Korean as a foreign language is the study of the

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

by anyone who is not a native speaker, regardless of

Korean ethnicity Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refer ...

International organizations

The International Association for Korean Language Education (IAKLE; ), founded in 1985, is the world's largest organization of Korean language teachers, with over 1,200 members. Its first president was Fred Lukoff of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

.KF Newsletter -The Korea Foundation
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Government support

King Sejong Institute () is the brand name of

Korean-language Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographically Ko ...

institutes established by the

South Korean government The Government of South Korea is the union government of the South Korea, Republic of Korea, created by the Constitution of South Korea as the executive, legislative and judicial authority of the republic. The president acts as the head of sta ...

around the world since 2007. The institute's name refers to

Sejong the Great Sejong of Joseon (15 May 1397 – 8 April 1450), personal name Yi Do (Korean: 이도; Hanja: 李祹), widely known as Sejong the Great (Korean: 세종대왕; Hanja: 世宗大王), was the fourth ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. Initial ...

, the inventor of the

Korean alphabet The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

. As of June 2021, there were 234 King Sejong Institutes in 82 countries.

Testing

The Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK; ) was introduced by the

in 1997 and conducted by a branch of the Ministry of Education of the country. The test is offered six times annually (Jan, Apr, May, Jul, Oct, Nov) within South Korea and less often to people studying Korean in other countries. The test is for individuals whose first language is not Korean and is taken by overseas ethnic Koreans, those wishing to study at a Korean university, and for those who want to be employed at Korean companies in and outside of Korea. Since 2011, TOPIK is administered by the National Institute for International Education (NIIED; 국립국제교육원), a branch of the Ministry of Education in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The Korean Language Ability Test, (KLAT; ) is offered by the Korean Language Society and is a major alternative to Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK).

By country

Korea

University-level education includes: * Yonsei University Korean Language Institute * Myongji University Korean Language Institute * Seoul National University Korean Language Education Center *

Sogang University Korean Language Education Center The Sogang University Korean Language Education Center (Hangul: 한국어교육원) provides instruction in Korean language to foreigners in Korea in Mapo-gu, Seoul. The Sogang program is one of the three Korean language programs approved by the ...

Busan University of Foreign Studies Busan University of Foreign Studies (), often shortened to 부산외대 and BUFS, romanized as Pusan University of Foreign Studies before 2011, is a private university in Busan, South Korea, which specializes in foreign languages. History Busan ...

*Language Education Institute of

Pusan National University Pusan National University (PNU), also called Busan National University, is one of ten Flagship Korean National Universities in South Korea and second highest public universities in South Korea. Located mainly in Busan (or Pusan), the universi ...

United States

According to a 2019 report by the Modern Language Society, Korean is the 11th most studied language in U.S. colleges.

Russia

Korean is the third most popular foreign language in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Russia has the fourth largest number of university-level Korean language and Korean studies classes and programs.

India

Korean is one of the most popular learning languages in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. For Indians aged 17 to 25, Korean ranked fifth on

Duolingo Duolingo ( ) is an American educational technology company which produces learning apps and provides language certification. On its main app, users can practice vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and listening skills using spaced repetition. D ...

's Most Popular Languages chart.

Vietnam

South Korea is the largest foreign investor, ranking second in development aid and third in trade with Vietnam.

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

is the country with the second most popular Korean language after

. In a total of two years in 2021 and 2022, 28,450 Vietnamese took the

TOPIK The Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) is a Korean language test for non-native speakers of Korean. The test is offered six times annually (Jan, Apr, May, Jul, Oct, Nov) within Korea and less often to people studying Korean in other countrie ...

Korean is the first foreign language selected by the Vietnamese education authorities and can be learned from the third grade of elementary school.

References

External links

International Association for Korean Language EducationSogang KLEC homepage