language education

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Click "CC" for Scripts Subscribe to arirang! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=arirangnews K-pop and Korean food make the headlines, but a growing number of people worldwide are learning the Korean language. Spearheading the outreach is the King Sejong Institute Foundation,. which runs Korean language learning institutes certified by the Korean government. It's celebrating its first birthday this week by hosting a forum. Park Ji-won reports. To mark the first anniversary of the King Sejong Institute Foundation, , a forum with language experts from around the world was held Tuesday. One of them was the executive director general of the Confucius Institute, which teaches the Chinese language. Established in 2004,. the Confucius Institute. now has more than 400 branches in 112 countries. The executive director general says close cooperation within the Chinese government is a key to its success. "14 Chinese government departments, including the education and finance ministries,. are participating in the management of the Confucius Institutes." Alliance Francaise is another successful language institute that has been in operation since 1883. The director of the institute in Korea says utilizing an interest in culture. is a good way to create interest in a language. "Koreans can take advantage of the current popularity of Hallyu. to quickly expand their language centers. Many people now love Korean culture, music, fashion and cuisine, and they absolutely want to learn the Korean language." There are 90 King Sejong Institutes in 44 countries worldwide, meaning there's still a ways to go compared to the reach of the Confucius Institute or Alliance Francaise. Korean experts agree, that Korean pop culture can be an incentive for foreigners to learn the language. "One third of foreign students take Korean language courses because of their interest in Korean culture. Korean culture can induce people outside of Korea to learn the language." "Some countries in regions like Africa or South America are still not familiar with Korean culture, and they learn Korean for economic reasons,. so different regional approaches are necessary." "Based on these strategies, the Korean government is planning to increase the number of King Sejong Institutes around the world from 90 to 200 by 2017. Park Ji-won, Arirang News." Visit us on Homepage http://www.arirang.co.kr Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/arirangtv Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/arirangworld