The Korean language center affiliated with the Korean Embassy in Thailand revealed the remaining four volumes today to coincide with Hangeul Day (Korean Alphabet Day), which is a national holiday in South Korea. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Thailand is the country that has the greatest number of students studying the Korean language.
Of the approximately 130,000 teenage students studying Korean worldwide, nearly 30 percent (37,000 students) are Thai.
A total of 118 schools in the Thailand have chosen Korean as the second language taught in their institution.
Despite the popularity of the Korean language in Thailand, however, official Korean textbooks written in Thai have been lacking, prompting students to use college textbooks produced in Korea for international students or self-edited manuals made by teachers.
In order to address the situation, in 2015 Korean and Thai teachers started to co-produce Korean language textbooks for Thai middle and high school students.
Korean teachers with more than three years of experience teaching in Thailand established the framework to develop textbooks that suited the needs of local students, while Korean language professors at Thai universities and Korean teachers dispatched from Ewha University’s Language Center authored the books.
The first volume was published in October of last year, preceding the release of the second and third volumes this March.
The Korean language center affiliated with the Korean Embassy in Thailand revealed the remaining four volumes today to coincide with Hangeul Day (Korean Alphabet Day), which is a national holiday in South Korea.
The completion of the textbook series will allow students at Thai schools to systematically learn the Korean language starting with the vowel and consonants of the language before proceeding to learn aspects of listening, reading, speaking, writing and even grammar.
The books also feature colloquial expressions that are used often in daily conversations, as well as explanations, in general, about the social and cultural characteristics of Korean society.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
