HONG KONG – At the chime of the school bell, 10 15-year-olds rise from their seats and bow to the teacher, chirping in unison “annyeonghaseyo”, or “hello” in Korean.
“In Korean, the sentence structure is different from Chinese. You’d say, ‘I, classroom at, lunch, eat’ instead,” Ms Lai said, eliciting giggles from the students. Educators say the move to offer Korean classes is undoubtedly driven by students’ interest in all things Korean. “In this increasingly global village, you can’t survive if you don’t know at least five to six languages,” Mr Ho said.For decades, French, Spanish, German and Japanese have been the most popular foreign languages among Hong Kong students.The latest estimate by the Korean consulate in Hong Kong showed that there were around 40,000 Korean learners in 2017 based on enrolment figures at universities and private academies.
Under Hong Kong’s trilingual and biliterate language education policy, students are expected to be proficient in writing Chinese and English. They also need to be able to communicate in Cantonese, English and Mandarin.