Korean Language Education (KLE) and Korean Studies (KS) in Thailand’s Universities: Current Status, Problems and Challenges, and Policy Recommendations

Abstract

This article focuses on exploring the current status of Korean language and Korean studies courses at universities in Thailand that offer these subjects as bachelor degree level majors, and aims to explore the relative problems and challenges. The methods of research are qualitative, and descriptive analysis, as guided by the conceptual framework of “curricula”. The results show that there are 11 universities that offer the Korean language as a major and one university that offers Korean studies as a major. It is more common for universities to offer general Korean language courses than Korean studies or Applied Korean for Career courses. However, there are recent efforts to increase the number of Korean studies and Applied Korean for Careers courses as these subjects help students to develop knowledge that can be utilized in their future careers. Thai lecturers are vital in advocating for universities to successfully upgrade their curricula into major subjects. The main problems and challenges in implementing the curricula as a major subject include not being able to offer all of the courses due to a lack of sufficient instructors, especially in subjects that require specialized knowledge; and that many students are only interested to study this subject because of the popularity of Korean culture, so they are not interested in some specific courses. This article suggests that the development of educational curricula should give importance to both quality and quantity.