King Sejong Institute develops strategy for surging interest in Korean language

Since establishing its first outpost in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2007, the King Sejong Institute has been a leading force in overseeing the education of Korean language abroad for nearly two decades.

With 248 branches in 85 countries, it served over 200,000 students through both in-person and online classes last year.

Global interest in the Korean language continues to soar, fueled by the sustained popularity of the country’s cultural exports. This year, Korean has achieved official recognition as a secondary foreign language in schools in Paraguay and São Paulo, Brazil, adding to the tally of 23 nations that have incorporated it into their educational curricula.

Against this ever-changing backdrop, the King Sejong Institute Foundation (KSIF) hosted a forum on Monday to explore the current challenges it faces and chart a course for the future.

The event at the Science and Technology Convention Center in southern Seoul began with a talk session featuring five international speakers, each of whom had learned Korean at their local King Sejong Institute branches.

“While double majoring in history and political science at university, I had the chance to take a course on the history of the Joseon Dynasty and the creation of ‘Hangeul,’” said Jade Nuzzolo from France.

“That’s what sparked my interest in Korean. I initially tried learning it on my own and then took a language course offered at my college, but it was a slow process. Eventually, I discovered the King Sejong Institute, and for three years, I enrolled in speaking classes there, which helped me naturally master the intonation and vocabulary,” she noted, adding that her dream is to work at the Embassy of France in Seoul as a diplomat.

Another speaker, Olga Deviatkina, whose journey with the Korean language began in Russia in 2016, shared her ambition to open a speech therapy and language rehabilitation center in Korea to assist foreign residents and multicultural families in their transition and settlement process.

The subsequent panel discussions featured experts who shared strategies aimed at refining the operational scope of the King Sejong Institute to better address the rapidly growing and diversifying needs of Korean language learners in different regions, both offline and online.

“Currently, more than half of those taking courses at the institute’s branches worldwide are in their 20s, and it is expected that interest in Korean will increase for younger age groups as they are exposed to the language at elementary and middle schools,” said Jeon Joo-young, head of the Institute of International Affairs at Kyungwoon University in North Gyeongsang Province.

To ensure the availability of well-trained instructors capable of customizing lessons for younger learners, there was an emphasis on reinforcing the role of "hub centers" within each country's network of King Sejong Institute branches.

Meanwhile, Kwak Yong-jin, CEO of IIR Tech, and Sun Hyun-woo, CEO of Talk To Me In Korean, highlighted that demand for Korean language learning in the digital sphere far exceeds what is currently met by traditional in-person courses.

They noted the need to refine and optimize the operational systems of the Online King Sejong Institute and the newly launched metaverse platforms by taking advantage of technologies such as artificial intelligence. This, they emphasized, would enable those tools to more effectively cater to the latent demand for Korean language education .

The insights gathered from the Monday forum will serve as valuable input for the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism as it finalizes a blueprint for innovating the King Sejong Institute, set to be announced in August.