Korean Language Education Center (KLEC) classes
Are you having a hard time studying Korean? Our survey found that many foreign students are having trouble with learning Korean. Even though the classes are conducted in English, there must have been difficulties in your daily life or communication with friends due to insufficient Korean skills. However, there are many people who don’t know where and how to learn Korean even though they want to. Therefore, I would like to introduce the Korean Language Education Center(KLEC) program of Seoul National University Language Education Institute(LEI) to those people!
The Korean Language Education Center, which has a history of 52 years, aims to educate foreigners who want to learn Korean to speak fluent and accurate Korean and understand Korean culture. The center’s Korean language education program focuses on improving integrated language skills through various learning activities, and aims to improve Korean communication skills by applying optimal teaching methods suitable for individual students. It also provides students with opportunities to experience various Korean cultures.
Program Details
There are regular and special courses in the programs of KLEC. Regular classes are operated in spring, summer, fall, and winter semester, and are consist of Level 1 to 6 and ‘Advanced Academic Class’ according to student’s Korean level. Level 1 class is for students who have never learn Korean before, and ‘Advanced Academic Class’ is for students who wants to learn advanced Korean skills required in college and graduate classes. Since there are various levels, students can take level tests and take classes that suit their skills without worrying about their basic Korean skills. Hereby is the level description for each level at SNU LEI.
Level description
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 |
Students with no prior knowledge of Korean learn how to manage basic everyday situations in Korea.
- Students learn how to read Korean characters (hangul) accurately.
- Students learn basic structure of Korean language to understand and use short sentences.
- Students will learn Korean with a focus on language functions and tasks needed in everyday life such as greeting, introducing themselves, ordering food, buying things, making telephone calls, using public transportation, and inviting guests.
- Students will learn basic Korean culture needed in everyday life such as Korean food and titles.
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| 2 |
Students with 200 hours of Korean language instruction, or those with a corresponding level of Korean proficiency acquire the conversation skills necessary for everyday.
- Students practice phonetic rules of Hangul to read and say sentences more naturally.
- Students understand and use relatively longer sentences connected and expanded by short sentences.
- Students ask and answer about familiar topics such as family, hobbies, sports, seasons, trips and experience.
- Students will learn honorifics such as plain speech and polite speech so that they can use the correct forms according to the discourse situation.
- Students experience and learn interesting details about Korean culture such as the New Year’s food and the Korean traditional percussion quartet.
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| 3 |
Students with 400 hours of Korean language instruction, or those with a corresponding level of Korean proficiency acquire the communication skills necessary for everyday life.
- Students learn enough vocabulary of everyday life, Chinese characters and idiomatic expressions and conduct everyday conversations freely.
- Students learn and express various topics such as looking for a room, moving, getting a broken television fixed, planning for a holiday, traveling and acting.
- Students learn Korean culture through Korean cooking, field trips to Korean cultural centers and appreciation of Korean poetry.
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| 4 |
Students with 600 hours of Korean language instruction, or those with a corresponding level of Korean proficiency acquire the communication skills needed to carry out various social activities. Experiencing traditional Korean culture is an important component of this class.
- Students acquire language skills necessary for research and employment.
- Students read and discuss various articles on society, culture, history and novels.
- Students improve their skills in expressing their thoughts relatively long and logically.
- Students understand Korean culture through field trips or Korean myths, traditional tales and folk songs.
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| 5 |
Students with 800 hours of Korean language instruction, or those with a corresponding level of Korean proficiency acquire communication skills needed to flawlessly handle daily situations. At this level, students expand their knowledge of Korean history and culture.
- Students acquire concrete language skills necessary for research and employment.
- Students participate in discussions on social topics of interest such as politics, society, economy and culture.
- Students cultivate technical knowledge and discussion skills through formal essay writing and research paper presentation on various topics.
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| 6 |
Students with 1,000 hours of Korean language instruction, or those with a corresponding level of Korean proficiency learn to use Korean fluently in social activities. This course incorporates a comprehensive study of Korean history and culture.
- Students cultivate language skills necessary for participating in university lectures and performing duties on the job.
