BTS Will Help Teach Korean in Classrooms Around the World
In the past several years, BTS has risen to the top of the K-pop industry. Now, the group is making its marks in the U.S. and many other countries as well.
However, it seems BTS is not just satisfied being on TV, social media, and streaming website. The seven-piece will be making its way to classrooms in various countries as well. Soon, students learning Korean can get some language help from BTS.
Several universities around the world will use BTS’s educational videos to teach students Korean
According to Soompi, Big Hit Entertainment’s educational company, Big Hit Edu, has teamed up with the Korea Foundation and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies to promote Korean language learning abroad. Big Hit Edu, specifically, will release its “Learn Korean with BTS” textbook for use in classroom programs around the world.
Some participating schools include Middlebury College in the U.S., École Normale Supérieure and EDHEC Business School in France, Ain Shams University in Egypt, and University of Languages & International Studies and Than Long University in Vietnam.
What exactly is ‘Learn Korean with BTS’?
“Learn Korean with BTS” is a series of short videos that utilize clips from BTS’s reality shows to teach fans Korean. Each video focuses on a specific topic with regards to Korean grammar or vocabulary, and the clips of BTS are meant to show how native Koreans use these grammar points or vocabulary words in real life situations.
The videos are released weekly on Big Hit’s app WeVerse, with its first episode premiering in March. The textbook package will also be released on August 24.
Fans have offered mixed opinions about the effectiveness of ‘Learn Korean with BTS.’ A large number of people find the videos confusing to follow, especially for beginners of the Korean language.
“If you’re a complete newbie this won’t be helpful at all, since it skips all the most basic necessities,” one person wrote on Reddit. “But then if you’ve been learning [Korean] for a while and can follow along fine, then there’s literally no way you don’t already know everything they go through.”
However, some fans have pointed out that the videos probably are not meant to be used by themselves. ‘Learn Korean with BTS’ provides good review materials for those who are already learning by other means, they claim.
BTS’s member Jin appreciates when fans learn Korean
In any case, there are good reasons to believe the BTS members themselves are thrilled about being a part of classrooms around the world. Although they have put in a lot of effort to learn English, they also seem to appreciate international fans who learn Korean as well.
For example, Jin once said in an interview, as shared by Soompi, “When we go abroad to meet our fans, a lot of them tell us that they learned Korean so that they could speak to us when we met. When I see fans studying Korean and trying to learn more about Korean culture, it makes me think that we were able to introduce Korea to more people, and I feel proud.”
