The South Korean government will expand the annual quota for E-7-4 visas issued to skilled workers to 30,000 by the end of this year, a fifteen-fold increase from last year, the Justice Ministry announced Thursday. "Resolving manpower shortages faced by many industries is an important short-term task. We are making efforts to accept more foreign workers to fill job vacancies as instructed by the president,” Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said during a Cabinet meeting presided over by

Starting next month, habitual drunk drivers could face the forfeiture of their vehicles. The punishment is among a package of measures to combat drunk driving announced Wednesday by the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office and the National Police Agency. Drivers to be subject to vehicle seizure are those who have caused a car crash resulting in death or serious injury, and those with a history of two or more drunk driving incidents within five years or three or more incidents within five year

Yoo Jae-suk, arguably the biggest television celebrity in Korea, has become the third-largest shareholder of his entertainment agency, Antenna Music, according to news reports Monday. He reportedly bought a 20.7 percent stake in the unlisted firm from its largest shareholder, Kakao Entertainment, for 3 billion won ($2.3 million) on Jun. 9. In a separate deal, Antenna CEO Yoo Hee-yeol has acquired a 21.37 percent stake in the firm. With the transactions, Kakao’s shareholding in Antenna fell

  For some, a picnic in Seoul is synonymous with “chicken and beer by the Han River.” The combination of fried chicken and beer is so popular in Korea that it even has its own term -- "chimaek," a combination of "chicken" and "maekju (beer)." And relaxing on picnic mats or in pop-up tents along the river while enjoying chimaek has long been a cherished summer ritual for many. Hungry Seoulites can order chicken to be delivered to their location at an

급증하는 전세계 한국어 교육 수요에 교원 부족 현상 심화 한국어 세계화를 위해 에듀테크 기술 적극 활용해야 노중일 비상교육 GEO 코어 그룹 대표 인터뷰 한류 열풍으로 전세계 한국어 학습 열기가 높아지면서 정부의 교원 파견과 수업 개설 지원만으로는 학습자들의 수요를 충족시키지 못하는 상황에 봉착했다는 제언이 나왔다. 노중일 비상교육 GEO 코어 그룹(GEO Core Group) 대표는 최근 코리아헤럴드와의 인터뷰에서 “점차 다양해지고 세분화되는 학습자들의 수요를 고려하면 에듀테크(Edu-tech)가 대안”이라며 “기술을 통해 (세계 곳곳의) 학습자와 한국어 교육 기관을 연결하는 에듀테크 기업들의 역할”을 강조했다. 에듀테크란 교육(education)과 기술(technology)이 결합된 신조어로 빅데이터·인공지능 등 정보통신기술을 활용한 차세대 교육을 의미한다. 노 대표가 이끄는 GEO 코어 그룹은 2019년에 출범한 비

제2외국어 채택 2년도 안돼 제1외국어로 K콘텐츠 인기에 초3학년부터 한글 공부 학습 수요에 못 미치는 교원 수..."현지 한국어 교사 양성 시급" [하노이=코리아헤럴드] 한국에서 비행기로 5시간 떨어진 베트남 하노이에는 한국어의 인기가 그 어느 곳보다 뜨겁다. 초등학교 3학년에 해당되는 8세 어린이들이 한국어를 영어와 함께 제2외국어로 배우고 있고 한국어능력시험(TOPIK) 응시자 수는 2021년 8,000명에서 2022년 28,450명으로 3배 가까이 늘었다. 베트남 교육훈련부는 지난 2019년 한국어를 제2외국어로 승인한 데 이어 2021년에는 독일어와 함께 제1외국어로 추가 선정했다. 채 2년이 안되어 제1외국어로 승격된 것이다. 베트남 교육 과정 상 제1외국어는 초등학교 3학년부터, 제2외국어는 중등학교부터 선택 과목으로 배우게 된다. 현재 한국어와 독일어를 포함해 총 7개국어 (영어, 러시아어, 프랑스어, 중국어, 일본어)가 제1외국어로 채택되어 있

한국기업 진출과 고용 확대로 한국어 학습자 ↑ 시장 수요와 한류 맞물려 폭발적인 학습 열기 "다른 외국어 전공자보다 1.5배 더 번다” [하이퐁=코리아헤럴드] 베트남 북부의 항구도시 하이퐁에는 “영어를 잘하면 월급 2배, 한국말 잘하면 월급 3배”라는 말이 있다. 다소 과장이 섞여 있지만, 이 표현은 하이퐁에 불고 있는 한국어 열풍을 잘 보여 준다. 많은 한국 기업들이 이 곳에 대규모 공장을 짓고, 수억원 가치의 프로젝트를 주도하면서 한국어에 능통한 베트남 인재 유치전이 벌어지고 있기 때문이다. 올 초 코리아헤럴드가 방문한 하이퐁 마리퀴리고등학교(Marie Curie High School)에는 많은 학생들이 일찍이 한국 기업 취직을 목표로 한국어 공부에 매진하고 있었다. 마리퀴리고 10학년 팜 옌(Pham Yen) 학생은 본지와의 인터뷰에서 “어머니가 하이퐁에 진출한 한국 기업에서 일하고 계신다”며 &ldqu

