By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter

For the third year in a row, Koreans make of the largest portion of foreign students at educational institutes in the United States.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the number of Korean students studying in the United States in 2008 totaled 127,185, accounting for 15 percent of the total 859,169.

It was mostly Asian countries in the top five. Korea was followed by China (90,290, or 10.5 percent), India (85,067, or 9.9 percent), Japan (58,081, or 6.8 percent) and Mexico (54,084, or 6.3 percent).

The statistics also indicated that the number of Korean citizens on short-term nonimmigrant admission to the United States last year was 216,646. In other words, more than half of the Korean citizens living in the United States were on a student visa.

The statistics are perhaps no longer surprising, having remained the top foreign student provider since 2006. Back in Korea, it is now more commonplace to find someone who has studied abroad, especially the United States.

The trend runs in tandem with Koreans' well-known focus on education, especially English.

The government, facing a heavy deficit stemming from money transferred abroad for educational purposes, has steadily been trying to be creative in coming up with affordable and quality public English education, which for the most part went in vain.

One of the most recent government endeavors is the Work, English Study and Travel (WEST) Program, in cooperation with the U.S. government.

Almost equivalent to the working holiday programs of Australia, New Zealand, Canada or Japan, participants receive English education, work as interns at firms and travel over 18 months.

Unlike working holiday programs, however, participants in the WEST program have to pay approximately $10,000, a fact which often surfaces for criticism.

skim@koreatimes.co.kr