Edutem's SpeakingRise AI Korean Platform Adopted by UW

South Korean AI education company Edutem, led by CEO Shin Jung-hoon, has supplied its in-house Korean-learning platform SpeakingRise to the University of Washington. The tool will serve as a supplementary learning program in a regular Korean elective course.

SpeakingRise diagnoses a learner's spoken and reading Korean in real time and offers personalized feedback. According to the company, it evaluates pronunciation at the level of Korean's initial, medial and final sounds, and automatically corrects grammar errors. The aim is to pinpoint the weak spots of non-native speakers and encourage structured, repeated practice.

Adoption followed a pilot

The deal came after a long period of field testing. Since last year, Edutem has run a proof-of-concept pilot with University of Washington faculty, tailored to the local curriculum. In a usability survey of actual students, between 80% and 87% of respondents, depending on the question, said the AI analysis was genuinely helpful for their learning. Faculty used this data to apply for formal adoption, and after final administrative approval the platform was added to the course curriculum.

"The core of language-education AI is not simple text generation but accurately diagnosing a learner's ability so it leads to real improvement," Shin said, adding that the company intends to expand partnerships in global higher education.

What comes next

Edutem plans to present SpeakingRise's learning outcomes together with University of Washington faculty at major conferences, including those of the American Association of Teachers of Korean (AATK) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), to speed up its push into North America.

The company has also been selected for a government-backed commercialization R&D program run by South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups, supported by the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs and Seoul Technopark. Under it, Edutem is working on upgrading its next-generation education AI.