training institution in Korea, the KLI has educated more than 70,000 students from 128 countries for half a century. It has many renowned alumni. Young Kim, the first Asian American Ivy League president, studied at KLI in 1984. Woodward Yang, the founder of Silicon 7 and former Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Harvard University, studied at KLI from 1982 to 1985. Jane Portal, the former head of the Chinese and Korean Sections at the British Museum is also one of KLI’s alumni. There are also many other alumni including foreign ambassadors, professors, and celebrities who all learnt Korean at Yonsei's KLI.