South Korean University Creates Online Language Program for Expatriates

South Korea's Seoul National University has begun an online language-education program aimed at students and academics who number themselves among the 5.7 million ethnic Koreans estimated to be living outside South Korea.

The Korean Tutor Web site (http://koreantutor.com) was developed by the university's Korean Language Education Research Institute and started last month by the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The site offers instruction in the Korean language, particularly Han-geul, the national script.

It will be administered by the Korean Tutor Corporation, a commercial subsidiary of the university.

"Ethnic Koreans living abroad, particularly in America, often will understand the spoken Korean language but not know where to begin when it comes to expressing thoughts and feelings in the written language," says Heon Lee, the project's director, who visited Los Angeles in November to promote the Korean Tutor. "We hope that this will start to provide some remedy."

Although the program's major emphasis will be on mastering the written word, the site includes courses in pronunciation and speech patterns. Another of its sections, "Meet Korea," offers information on local culture in both English and Korean.

In its promotional material, the site's parent organization claims to have tackled what is often said to be the weakest point of online language instruction -- that it is too one-directional -- by offering personally customized features.

Users can manage their own progress, scores, and records, as well as review their problems and progress, as they move through assignments.

Mr. Lee says a similar program will soon be added for courses on doing business in South Korea, as well as on current affairs. In addition, Japanese- and Chinese-language versions of the site should be up and running in March.

The new program marks a shift in international emphasis for the country's most prestigious university, which for much of the past decade has looked for ways to import new modes of cultural learning from abroad -- particularly from the Anglo-American world of higher education -- rather than attempting to export the country's native culture and language for profit.

The site charges a monthly fee of $7 per subscriber, although potential users may sample each course without charge.

South Korea, says Mr. Lee, "has indeed been relatively passive in passing its culture on to the outside world."

With relatively little promotion abroad, the Korean Tutor site now has about 1,000 subscribers, which Mr. Lee says has convinced him of the popular demand for its content.

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