Soon enough, “annyeonghaseyo (hello)” won’t be the only Korean word select Filipino public students will know how to say.
Starting this semester, 10 public schools in the Philippines will offer Korean language classes to its students, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
The Department of Education (DepEd) announced the list of participating schools yesterday, which include:
- Jose Abad Santos High School
- Judge Feliciano Belmonte Sr. High School
- Kalayaan National High School
- Lagro High School
- Las Piñas National High School
- Makati High School
- Maligaya High School
- North Fairview High School
- Pasay City National Science High School
- San Bartolome High School
The language will be taught to a total of 700 students from Grades 7 – 12, GMA News reported.
Patricia Santos, the DepEd official in charge of the program told GMA News that the classes will soon be offered to more schools in the country’s Region IV-A.
The Korean language classes are part of an initiative by the DepEd and the Korean embassy in Manila that was made official and announced last year.
It’s part of the Education Department’s Special Program in Foreign Language which includes classes in Spanish, Nihongo, French, German, and Mandarin, ABS-CBN News reported.
Like many parts of Asia, South Korean culture is very popular in the Philippines. Hallyu or the Korean Wave is present in the Philippines in various forms including music, television, food, and beauty.
But more than just being able to watch K-dramas without subtitles or dubbing, the program could also prove to be beneficial in practical ways, especially because the Philippines has one of the largest South Korean diasporas in the world.
Many Koreans also go to the Philippines to learn English, so learning the language could be an asset for those who want to work as English teachers.
However, the launch of the Korean language program also has some worried, especially because it comes just days after the Supreme Court decided that Filipino language classes should not be required in college.
Many questioned this decision, calling it unpatriotic and saying that it could endanger the country’s national language.
This caused further strain in the Philippines’ complicated relationship with language.
The country has over 100 languages and dialects but considers Filipino — a standardized form of Tagalog — and English as its official languages.
Some have questioned why Tagalog was chosen as the official language.
Language has also become a symbol of someone’s status. In the Philippines, many young people from the middle and upper classes only know how to speak English, while those in lower-income households are more comfortable speaking their regional language.
The Philippines has also declined in its English language skills. In the 2018 ranking by language training company EF, the Philippines only ranked second in Asia and 14th in the world when it comes to English proficiency.
In an interview with GMA News, DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said that only those who have mastered English and Filipino can take the Korean language elective.
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