Korean language education expands in Hong Kong

Mu Kuang English School students attend a Korean language class, a regular foreign language subject at the school, Wednesday, Hong Kong. Korea Times photo by Park Ji-won

By Park Ji-won

HONG KONG - Learning a foreign language is difficult and it takes a lot of time and energy to see certain visible outcomes. But a growing number of people in Hong Kong are learning Korean nowadays. Once a hobby restricted to K-pop fans, learning Korean is now more common, being included in the foreign language category for the university entrance exam as well as among regular school language subjects.

At Mu Kuang English School, a local secondary school in Hong Kong, it is pretty common to see Korean letters in classes or in the library. It was the first secondary school in Hong Kong to introduce the Korean language as a regular course from the 1st grade last year, providing Korean classes once a week.

Up to 12 first graders gathered for a 40-minute class on Wednesday. They learned the pronunciations for the Korean letters, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ and vowels, while answering questions from Canny Lai, the Korean teacher and the vice principal of Hongil Language Education Centre, saying "Ne" or yes in Korean.

Many of the students chose the subject because they like Korean culture, K-pop and K-dramas.

"I like K-pop, especially BLACKPINK," Jacob Xian Wen Jie, a first grader at the school, said.

But the cultural interest is not the only reason for them to choose Korean.

"After learning the language, I want to work in Korea in the future," Sa-Nguaphan Sum Yin Wasabi, a first grader at the school said.

"I want to attend a university in Korea, because I am interested in Korean culture. In the future, I want to open a restaurant in Korea," Lucy Chu, a second grader at the school, said.

The introduction of the subject was a brave decision for the school as it was the first of its kind. But Ivan Ho, president of the school, says it was rather a practical decision made amid growing demand from students and prospects of the language.

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"In Asia, the economies of Korea and Japan grow rapidly and the two have a strong connection with Hong Kong," Ivan Ho, president of the school, said, adding that learning the language can help the students have more chances and a better future.

Since the introduction of the course last year, the number of students who chose to take the Korean class is growing. They can choose either Japanese or Korean, and the number of students who chose Korean stood at 50 out of 150, or 33 percent as of October this year, an increase from 2021 when 41 out of 140, or 29 percent, chose Korean.

Private and public institutions are also expanding Korean language education in Hong Kong.

Oh Eun-kyung, the Korean language program director at the College of Humanities and Law of Hong Kong University SPACE, who has been working for the institution since 2007, says that its Korean language program has been expanding over decades.

"When I first came to the institution in 2007, there were only 300 students who wanted to learn Korean. But it grew to 5,500 in 2015," Oh said.

The number has decreased due to the pandemic as well as the change of study habits among young people, she said. For example, they prefer online courses via apps. But the number is still notably big, with some 2,600 students enrolling last year and more students taking advanced courses than before, she said.

The applicants for the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) is also growing every year. In 2019, 2,104 applicants took the test. The number dropped to 989 in 2020 due to the pandemic, but it bounced back to 2,750 in 2021 and 2,880 as of Oct. 6 2022, according to the latest data of the National Institute for International Education.

Lack of Korean teachers

But insiders point out the expansion of the language does not necessarily guarantee the quality of the language education and that they are in need of financial or educational support to further boost the program.

"There is rising demand from students asking for more advanced classes in Hong Kong. But it is really difficult to find Korean teachers. It became more difficult after the COVID-19 pandemic," Oh said, adding she keeps asking Korean government institutions to send more teachers to Hong Kong.

The elementary school also had to hire Canny, a private lecturer for the Korean class as they were not able to find an in-house Korean language teacher largely because of their limited budget.

Stressing the "shortage of manpower" in organizing the Korean classes as the Hong Kong government only provides subsidies and chances for cultural exchanges with China, Ho asked the Korean governmental organization to send more Korean teachers and expand study tours where they can experience more about Korea and its language so they can continue to run the Korean course.

"Our teachers can visit Korea. They can bring the culture back and introduce it to our students. How would they promote Korean culture if they don't have much knowledge about it?" Ho said. "We are willing to hire (native and certified) teachers. Because of the shortage of our manpower, we only run (small) classes."