BARCELONA, Spain -- Spain for the first time held the Test of Proficiency in Korean this month along with 23 other countries, becoming the 39th ninth in Europe to conduct the examination.

The TOPIK, administered by the Korean government, is a certification test on the use of the Korean language for people who do not speak Korean as their mother tongue.

A total of 39 examinees, most of whom were students of the Korean Language Department at the Official School of Languages of Barcelona, attended the test on Sept. 11 in the city to have their Korean language ability evaluated.

The department presently has about 85 students, most of them local Spanish youngsters who took an interest in the language through Korean pop culture, according to professor Hwang Seung-ok in charge of the department.

“Though the Korean language remains a minority foreign language, especially compared to Chinese and Japanese, it is significant that the students have been given a chance to have their level evaluated officially by the Korean government,” she said.

“This test is to be a major step in promoting Korea, its culture and its language here in Spain.”

A majority of the students studied Korean for less than two years and took the beginner’s level test.

“I started to learn Korean in 2008 after I was attracted to the pop group Dongbangsingi,” said 26-year-old Sara Martinez.

“Though I found the test quite difficult, I am excited that I took my first official test in Korean.”

Like most of the other students in her class, Martinez is learning the language out of pure personal interest and has no specific plan to pursue a related career, she said.

Some, on the other hand, have academic or career reasons for taking the test.

Oriol Pallares, 27, has been on an exchange program at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, majoring in foreign relations, and has long-term plans to go back with a teaching post.

Foreign students or job seekers may submit their TOPIK results in order to gain an advantage in joining Korean schools or public firms.

Ethnic Koreans, who do not speak the language as their mother tongue, may also apply to take the test.

“I wanted to see how fluently I could speak and write in my parents’ mother tongue,” said 21-year-old Anna Ban, who immigrated to Spain with her parents aged 5.

The test, however, has not sufficiently been promoted in the local Korean community, let alone the Spanish one, she also pointed out.

“I would not even have heard about the exam if not for my Spanish friend who learns Korean in the Barcelona language school,” she said.

“I hope that in the future, the test will be promoted through various channels other than the school.”

The total number of applicants who took the test this month was 81,076, a 14.6 percent increase from that of the 18th test which was implemented this April, according to officials at the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.

The test was first implemented back in 1997 when only 2,692 people from four countries applied. The accumulative number has, however, reached 710,000 people from 39 countries and is generally on a steep rise, said officials.

In response to the growing demands, the Korean Education Ministry decided to hold the test from this year on a quarterly basis instead of the formerly bi-annual basis.

The administering body is also to be changed from next year to the National Institute for International Education, in order to promote the test as a means to educate overseas Koreans and to attract foreign students, said officials.

The test is divided into the Standard TOPIK, evaluating basic knowledge of Korean language and culture, and the Business TOPIK, focusing more on the communication skills required in business transactions.

Applicants are to be tested in four categories vocabulary and grammar, writing, listening and reading.

The September results will be published on the website (http://topik.or.kr) on Nov. 3.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)

(Korea Herald correspondent)