Mon Jan 26 thru Fri Jan 30, 04-06:00pm, 2-139

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)

Learn basic Korean language and impress your friends the next time you are at a Korean restaurant! No prior knowledge of Korean required. The course will introduce Hangul, the Korean Alphabet, and phonetics, practice reading and forming basic words, and end with simple situational conversations such as formal/informal greetings, ordering at a restaurant, and cultural etiquette. Participants can practice their learning at the upcoming Korean lunch table in the spring.

• Hangul, the Korean alphabet

• Reading and forming basic words

• Elementary level vocabulary

• Daily practice of situational conversations

• Korean culture and etiquettes in daily life

• Daily practice and drill with native Korean speaker (hopefully 1-on-1) to improve listening skills and proper pronunciation. (Drills will immediately follow the daily lectures)

• Help session at the end of each class

Instructors: Jason Kim and Taehong Park

• Grammar structure

• Reading comprehension

• Writing exercies

• Intermediate level vocabulary

• listening and discussions

• Daily practice of situational conversations

• Korean culture and etiquettes in daily life

• Help session at the end of each class

Instructor: Eunmi Choi

Korean Language Class for Beginners

On the last day of classes for the Korean Language Class for Beginners, students and instructors went out to dinner at a Korean restaurant. Students  were able to use what they learned in class to order drinks and entrees to the Korean waitress, ask each other about what they liked on the menu in Korean, and most of all, enjoy the delicious Korean cuisine.  

Korean Language Class for Beginners

The Korean Language Class for Beginners consisted of daily dialogue practice and drills with native Korean speakers to improve listening skills and proper pronunciation. The drills were an integral part of the learning experience and the Teaching Assistants provided invaluable help as drill instructors.

Teaching Assistants: Byungsub Kim, Seongmoo Heo, Sanghyuk Park, Joonsung Lee,

Daihyun Lim, Soonmin Bae, Sungyoon Cho.

Korean Language Class for Beginners & Intermediates

The instructors would like to thank the MIT-Korea Program for providing a unique opportunity to teach Korean Language Classes at MIT. The organizers would also like to thank the Center for International Studies, especially Laurie Scheffler, for sponsoring the IAP event, and Professor Nampyo Suh and MISTI, especially Pat Gercik, for their support and encouragement. Lastly, the instructors would like to express our deep gratitude to Professor Sangsuk Oh, the acting director of the Korean Language Program at Harvard University, for proving us with teaching advice and guidance on instructional materials.

Jason Kim

The best part of the class was, of course, the students.  They have far exceeded my expectations in every way in learning the material, so well and so fast. The course was certainly challenging, but the students showed deep interest and dedication, and hopefully the work was rewarding at the end. Organizing and teaching the Korean class have been a very gratifying experience for me and one of the best learning experience as well. I was overwhelmed by the great turnout for the class and was very touched by the interaction with such wonderful students and a great teaching staff.

Tae Hong Park

I was surprised at fist to see so many people wanting to take the class, and surprised again to see how fast students were learning to speak in Korean. It was truly a gratifying and fun experience for me, and I hope everyone enjoyed as well.

Eunmi Choi

First of all, it was really fun, I enjoyed it a lot. Through the sessions, I actually learned also from questions that students brought up. I tried to focus more on reading, because I found out that students' primary interest was vocabularies. I really appreciate students who attended whole sessions with great passion to learn and endured 2 hour long class..(sometimes we ended over 6.. :)) Finally, I want to mention for those who need the interview practice in Korean, or want to be corrected their writing, or want to have some korean food together, to contact me..!!

Korean Language Class for Beginners

"My first motivation [for taking class] was to help a friend who wanted to participate in the course, then I realized that Korean language is very interesting and may be, for me useful. I'm from Chile"

"Always wanted to learn about Korean. May Want to do business there."

"This class struck a pace that most professors only dream of achieving: every day taking students to their maximum potential, remaining challenging, but not frustrating. I feel like I learned so much so quickly."

"Jason and Taehong work together very well and are very friendly."

"The material is good. The repetition is good, but it will be better to have more teaching assistants, because even in a group of three students, sometime the ability level is quite different that I felt we went too slow, but I can imagine it may be too fast for some people still."

"If you can [offer the class for] a longer period like 2 weeks or a month, it will be even better." 

"The class met my expectations. I learned more in a week than I did in high school studying Spanish."

"Well prepared. Jason could do with a stick to reach the board."

"Thanks a lot for this nice opportunity to learn some Korean. If you ever want to learn Dutch, please ask."

"Presenting the material using Korean characters, rather than English-character phonetic approximations, made it more difficult, but has left me a better understanding."

Korean Language Class for Intermediates

"[The class] met my expectations, [and] also challenged me more than I expected."

"The lectures were helpful, however, because of the mixture of the class, it might have been more difficult for some."

"Teacher was very patient and good at answering our questions."

"Next year, I think beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes would be better than just beginner & intermediate-advanced, if possible."

Korean Language Class for Beginners