South Korean Buddhist monk Doyeon is seeking to renounce monastic life and return to lay life, following revelations that he may have fathered two children. According to the Jogye Order, the largest Buddhist sect in South Korea to which he belongs, Ven. Doyeon has officially notified the sect of his intention to leave, without giving any specific reason for his decision. Earlier this month, allegations arose that he was the father of two children, which violates the sect’s rules of celib

Operators of a mobile application on which brothels share the personal information of their customers, including phone numbers, were arrested by police, officials said Friday. They are accused of violating of the law on personal information protection and the law on punishment of prostitution. According to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police, some 6,400 sex work establishments shared information about sex buyers, including some 4.6 million phone numbers, their past records of visiting other

The historic city of Gyeongju may soon lose one of its most iconic street snacks, the 10-won waffle, as the South Korea’s central bank takes issue with its design resembling a real coin. The Bank of Korea on Thursday said it will put the brakes on the sale of the waffles designed after national coins that have become popular street snacks in some tourist destinations. The central bank has recently urged a warning to local producers of the coin-shaped snack to stop applying the design of go

In a rare ruling, a local court has acknowledged the possibility of a vehicle defect in a 2020 car accident that killed a pedestrian, acquitting the driver of criminal charges. The Daejeon District Court on Tuesday found not guilty the 56-year-old driver who accidentally hit and killed a 60-year-old security guard on a university campus in Seoul on Dec. 29, 2020. Black box footage shows that the driver’s car, a local brand, exited an underground parking lot and made a right turn at a spe

  A passport was once something reserved for a privileged few in South Korea until the government began allowing all citizens to travel freely overseas on Jan. 1, 1989. To prevent an outflow of foreign currency that would weaken the Korean currency against the dollar, as well as to minimize Koreans’ contact with communists, international travel was only permitted for certain groups of people who had special reasons for it. These included company officials or businesspeople who need to

A pop-up exhibition dubbed “Cafe de Busan” was launched in Paris ahead of the General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions, to support Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo, according to the Busan Metropolitan Government on Tuesday. South Korea is vying with Rome, Italy; Odesa, Ukraine; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to host the Expo in its southeastern city of Busan. The two-day assembly, which began Tuesday with 179 BIE member countries attending, involves intense

The global Korean language boom has passed the point where Korean government-dispatched teachers and state-run language promotion agencies can meet local teaching demands. It is now time for Korea’s edu-tech players, trained to serve a particularly discerning and demanding clientele at home, to play a role, said Visang Education’s global education unit chief. “Demand for Korean language learning has exploded in many countries amid the worldwide popularity of Korean content. O

Along with the increasing number of self-service stores, related crimes, including theft and vandalism, have become rampant in recent years with the majority of cases involving teenagers, a report showed Monday. According to a report titled “A Study on Crimes at Unmanned Stores and Countermeasures,” published by the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, a total of 1,640 shoplifting incidents took place in Seoul from September 2020 to January 2022, which indicates that 96 cases

The search continues for a purported alligator in an otherwise idyllic village in the southern city of Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, after five people reported sightings of the reptile in a slow-moving stream that encircles the rural town. Despite having found no trace of a reptile, the city is not letting its guard down as of Friday, with four officials dispatched to monitor the vicinity of the purported sighting. It also plans to conduct a drone search of the area, officials said. &ldquo

A star math lecturer’s diagnosis on South Korea’s persistently falling birth attributing part of the blame to Instagram overflowing with “flex posts” went viral Thursday. In a video clip, uploaded to his YouTube channel, apparently from a lecture, Chung Seung-je shares his thought on the issue, starting with a question, “Koreans had more babies in the past when they were much poorer. Things have gotten a lot better now, but why do people have fewer babies?” &l

Pawn shops have been seen as relics of the past, from a time when instant cash loans were not so readily available with just a few clicks. But though many perished, a new breed of shops has emerged, catering to clients who possess expensive gadgets or luxury goods but are temporarily cash-strapped. Lee Yong-seok’s shop in Seoul's bustling Hongdae specializes in loans secured against tech gadgets. In contrast to the traditional image of pawn shops with iron bars and stringent secur

Residue of methamphetamine, a common illegal substance, also known as “philopon” in South Korea, was detected in 34 sewage plants nationwide every year for the past three years, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Since 2020, the ministry has conducted the sewage test each year, whereby researchers collect samples of untreated sewage and analyze the concentration of drug residues to quantify drug use within a community. According to the latest report released by the

South Korea's capital city, Seoul, was named the world’s ninth most expensive city for expatriates in terms of living expenses, an international survey showed. According to a global consulting firm ECA International in March this year, the cost of living in Seoul was the ninth-highest, up one notch from a year earlier. Tokyo was next, down five notches on-year. The survey compared the costs of living in 207 cities with high numbers of foreign national residents across 120 countrie