- Students improve their skills in expressing their ideas logically on formal occasions such as discussions and presentations.
- Students conduct listening, reading and discussion comprehension exercises using real-life data including broadcasts.
- Students learn Korean history through multimedia such as a broadcasted documentary.
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| Advanced Academic Class |
Students with 1,200 hours of Korean language instruction (level 6 in the regular program or above), or those with a corresponding level of Korean proficiency learn to acquire Korean language skills necessary for research and employment. This course incorporates a comprehensive study of Korean history and culture.
- Students cultivate language skills necessary for university and graduate school courses and employment.
- Students learn how to write formal reports and other writings necessary for university and graduate school courses.
- Students acquire skills necessary to find materials and data through the use of books, dissertations and the Internet.
- Students learn expressions in Korean language necessary to understand cultural backgrounds on the job.
- Students cultivate their skills in understanding writing as a whole critically through readings of various sources and making presentations and discussions accordingly.
Students understand newspapers and broadcasted materials dealing with some of the main issues in society and exercise in expressing their opinions on the corresponding topic with fluency and accuracy.
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In the case of the regular course, each semester consists of 10 weeks, the total of 200 hours of classes. The morning class runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the afternoon class runs from 1:30 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. Also, special courses are provided for students who cannot take regular courses due to various restrictions. There are evening classes held late at night, 5-week summer program where you can learn Korean and Korean culture during summer vacation, and online three-week intensive program that you can take when you want to intensively learn Korean.
In addition, students who takes the morning classes can take elective classes for free; pronunciation clinic, TOPIK preparation class, and Chinese character (Hanja) class. As you can see, KLEC provides various programs that meet the needs of foreign students. KLEC provides not only Korean language classes but also various cultural experiences to foreign students, where they can experience and understand Korean culture, including tea ceremony demonstrations, learning traditional folk songs, the Korean traditional percussion quartet (Samulnori), Korean paper art, Korean dishes, and a field trip to the DMZ.
Elective classes
| Class | Description |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation Clinic (발음반) |
Students correct and improve their Korean pronunciation through one-to-one instruction
- Students record and correct their pronunciation through use of laboratory facilities.
- Students’ pronunciation is analyzed accurately through use of contrastive analytical data per language group.
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| TOPIK Preparation Class (TOPIK 준비반) |
Students will practice problem patterns so that they can get good scores on the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK).
1) Intermediate Class
- Students in level-3 and 4 classes at the KLEC will learn the grammar needed for the intermediate-level TOPIK.
- Students will learn problem patterns in vocabulary and grammar, writing, listening comprehension, and reading.
- Students will learn words including antonyms, synonyms, and polysemous (multisense) words.
2) Advanced Class
- Students in level-5 and 6 classes at the KLEC will learn the grammar needed for the advanced-level TOPIK.
- Students will learn problem patterns in vocabulary and grammar, writing, listening comprehension, and reading.
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| Chinese Character Class(한자반) |
1) Beginner Class
Students learn to read and write the basic Chinese characters required for learning Korean.
- Students learn the sounds and meanings of basic Chinese characters related to nature, human and location.
- Students practice in writing of characters correctly.
- Students read basic texts written in Korean and Chinese characters.
2) Intermediate Class
Students receive extensive training in reading and writing the Chinese characters required for learning Korean.
- Students learn the basic components of Chinese characters.
- Students learn the structure of Chinese characters.
- Students learn to use Chinese-character dictionaries.
- Students read the characters applied to newspapers and texts written in both Korean and Chinese characters.
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Tuition fee
The tuition fee is 1.73 million won for regular morning classes and 1.58 million won for regular afternoon classes. Some might think it is expensive, but it will be a very good opportunity in that KLEC provides rich curriculum with experts in learning Korean, and you can also meet new friends. Also, according to our survey, the students who participated in the KLEC program answered that the program was very helpful and wanted to recommend it to other students.
Currently, the applicable program is the 2022 spring semester KLEC program. The deadline for document scores is December 27th, so interested students should apply. For more information, please refer to KLEC homepage.