Due to the increasing global presence of South Korea, the interest in Korean language
and culture has increased exponentially in Hungary as well. Culture is recognized
as an inseparable part of foreign language learning, and to nurture successful intercultural
communicators, appropriate cultural instruction is necessary in language classrooms.
Recognizing the central role of textbooks in language education, as they provide guidance
and framework, while they also act as “vessels” for cultural content, this research
focuses on the cultural content and the potential intercultural competence development
in Korean language textbooks. This study analyzes beginner Korean language textbooks
published in Hungary by Hungarian authors on the basis of their cultural content to
assess the extent of potential culture learning through textbooks. Qualitative content
analysis was carried out based on a set of evaluative questions focusing on weighing
the “cultural load”. The findings reveal that the two examined textbooks (“헝가리 학생을
위한 한국어 교재” and “흰학 1”), which are aimed for the Hungarian audience, are primarily
focused on the correct use of grammars by frequently making comparisons with Hungarian
grammatical structures. The textbooks are quite limited in their inclusion of cultural
content, especially when compared to other widely used publications by Korean authors.
The Hungarian textbooks offer little supplementary information necessary for the understanding
of cultural implications, thus leaving students to decipher these implications by
themselves or leaving the task to the teacher. The textbooks omit exercises where
students have to make meaningful comparisons between their own Hungarian culture and
Korean culture, which is an essential step in developing intercultural competence.
The results imply that these textbooks – although they contain grammatical explanations
in Hungarian, which is helpful for the Hungarian learners – might be less effective
from the perspective of cultural education. As of yet, the current situation of Korean
language education in Hungary remains academically quite unexplored, which prompts
further research and dialogue.
