To show off how much they know about Viet Nam’s culture, Korean students are heading to Viet Nam to stage their traditional play, Truyen Xuan Huong (The Xuan Huong Story), in Vietnamese on December 23.
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The performance marks 15 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 40th anniversary
of the founding of the Vietnamese Studies Department at the Foreign Language University in Seoul, South Korea.
Today, Vietnamese studies is very popular at the university, one of the department’s founders, Professor Cho Jae-hyun, said.
"The department was established in 1967 but after 1975 few students learned the language because they had little opportunity to use it after graduation. That changed once diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and South Korea were established in 1992. Then more and more Korean students wanted to study Vietnamese," he said.
"Now we have 120 students altogether, 30 in each year."
The employment rate for students graduating from the course is one of the highest in the university, Cho said, with some students even recruited in their third year.
As well as learning the language, Korean students also catch up on Viet Nam’s history, literature and culture via lectures by Vietnamese and Korean professors. The students also get to watch Vietnamese programmes on satellite television and take part in student exchanges with Vietnamese students.
