Empowerment
Uri Peace Korean Language School
The We Peace Korean Language School was an online Korean language education project for refugees that MAP began in March 2022. For refugees who found it hard to learn Korean or to take part in the Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP), it offered a jamo (letters) class and Levels 1 to 3 each semester until February 2025.
Background
Learning the language of the host country is the starting point for refugees to work, build relationships with neighbors and understand their own rights. This is why many countries place language education for refugees and migrants at the core of social integration policy.
In Korea, many refugees have been left out of this opportunity. Government education for immigrants was run mainly for people with alien registration, and for women caring for children, people with disabilities who find it hard to travel, and workers who must work long hours, going to a classroom was itself difficult.
With the belief that “learning Korean is the starting point of local integration,” MAP opened an online school that people can attend from home. Drawing on three years of running the school, MAP continues to call for access to Korean language education for refugees.
What we do
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Online Korean classes and curriculum
MAP offered free online Korean classes, from the consonant and vowel level through level 4, to students with a refugee background.
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Volunteer teachers and support from KOICA Young Professionals
Refugees and Korean language teachers ran the classes as volunteers, and KOICA ODA Young Professionals supported the operation of the school.
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End of operation and provision of Korean language education information
Korean language education information is provided through MAP's Refugee News.
History
- 2022
In March, MAP began the We Peace Korean Language School as an online Korean language education project. It held two 15-week semesters, with 12 volunteer Korean teachers in the first semester and 13 in the second, and most students were refugees whose mother tongue was Arabic.
- 2023
MAP held two semesters of a jamo class and Levels 1 to 3, and the number of participating students grew from 61 in the first semester to 115 in the second. The students who completed the courses came from 16 countries and spoke 9 mother tongues. In the first semester, it held a writing contest and gave tablet PCs donated to the organization to the winners and to students with perfect attendance. In the second half of the year, KOICA ODA Young Professionals began supporting the running of the school. 33 students in the first semester and 58 in the second met the completion criteria, taught by 10 and 11 volunteer teachers respectively.
- 2024
MAP opened five classes: a jamo class and Levels 1 to 3 in the first semester, with Level 4 added in the second. Over the year, 106 students completed the courses and 25 volunteer teachers taught, and KOICA Young Professionals supported the operation. On December 20, it held the Peace Academy lecture ‘Korean Language Education for Refugees and Social Integration’ online. Second-semester graduates came from 22 nationalities and spoke 15 first languages, and the school opened its Instagram account that year.
- 2025
On February 20, the school finished its last semester after three years of operation since 2022. Korean language education information and content are now shared through Refugee News and the school’s Instagram, and MAP draws on the school’s experience to raise public awareness of refugees’ need for access to Korean language education.
Who it is for
- Refugees who find it hard to learn Korean or to take part in the Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP)
- Students with a refugee background, without any separate requirement
How to apply
The school ran from March 2022 to February 2025. Korean language education information is shared through MAP Refugee News and the school’s Instagram.
- Instagraminstagram.com/we_peace_kls
In numbers
- 3 years
- Period of school operation, from 2022 to 2025
- 15 weeks
- Learning period in the second semester of 2024 (September 2 to December 15, 2024)
- 4 classes
- Courses offered in the first semester of 2024 (jamo class, Levels 1, 2 and 3)
- 5 classes
- Courses offered in the second semester of 2024 (jamo class, Levels 1 to 4)
Photos
Documents
Recent activities
[RISE] Notice from the ‘Uri Peace Korean Language School’
[Announcement] The Uri Peace Korean Language School Has Opened an Instagram Account!
[RISE] Recruiting Students for the Uri Peace Korean Language School 2024 Second Semester
[RISE] Recruiting Students for the Korean Language School, 2024 First Semester!
Korean Language School for Refugees Opens for the 2023 Second Semester
Video Sketch of the 2023 Uri Peace Korean Language School Graduation Ceremony
[Uri Peace Korean Language School 2023 Spring Semester Opens]
K-Language festa 2022: Korean Language School for Refugees, “Uri Peace Korean Language School”
