NAROWAL: (naneun hangug-e gago sipda.)

Many readers may not understand this phrase, however, there are a lot of people in Narowal who speak this South Korean phrase to each other, which means: I want to go to South Korea.

Since a recent Korean immigration lottery chose hundreds of people from Narowal, predominantly youth, many Korean language tutoring centres have sprung up in the city.

South Korea sought applications from Pakistanis for employment using an online visa lottery system. An applicant had to fill out a form and pay Rs500 to enter the lottery system. Many makeshift centres sprung up, giving individuals help filling out online applications. As for service costs, candidates were charged between Rs200 and Rs500 for each form. The form asked for basic information about the candidate. Once the application deadline for the lottery passed, applicants who won the visa were asked to submit their national computerised identity cards, passports, and a $28 cost by bank draft to qualify for a Korean language exam. Dawn learned that hundreds of individuals from district Narowal were chosen through the lottery. After the results of the lottery, the selected individuals applied for passports, causing a massive rush at the regional passport office for new passports.

Knowing the basic Korean language is a must for a candidate to qualify for the visa interview.

Local Korean language academies are charging a monthly fee of Rs5,000 to 30,000 for language courses.

One such Korean language student is 25-year-old Muhammad Arslan from Norkot town. He participated in the Korean visa lottery due to rising inflation and unemployment. Farid Ahmed and Muhammad Maqbool, residents of Jasar village near Narova, said that they are learning Korean language to enter South Korea. They said that dozens of unregistered academies are operating to teach the Korean language. These academies do not have qualified teaching staff and every academy has its own rules and fees.

Mohammad Mohsin is happy to have won the visa lottery. He has tried a couple of coaching centres. He suggested that the government technical institutes also provide language courses to people going abroad. He said these academies are neither approved by the government nor they issued any approved certificate on the completion of the course.

Mohammad Aslam is another Korean language learner; he is trying hard to grasp the basic rules of Korean Korea. “I don’t want to lose the chance,” he said.

He said that he applied online for the Korean visa lottery by taking a loan of Rs1,000. After being selected in the Korean visa lottery, he sold his only buffalo and got issued a passport.

“I have submitted Rs10,000 for the language test fee and Rs30,000 to a Korean language academy to learn the language,” says Shazia Bibi, 30. The mother of five children also participated in the Korean visa lottery. Shazia Bibi said that she has completed her graduation and her husband is a labourer whose income does not cover the expenses of the house.

“I want to go to Korea for employment because of high inflation and for a better future of my children,” she said.

Through the Korean visa lottery system, skilled and unskilled people and professionals like doctors, professors, engineers and other people are struggling to go to Korea for better employment.

Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhry, education chief executive officer, said that his department did not have the authority to check the language academies.

Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ashraf said that strict action will be taken against illegal academies

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2023