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| Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae speaks during a meeting with society-related ministers at the Government Complex Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
The government will expand support measures for people studying or planning to study foreign languages that are not widely learned here but are believed to be important to the country's national interests.
Study programs will be increased in particular for middle and high school students from multiracial families, who live in advantageous conditions to develop bilingual abilities.
The education ministry announced a five-year plan, Wednesday, to improve education in what it calls "special foreign languages," to be applied from 2022 to 2026.
Korea has designated 53 languages that are not widely used around the world but have importance for the country's national development considering diplomatic relations with those countries. There is demand for people speaking such languages here, but not many take it up.
"The previous five-year plan from 2017 to 2021 focused on supporting universities offering majors in those minority languages, such as helping students study the target languages in those countries or offering them scholarships," said Lee Jae-bok, an official of the National Institute for International Education, an affiliated organization of the education ministry.
But starting with the second five-year plan, the government will expand support measures for more social groups, especially for children from multicultural families whose numbers are growing, according to Lee.
He said such children live in advantageous conditions to become bilingual, while it will be beneficial for both the children and the country to enhance their bilingual abilities.
"The majority of children from multicultural families are currently middle and high school students. In this case, each regional education office can contact them directly, so the ministry plans to create a standard curriculum for the languages that the offices can provide to schools for the students to use," Lee said.
Previously, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies and a consortium between Chungwoon University and Dankook University were designated as specialized educational institutions for minority languages, while the government offered support measures for 15 languages ― Indonesian, Malaysian, Mongolian, Burmese, Vietnamese, Swedish, Arabic, Uzbek, Farsi, Khmer, Turkish, Portuguese, Polish, Hungarian and Hindi.
For the new plan, the government will add five more languages.
It will also develop education programs to cultivate professionals speaking in the designated languages for specialized fields, such as translators of Korean literature and cultural content, and experts in specific regions in the world.
