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An elephant in Korea has become a student. Koshik, a 22-year-old elephant, is already in speaking "elephantese," but he is now to learn the Korean language Hangul. A report Koshik was printed in the online "Current Biology". The author of the report is Dr Angela Stoeger-Horwath, who works at the University of Vienna in Austria. Researchers said Koshik has been listening to human for many years and has slowly learned to it. He can now say the Korean for hello, sit down, no, lie down, good, not , and yes. Dr Stoeger-Horwath asked 16 Koreans to listen to 47 of Koshik. They could all understand what he was saying.

The researchers a few reasons why they think Koshik can talk. One possibility is that he has a very relationship with his trainer, Kim Jong-gab. Mr Kim sleeps near Koshik to keep him . The trainer talks to him every day, so Koshik what he heard. Another is that the elephant is lonely and wants to communicate with people and have friends. The research team said the way Koshik sounds is very - he uses his to reproduce human speech. They said he is much better at making sounds than consonant sounds. Trainer Kim Jong-gab said he has one more that he wants to teach Koshik - "Saranghae," or "I love you."