Home > Entertainment > Music & Performance

Composer Kim Hyung-suk to collaborate with Oxford on children's song collection

Published: 08 Dec. 2025, 13:45 Updated: 08 Dec. 2025, 18:40

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Composer and producer Kim Hyung-suk, left [KIM HYUNG-SUK]

Composer and producer Kim Hyung-suk will publish a collection of children’s songs for Korean language education in collaboration with Oxford University, Kim announced Monday.

Kim will collaborate with the research team of Jieun Kiaer, an associate professor in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University, publishing a collection of 50 traditional Korean children’s songs written in both Korean and English.

The composer will be responsible for song selection, and Kiaer’s research team will be responsible for translation.

“We will study the effectiveness and sustainability of Korean language education through song,” a researcher from Kiaer’s team said.

In July last year, Kim provided the copyrights to approximately 1,400 of his own works to the team at Oxford University for Korean language education purposes, free of charge, according to Kim.

While preparing to publish the collection of children’s songs with Kiaer’s team, Kim plans to teach them directly to British youth at the opening ceremony of the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in the first half of next year.

“There are so many beautiful songs, not only in K-pop but also in children's songs,” the composer said. “I hope to contribute to the globalization of the Korean language.”

Meanwhile, Kiaer’s research team at Oxford University, with support from the Korean Education Centre in Britain, has been steadily teaching Korean using children's songs since May of this year.

The "K-Song Academy" program has attracted British students and parents from around Oxford and London.

“Korean will become the new center of the Korean Wave,” Kim said. "I will continue to consider the role of popular artists in a sustainable movement.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]