A Korean language class at the National Center for the Rights of the Child office in downtown Seoul in 2022  (Photo by the NCRC) 

The National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) in Seoul has a unique Korean language program mainly for Korean overseas adoptees. 

It is a 15-week program held twice a year in collaboration with the King Sejong Institute Foundation. The NCRC launched the program in 2022. The first semester just ended in June and the second one will begin in August. There are eight levels that range from beginner to advanced.  

Park Jong-hoon, 35, is a recent graduate of the intermediate level. The program is his first official Korean language course. “I enjoyed it. I passed, and I will go onto the next level in August,” Park said through a Zoom interview. 

The curriculum and the teachers come from the King Sejong Institute, while the classes are held at the NCRC. The main intended beneficiaries are Korean adoptees mostly visiting or working in Korea. There are about 200,000 Korean children adopted overseas, according to government data. The government began tallying such data in 1958. The program is state-financed and tuition free. 

From New York, Park had studied Korean independently through books. Then in the summer of 2012, he came to Korea, picking up Korean through work and life here. Then he reunited with his biological mother in late 2012 through whom he learned so much. 

“She taught me words for colors in Korean, random, spontaneous words,” said Park. “Even if the communication wasn’t perfect, I felt my soul was restored to me.” 

Meeting his mother and learning Korean has allowed him to express the things he had felt inside him while living in the United States that are intrinsically Korean. But he’s still not at the level he wants to be.  

“It’s my challenge. I hope to master and speak Korean fluently. By mastering Korean, I want to function in this society and deeply connect with the Korean people even if I don’t fully grasp jondaenmal [the formal expressions used when addressing one’s seniors] or the slang used by young Koreans. The Korean people are interesting and intelligent, and they have a lot to share with the world,” he said.  

As of now, his more immediate to mid-term priority is to gain fluency with banking and the local community parlances. “It is necessary for living in Korea.” 

Another student who will continue her studies in August is Lee Su-mi. She is from the U.S. state of Minnesota. The 43-year-old first arrived in Korea in 2019 in her late 30s and is aiming to study up to the advanced level at the NCRC. 

A Korean living and lifestyle class held at the NCRC’s downtown Seoul office during the first semester of 2023 (Photo by the NCRC) 

“What is good about this is that the classmates are adoptees also,” Lee said in a separate interview.” When adoptees come to Korea, to learn about Korea and learn the language, we have a lot of emotions. We want to learn, and we are excited to learn, but sometimes it’s frustrating and upsetting to us as well,” Lee said. “We might feel embarrassed because we cannot speak Korean well.” 

The NCRC program and its teachers understand the adoptees’ sentiments and reasons for learning Korean, for instance, to talk to adoption agencies to try and find their parents, to speak with reconnected relatives and to build relationships and navigate Korean society.  

Lee had taken Korean classes at private institutes, including one at Yonsei University’s Seoul campus before, but they were more tailored to visitors or those who may be in Korea for shorter periods of time. 

“Theoretically, once I make it through the entire program to the advanced level, I should be able to pass the Korean proficiency test, TOPIK level 4,” Lee said. As a dual citizen, Lee doesn’t need to obtain the TOPIK level 4 proficiency to work at a Korean company, but she is still determined to do so.  

She said Korean overseas adoptees who are in their 30s and 40s may be more prone to become acclimatized to the countries where they grew up, but Korea’s rising global status has meant more information and access to such Korean programs as the one she takes. 

Lee said she felt instantly at home the moment she entered Korean airspace on her first trip back to Korea in 2019. 

“I never quite felt at home until I got to Korea. I want to retire and marry here,” she said.