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English may be the most popular foreign language in Korea, but in Mongolia more people take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) than the TOEFL. The TOPIK is a Korean language proficiency test for non-Koreans, supervised by the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation and offered twice a year. Last Sunday, 582 Mongolian students took the first TOPIK test of the year. Introduced in 1999, the test initially drew only about 200 students per year in Mongolia. But in 2005 that figure more than doubled to 487, then climbed to 584 in 2006 and 925 in 2007. Based on the number taking Sunday's test, the total figure will likely exceed the 1,000 mark this year. The high popularity of Korean in Mongolia is attributable to a wide-spread hope and aspiration of making the "Korean dream" come true. Mongolians can buy a house in their home country after working and saving in South Korea for just three years. In 2007, as many as 15,000 Mongolians took the Korean Language Proficiency Test (KLPT), a separate test designed for people preparing to work in South Korea. Currently some 33,000 Mongolians, or 1.2 percent of the entire Mongolian population of 2.7 million, are staying in South Korea.
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Students take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) at the University of Humanities in Ulan Bator, Mongolia last Sunday.
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Some 1,700 Mongolians come to study in South Korea each year, making this the number one destination for Mongolians studying abroad. They are drawn by the relatively low study expenses, and, for some, by a love of Korean pop culture, introduced to them by the Korean Wave. Meanwhile, in Mongolia, around 1,700 students are currently studying Korean at 22 of the country's 180 universities, and 1,027 Mongolian elementary and secondary students are also learning the language. Last Friday, a Korean language class at a middle school in Ulan Bator began with Korean phrases such as "charyeot" (attention!) and "gyeongrye" (bow!). The topic of the day was buying writing materials. Two students came forward and practiced some lines in front of the classroom: "Do you have felt-tip pens?" "Does this pen write well?" Their accents and pronunciation were perfect. Beginning in the second grade, Mongolian students can study two foreign languages from a selection of several, including Russian, English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Byambasuren, a 17-year-old girl, said, "My mother said it would be helpful for me if I learned Korean, because Korea is a growing country." (englishnews@chosun.com )
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