Korea Times, CUK sign MOU on Korean language program

Cyber University of Korea President Kim Jin-sung, left, and President and Publisher of The Korea Times Lee Byeong-eon shake hands during the memorandum of understanding signing ceremony at the newspaper company's building in central Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Kim Jae-heun

The nation's oldest English newspaper The Korea Times has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Cyber University of Korea (CUK) to promote the latter's online Korean language lectures on its website.

The online university will provide its free learning program “Quick Korean” to The Korea Times, which will share it on its online news platform for foreign visitors to use.

“The Korea Times is the nation's first English news daily and we are also the first cyber university established in Korea,” CUK President Kim Jin-sung said during the MOU signing ceremony held in The Korea Times' office in central Seoul, Tuesday. “As we, both are pioneers in each sector and have come together to collaborate on promoting the Korean language, I believe we will make a good outcome out of it.”

President and Publisher of The Korea Times Lee Byeong-eon said the newspaper has had Korean language education programs on its own, but they are out of date. “We've been looking for content with both quality and quantity to collaborate on, and found Cyber University of Korea's language content,” Lee said.

“We have the largest number of foreign readers on a digital news platform among local English newspapers, and I believe our platform and the CUK's content can create great synergy through this agreement.”

The CUK launched its first free language content in 2013 to help foreign spouses living in Korea learn the language online.

The program went viral instantly, and the school opened a channel on YouTube and TV Cast on the country's largest portal Naver the next year, recording 6.8 million views on YouTube.

Now on The Korea Times' website, visitors can access the linguistic content on speaking, listening, reading and writing skills for Korean.

Its easy-to-follow teaching style has grabbed many foreign subscribers.

The university has extended the learning program to target students worldwide now and the content is provided in four languages including English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. Thai subtitles are also provided.