Outspoken 'Learning Korean' craze... There's also 'waiting for the class'

[Anchor]
On the weekend when it opened in London, New Malden, England, last year, Koreans and locals flocked to the Korean language school, causing students to wait for the course.

The movement to adopt Korean in after-school classes at regular schools in the UK is also becoming so popular that it can be detected.

The British education authorities are also paying attention.

The London Metropolitan Police Reporter reports.

[Reporter]
I try to wrap my head around it and think about it, but I can't think of it at all,

I write it down hard with my hands.

It is a Korean language school class site held every Saturday in New Malden, England.

[Lee Eun-soo / New Malden Korean Language School Student: If you speak Korean and English in both languages, you can understand Koreans and speak with British people.]

New Maldon, London, where more than 10,000 Koreans live,
About 800 North Korean defectors live here in the mid-2000s when the British government accepted a large number of refugees.

New Maldon Hangeul School opened in June last year as South and North Korean migrants' voices were added that their children should be taught Hangul and Korean.

[Lee Hyang-gyu / Head of the New Maldon School of Hangeul: Many adults asked for a Korean language school here, so we opened it because we needed a school that could be close to us.]

With the aspirations of compatriots, the establishment of Hangul School in New Maldon also led to unexpected interest.

Even non-Korean students chose Korean as a second foreign language, waiting to enter Hangul School.

[Leah Murray / Filipino-British Parents] We're not European-British, so we were looking for Asian language classes for kids. People recommended this school. That's why I came.]

The Korean language craze in the U.K. is not just a problem for Korean language schools.

Recently, as more and more regular schools in England teach Korean after school, some point out that the recruitment of Korean teachers will be urgent in the future.

[Kim Yu-jin / Professor of Humanities, Kingston University, UK] It is urgent that a foreign student who studied Korean there will become a researcher later. In addition, it is urgent to bring in personnel who have the knowledge to teach Korean studies and such depth from Korea..]


The K-pop or K-culture craze may be the ostensible reason, but British education authorities are working with Oxford University on why the number of students seeking to learn Korean is increasing so much.

YTN World Government Constable in New Maldon, United Kingdom.