In South Korea, robots are being used to teach English to meet the growing need of English speaking teachers.
Director of the Centre for Intelligent Robotics at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Dr Munsang Kim said there aren't enough English-speaking Koreans in South Korea.
"There is a lot of demand for high quality English lessons, English teaching lessons. I do not think that this kind of lack in the number of English teachers can not be resolved very soon in the near future. So I thought robots are a very good alternative for this problem."
Dr Munsang Kim from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology said robots are better than humans at the job in some respects.
"They are very good at repeated practice. They are very good at imparting education information", he said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"They can do much of it autonomously. In this area, I think they are better than humans. So as you can imagine, robots give us another interest and type of interaction than humans. Good pronunciation, role playing...they are not exhausted even though they work hard eight hours a day."
The egg shaped robots, which stand a metre high, are being used on a three month trial that's hoped will benefit South Korean students who live in rural areas where foreigners prefer not to travel.
"It will be very beneficial to those Korean students who live in rural areas because foreign people are afraid to go there. So they can also learn through the robot teachers," Ms Munsang said.
