(코리아타운뉴스) “Learning Korean enrich your child’s life”

Korean school in Fullerton hosts a seminar
Parents could play a key role in helping them

Korean School of Fullerton held a seminar on Feb. 4 for aspiring students who wish to learn their native language. Approximately 120 students and parents attended the event as they expressed keen interest in learning the Korean language.

Eunice Lee, a vice-director of the Foundation for Korean Language and Culture in USA, served as the main lecturer at the seminar to stress the need for the younger generation to learn Korean. Lee, an educator for 20 years now, highlighted the growth of Korean language programs across the United States in recent years.

“Interest in learning Korean has increased drastically over the last few years thanks to the popularization of the South Korean pop culture,” Lee said.

“About 60 locations in Southern California and 115 schools in the country are currently offering a program in Korean. Korean is also accessible at other various organizations like the church. The ideal way to improve your Korean is to study it consistently.”

“Having a clear purpose, such as aiming to pass Korean language tests, is obviously much more helpful than simply watching some TV shows,” Lee added.

“Preparing for those tests will help the student gain leverage in obtaining admission to schools and possibly finding jobs. It’ll also help them to speak a sophisticated version of Korean. Parents could play a key role in helping their children as well.”

When asked how the children should learn Korean if they cannot attend separate classes for it, Lee explained that leading them in a way to develop interest in Korean dramas and movies, creating a routine of writing and reading Korean and utilizing smartphone apps to learn the language could be alternative options.

“Being able to speak Korean enables children to have more opportunities and experiences in life,” Lee said. “In fact, one of my students even have gone on to become a singer in Korea. Others were able to obtain jobs as book translators. Even the ones in other fields could receive incentives in pay if they have additional linguistic skills.”

Ellie Kim, one of the parents at the seminar, said: “My child has always enjoyed Korean drama and has heard from people around us that his Korean is excellent, but when we visited Korea last year, I was shocked that he couldn’t even read a simple menu at a restaurant. This seminar definitely gave me a lot of useful information.”


By Nakhee Park