The Ministry of Education on June 4 announced its plans this year to develop nine textbooks for students of Korean. (Ministry of Education)

By Lee Jihae

Hallyu (Korean Wave) content such as BTS and K-dramas this year will go into the development of nine textbooks for learning Korean.

The Ministry of Education on June 4 announced this as part of its annual plan for the development and distribution of Korean-language textbooks for elementary and middle schools overseas.

The project is to develop one supplementary textbook, one smart digital edition for the first level of beginner Korean and seven versions for specific countries like India, the Philippines and Vietnam. An estimated 260,000 copies of such textbooks will be distributed this year.

The ministry this year will launch the distribution of a supplementary textbook developed last year. The textbook is designed to help students understand Korean culture through the lens of Korean society as shown in K-dramas.

Smart digital textbooks accessible through user smartphones contain learning support functions integrated with artificial intelligence.

The seven country-specific textbooks will be produced for India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Germany.

So far, the ministry has developed 80 textbooks for learning Korean based on the related curriculum both in print and digital forms.

jihlee08@korea.kr