[Hello Hangeul] Multilingual generation rising: Migrant children growing presence at schools

ULSAN -- Marwa Sadiqi, a fifth grader at Seoboo Elementary School in the southeastern port city of Ulsan, came to South Korea from Afghanistan nearly two years ago, and now she speaks better Korean than her parents. But her Korean still needs improvement to follow along in subjects like science, so she learns the language in a separate class for non-native speakers four hours a week during school hours. “Speaking is okay, but writing is hard, especially spelling Korean,” said Marwa

July 2, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Ministry to oversee Korean language education worldwide

South Korea needs a “control tower” to oversee and better manage the operation of education institutes as well as a system for Korean language learning, Education Minister Lee Ju-ho told The Korea Herald, vowing to speed up efforts to integrate state capacity currently dispersed across the related ministries. “There are criticisms that government bodies haven’t been able to cooperate and coordinate well with each other at a time when interest in the Korean language is gro

June 20, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Edu-tech firm Visang rides Korean learning wave

The global Korean language boom has passed the point where Korean government-dispatched teachers and state-run language promotion agencies can meet local teaching demands. It is now time for Korea’s edu-tech players, trained to serve a particularly discerning and demanding clientele at home, to play a role, said Visang Education’s global education unit chief. “Demand for Korean language learning has exploded in many countries amid the worldwide popularity of Korean content. O

June 20, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Race heats up for Hangeul AI

The following series is part of The Korea Herald’s “Hello Hangeul” project which consists of interviews, in-depth analyses, videos and various other forms of content that shed light on the stories of people who are learning the Korean language and the correlation between Korea’s soft power and the rise of its language within the league of world languages. – Ed. Amid the immense popularity of Korean-made content from music to TV shows, an increasing number of peopl

June 18, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Korean proficiency test measures memory, not skill

In line with the growing fervor for Korean content, the country has also seen a rise in the number of non-native test-takers for the Korean proficiency test. Launched in 1997, the Test of Proficiency in Korean, or TOPIK, administered by the National Institute for International Education, a government body operating under the Ministry of Education, is a test that measures non-Korean nationals' ability to understand and use the Korean language. The test results are valid for two years, and is

June 11, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Korea needs to talk about invasion of English alphabet in everyday signage

In one up-and-coming neighborhood in Seoul, the prevalence of English letters on cafe and restaurant signboards adds to its exotic ambiance, complementing the diverse range of foreign cuisines found there. Approximately 7 out of 10 signboards in this area, known as Yongridan-gil and situated between Samgakji and Sinyongsan subway stations in central Seoul, are exclusively written in foreign languages. English is the most commonly used, followed by Chinese and Japanese. As one strolls through t

June 4, 2023

Online Hangeul contest for foreigners held this summer

A local Hangeul foundation is hosting an online contest for foreigners to transcribe their native language in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, this summer. The contest, dubbed "Hangeul Festa 2023," hosted by Hangeul Nuri Foundation, requires its applicants to submit videos of the following descriptions from June 1 to Aug. 31 via its official website (https://www.hangeul-festa.org/en/). The contest will be held in three categories: transcribing in Hangeul the lyrics to a song; transcribing

June 1, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Hangeul adds premium feel to Korean brands

On the heels of the ever-booming K-wave, Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, is being increasingly employed by both domestic and overseas companies as a unique marketing strategy to promote corporate values and raise brand awareness. Korean food companies seeking to foray into overseas markets are making full use of Hangeul to give themselves credibility and capitalize on the special currency the Korean alphabet holds in the global market. CJ CheilJedang, a Korean food giant whose global food sales ac

May 29, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] 'Destruction' from within: Linguist calls for efforts to safeguard Korean language

Among the key elements of a language -- its vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar -- grammar is the least affected by foreign influence, but Kwon Jae-il, chairperson of the 115-year-old Korean Language Society, says he has noticed the "destruction" of Korean grammar for some years now. One example of such "destruction" prevalent on television shows and in other media, is the trend of adding the English suffix “-er,” as in “doer,” to all kinds of Korean

May 21, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Are slang terms and abbreviations degrading the Korean language?

