Startup CEO infuses entertainment to learning Korean

KOKIRI, an app-based Korean learning platform using Korean entertainment content, created by education service startup Koylabs / Courtesy of Koylabs

By Lee Gyu-lee

K-pop and entertainment have been gaining more and more attention from global audiences lately.

For Jeon Ye-ji, the founder and CEO of education service startup Koylabs, this is an opportunity for people around the world to have a more interesting and fun way of picking up not only the Korean language but also its culture.

"I want people to feel that it's easy and fun to learn Korean (through our platform) … I hope this can help expand the ways to access Korean culture and content," she told The Korea Times during an interview at the company's office in central Seoul, Wednesday. "

Jeon Ye-ji, founder and CEO of Koylabs / Courtesy of Koylabs

"I believe knowing the language is one of the ways to have a better understanding of a culture … So through our service, I hope to provide people learning Korean with an experience to expand their cultural scope."

Koylabs runs KOKIRI, an app-based Korean learning platform that offers a huge library of entertainment content from broadcaster MBC and entertainment agency SM Entertainment.

Using different forms of videos, from long clips to shorts, as well as K-pop stars' social media posts, the platform allows its users to learn different levels of expressions, vocabulary and grammar from their favorite Korean shows or singers.

The company started as a venture project under MBC, where Jeon had worked as a reporter for nine years before launching her own business. She took the startup independent last February.

"The reason I became a reporter is that I like encountering changes and new things and this was the job for that," Jeon said, adding she still came to feel stagnant after years of work. "Since the media tend to be conservative, I would often feel how the organization is staying the same when we should be the people covering the changes. So I've had need for that."

Her previous experience helping her friend's travel platform startup and as a reporter helped her to come up with the idea for KOKIRI.

KOKIRI uses content from MBC and SM Entertainment. Courtesy of Koylabs

"A lot of foreigners I met (when helping with the startup) told me that they wanted to learn Korean and asked how. And the only recommendation I could give was to get a book or textbook from a bookstore. I've realized there are so much needs (to learn Korean) but very few supply," she said.

"And later while working at the society desk I came across multicultural families, and there were a lot of cases of those people struggle from language barriers … And I learned that language is essential in understanding a culture."

A scene from MBC series "Extraordinary You" / Courtesy of MBC

So when the broadcaster launched an in-house venture funding program, Jeon took a leap of faith to leave her career and jump into the education service business. "I consider news as content. But the articles we wrote are consumed once and discarded. And so as dramas. So I thought of the ways to recreate and reutilize this content we've already made to have value," Jeon said, adding she decided to apply the idea to a learning platform.

"Most of the people learning Korean come from K-pop or K-dramas. But the actual study materials are from books, which is imbalanced … So we thought this could be something that we can solve."

The platform prides itself on its systematic curriculum and materials that teach real-life and practical expressions, offering about 4,000 study segments and counting.

KOKIRI currently has about 4,000 study materials. Courtesy of Koylabs

"First and foremost, education is the primary focus of our business, so we put a lot of thought into how we can set up the curriculum right from the beginning," she said, adding that it sets the company apart from other Korean language learning services. "The people who make these segments have a master's degree or Ph.D. in Korean language and those who translate have also majored in Korean."

The platform currently has English and Vietnamese versions and services in 15 different countries including Vietnam, where it launched a beta service before its official launch this April.

Jeon shared that the company aims to launch the service in Korea in the latter half of this year, with an extended version for foreign residents and visitors in the country.

"For the domestic service, we plan to have information-based content (along with original content) … daily hacks like how to rent a home when you first arrive in Korea or how to avoid lease scams," she said. "You need to be able to make decision based on information you gather, but many don't even have proper information. So I want (this service) to act as a platform that offers that information."

Jeon sees a bigger purpose for the platform than just teaching Korean.

"People come to learn Korean from watching K-dramas or to better communicate with their favorite stars. And it leads them to want to learn Korean and even to travel to Korea, or even more, want to get a job in Korea. These people like something about Korea enough to learn its language," she said. "So our ultimate goal is to become a most-sought platform on which they can eagerly pick up Korean language and culture."