By Honorary Reporter Preeti Rawat from India

Photo= Preeti Rawat

India has adopted Korean as an elective for a second foreign language at the secondary school level to join Thai, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. 

Initial reports said Korean was not included in the first draft of the government's education policy for this year. The Korean Embassy and the Korean Cultural Center (KCC) in India, however, actively suggested to the government the need to include Korean as a foreign language option. 

Moreover, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his delegates, who visited Korea in October last year, seemed deeply impressed by the country's development model and the Korean passion for education.

The KCC has played an important role in building a base for Korean's inclusion as a scholastic subject in India. The center has agreements with 105 schools in India to provide Korean classes and support related education at Indian universities including IGNOU, Manipur and Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh.

From Aug. 17, the KCC will start a course for training teachers of Korean for 23 students over 15 weeks. They will get the opportunity to teach Korean at schools and colleges after completion.

 
In addition, a 15-week class for those learning Korean as a hobby will start on Aug. 18. All seats in the free beginner's class were filled in less than six hours on the first day of registration, attesting to Korean's skyrocketing popularity in India.

chaey0726@korea.kr


*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.