Sun-gun Lee, of the Korean Language Service Center in New York, said, "It's not enough anymore for our young to be proficient in English and to have graduated from fine U.S. universities. For many professional jobs, fluency in the Korean language has become a key qualification for employment." According to the Census, Koreans rank eighth among families that speak a language other than English at home, with 894,063 speaking Korean at home—the majority of Koreans in this country.

H.R. Capp, a headhunter, said that American law firms and mortgage companies are now hiring Korean employees with advanced language skills (both in English and in Korean). Most of these companies are either very keen on Korean customers here in the United States, or have branch offices in Korea.

American firms like Dorsey and Whitney, a law firm that recently set up branches in Korea, are looking to employ bilingual professionals in Korea.