This is a classroom at King Sejong Institute, which teaches Korean language and culture, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (King Sejong Institute)

By Lee Jihae

For the second consecutive year, Korean is the No. 2 secondary foreign language that takers of Thailand's college entrance exam choose.

Korean Education Center (KEC) in Thailand on May 23 said 19.8% or 4,009 of Thailand's 20,309 students who chose a secondary foreign language on this year's college entrance picked Korean.

Chinese was No. 1 with 7,929 (39%), followed by second-place Korean, Japanese third with 3,833 (18.9%) and French fourth with 2,357 (11.6%).

The number of students taking the Korean-language test grew 6.33% or 239 from last year.

For the first time, the figure last year exceeded that of those choosing Japanese, with the gap further widening this year.

Included on Thailand's college entrance exam for the first time in 2018, Korean accounted for 9.6% of students opting to test in a second foreign language. This figure jumped to 17.6% last year and nearly 20% this year.

The number of students taking a test in a secondary foreign language decreased overall, but the share of those opting for Korean is rising due to the popularity of Hallyu (Korean Wave), KEC said.

Thailand has the most students of Korean of any country. Last year, the country had 180 schools whose curricula included the language and an estimated 46,119 learners, most in the world.

KEC is expanding the basis for development of Korean-language education in Thailand. Last year, it opened a teacher training center at Silpakorn University and a research center at Srinakharinwirot University.

Teachers of Korean who are native speakers will be deployed to private and university-affiliated schools as well as public.

jihlee08@korea.kr