KCC Philippines, DepEd hold orientation for Filipino teacher-trainees of Korean language

The Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines and the Department of Education (DepEd) have embarked on another journey to strengthen the Korean language education program in the country through the virtual orientation of teachers who will participate in the Batch 6 Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL) - Korean Language Teacher Training held on July 28, 2023.

The Korean Cultural Center’s Director Kim Myeong-jin, Senior Manager Lee Du-kyung, and Class Coordinator Maron Albangco attended the program to provide and discuss important details regarding the said training. Also in the program were officers from the Department of Education handling the SPFL program, Batch 6 Teacher-Trainees, School Heads, and Division and Regional SPFL Supervisors/Coordinators. 

In his message, Director Kim noted the importance of this training program for teachers as it will not only help the goal of the Korean Cultural Center to provide opportunities for learning the Korean language but also strengthen the bilateral relationship between the Philippines and South Korea. On the other hand, Director Jocelyn Andaya of DepEd’s Bureau of Curriculum Development hailed the success of the SPFL-Korean program over the years as many students and educators alike become more interested in learning the language. She also emphasized the essence of training in learning a foreign language as it plays an important part in helping the students learn the language with ease and confidence.

For this batch, twenty-three teacher trainees from the National Capital and CALABARZON regions will be studying the Korean language in different modalities for ten months starting in August until May next year. They will be undertaking intensive language training for them to pass the program and be fully equipped to teach the Korean language in their respective schools after the batch training.

The SPFL-Korean program was the latest among the six languages offered under the SPFL as it was established in June 2017 through a Memorandum of Agreement between the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines and the Department of Education with a goal to provide Korean language classes in select public schools in the Philippines as one of the special curricular offerings. The program includes a cycle of training for Filipino public school teachers for them to be eligible to teach Korean in their respective schools. Since 2017, KCC has trained five batches of teachers, totaling 149 teachers from 68 schools.