Korean proficiency test now taken by over 90,000 students

Some obsolete hangul you don't need to know for the test.

The question is, just how high does this number need to go before your average Korean begins to realize that Korean is as worth learning as a lot of other languages? Sometimes people here find it hard to believe that anyone would want to spend a few years of their life actually learning the language when there are so many other languages out there that are more popular and "useful". Nevertheless, the number of people taking the Korean proficiency test (TOPIK) continues to rise.

Some facts from the article:

The upcoming test will take place on the 18th over two days, in 97 regions in 25 countries, with 96,141 applicants.

The test began in 1997 with 2274 test-takers, reached 23,401 people in 2005, and 67,003 people in 2008.

In 2007 the test began to be administered twice a year instead of the previous once, and this year the test began to be taken in Pakistan, Czech Republic and Egypt as well.

What Korea really needs to further encourage this is a more open internet, where people are capable of signing up to sites without a resident number (주민등록번호) or a passport. A lot of media isn't as easy to access as it should be, with tv stations usually requiring this just to watch their shows, where it should be as easy to watch as Norway's NRK, as one example from many.