More than 8,000 non-native speakers of Korean will sit for the state-administered Korean proficiency test on Sunday in 12 cities across the country, the National Institute for International Education said Friday.

The 21st Test of Proficiency in Korean will be given in 13 universities in Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Daejeon, Daegu, Jeju, Cheongju, Suwon, Incheon, Chuncheon, Jeonju and Masan.

The results of the test will be published on http://topik.go.kr on Feb. 9.

Designed for foreigners and ethnic Koreans who are learning the language to get employed in Korean companies or study at Korean universities, the TOPIK is held on a quarterly basis since last year. It was held twice a year until 2009.

Starting with only 2,692 applicants in four countries when the certification test was first administered in 1997, some 710,000 people in 39 countries have applied for it so far.

From this year, the NIIE will be administering the TOPIK, which was previously run by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, to link the test with its policies for education of overseas Koreans and plans to attract foreign students to study in Korea.

The TOPIK consists of four sections ― vocabulary and grammar, writing, listening and reading comprehension.

Depending on the average score and minimum marks in each section, test takers can obtain either grade 1 or 2 for beginner, grade 3 or 4 for intermediate and 5 or 6 for advanced levels.

The test comes in two types ― the Standard TOPIK which evaluates basic knowledge of the Korean language and culture, and the Business TOPIK which focuses more on the communication skills required for business transactions.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)