When Cha Mi-joo asked about her 14-year-old son's opinion on his school lunch, he nonchalantly shrugged and gave a one-word response, "kebake." She had to ask what he meant, because the term didn't align with her knowledge of the Korean language. It was during this exchange that she discovered a new slang term derived from the English phrase "case by case." "Kebake," which according to her son, is “used widely” by young Koreans, is a combinatio

May 21, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Korean proficiency highly sought after for jobs in Vietnam

HAI PHONG, Vietnam -- In this coastal city in northern Vietnam, it's said that having English skills can double your salary, while having Korean skills can triple it. Although the saying may be somewhat exaggerated, it certainly captures the high value placed on proficiency in the Korean language. Korean companies and institutions are prominent employers in the city, running immense factories, leading a variety of business projects, and they attract top-quality manpower with solid compe

May 13, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Hard truth about Korean dream

As their knowledge and understanding of Korea, its culture and language deepen, some Korean learners choose to come to Korea to pursue further studies at Korean universities or graduate schools, with the hopes of starting a career and life here. But visas and job opportunities are limited, which leads many students to feel that, regardless of the efforts they put into studying here, Korea does not welcome them or want them to stay. Some of these foreign students end up giving up on their Korea

May 8, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] In trilingual Hong Kong, Korean is new kid on the block

At the chime of the school bell, ten 15-year-olds rise from their seats and bow to the teacher, chirping in unison, “annyeonghaseyo,” or “hello” in Korean. It’s an unusual greeting to hear in Hong Kong schools, where the corridors are usually filled with a cacophonic mix of Cantonese, English and Mandarin. But at Mu Kuang English School, a middle and high school partly subsidized by the government, it’s how 90 students begin their weekly Korean classes. Over t

May 1, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Korean language students in US barracks

Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Khamvongsa arrived here in 2018 to be part of the US military forces stationed in South Korea. Though not necessary for his job, he soon started taking Korean classes out of a desire to better understand the country he was helping to protect. “I can’t forget the first time I had the combo of jokbal (pig's trotters) and soju with my Korean roommate, whom I met while serving at the ex-US military base site in Uijeongbu in the same year,” Khamvongsa t

April 30, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Learning Korean not passing fad in Vietnam, says Korean studies dean

HANOI, Vietnam -- In 1996, Vietnam National University opened its department of Korean language and culture. Tran Thi Huong was among its first 30 students enrolled. Their teachers were Korean missionaries and volunteer workers from the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s branch office in Hanoi, who took turns teaching them. Pocket-sized Korean-English dictionaries, given by the KOICA volunteers, were their first textbooks. “The dictionaries had to be photocopied multiple ti

April 23, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Inside Vietnam’s Korean learning boom

HANOI, Vietnam – Located a five-hour flight from Seoul is a country where the Korean language's popularity is second only to its homeland of South Korea. Here, kids as young as 8 -- or elementary school third grade -- are learning Korean at school, although not as a compulsory subject. This is the same age when they start learning English. Another indication of the Korean language boom in Vietnam is the number of those who take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), an exam for

April 23, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] A closer look at the Korean language learning boom in the Netherlands

AMSTERDAM -- At first it was through a Korean drama that Fauzia Jonas, a 52-year-old Dutch national, got captivated by Korean culture. Then came the K-pop sensation, BTS. Now, it is everything about Korea and Koreans that she wants to learn more about. “It drew me in like a magnet. The attraction (to the Korean culture) keeps getting deeper as I learn more about the culture and interact with Koreans,” she said, adding that she especially appreciates “the softness and warmth&rdq

April 16, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] At 89, Lee works as patron of Hangeul across three continents

  Lee Ki-nam learned Hangeul from her grandfather at age 4 or 5 in the late 1930s, but her knowledge of the Korean script was kept a secret outside her home for years. The country was a colony of Japan at that time, which banned the use of Korean and forced Koreans to adopt Japanese names. “To me, Hangeul was the same as patriotism,” said the 89-year-old woman behind the propagation of the Korean alphabet overseas, including the Cia Cia project in Indonesia. Korea’s libera

April 9, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] A case study: The Solomon Islands project 10 years ago

Javin Rukia, a 49-year-old English teacher at a middle school in the Solomon Islands, used to teach Hangeul, the writing system for the Korean language, about a decade ago. It was when two provinces in the island country -- Guadalcanal and Malaita -- chose Hangeul as their official alphabet for transcribing their indigenous languages which had been passed down orally but did not have a writing system. The southwestern Pacific archipelago, made up of 992 islands, is one of the most linguistically

April 9, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Hangeul as a writing system for African tribe

In a small village called Bunyakiri in the eastern Congo’s rain forest, a community of Central African foragers learn to write their indigenous language with 가, 나, 다. The Chitembo Jeongeum Writing system, devised by four Korean linguists, is an adaptation of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, to transcribe the sounds of the language spoken by this particular tribe of Twa hunter-gatherers, one of several groups of people known as Pygmies for their short stature. Chitembo is the language this gro

April 2, 2023