Course coordinator: Dr Catherine Xiang, 601b, Pethick-Lawrence House

No previous knowledge required. All students welcome but they should: Demonstrate commitment to regular attendance, completion of homework, and all pieces of continuous assessment. Dedicate at least two hours per week for coursework in addition to classes. For anyone who wants to learn Korean.

Course Aim: To develop the ability to use Korean effectively for purposes of practical communication at survival level. To master the pronunciation of Korean. To have basic knowledge of Korean language: Hangul characters, some grammatical particles including the present, past and future tenses. To be able to communicate in a range of daily life situations and travelling to Korea. To establish the language skills and attitudes required to promote and facilitate further study of Korean. To increase cultural awareness of Korea. To prepare students for the equivalent of A1 CEFR.

Communicative Content: The course is focused on the following communicative functions: Greetings. Introducing yourself and others. Asking for and giving personal information. Introducing your family. Talking about date, daily routine, future plans. Talking about birthday and holiday. Asking and giving time. Arranging a date. Making suggestions. Understanding Korean currency. Shopping and bargaining. Ordering food and drinks. Eating out and reading a menu. Using public transports in Korea. Asking and giving directions. Checking into a hotel. Making simple requests. Describing past events. Talking about likes and dislikes. Making a phone call. Describing and solving problems.

Structural Content: This course will introduce the basics of Korean in the following grammatical areas: From mastering how to read and write Hangul characters. Use of some grammatical markers(subject, object, topic and location), use of honorifics, and three basic tenses including the present, past and future.

16 hours of classes in the AT. 22 hours of classes in the WT. 2 hours of classes in the ST.

This is a 40 hour-course. Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

Integrated Korean: Beginning 1 (KLEAR Textbooks in Korean Language) by Korean Language Education and Research Center (KLEAR), Young-Mee Yu Cho, Hyo Sang Lee and Carol Schulz (15 Dec 2009). Read and Speak Korean for Beginners with Audio CD, 2nd Edition (Read & Speak for Beginners) by Sunjeong Shin (1 Jul 2011). Korean: Beginner's Course (World Language) by Living Language (28 Dec 2007). Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook (Grammar Workbooks) by Andrew Sangpil Byon (31 Jul 2008).

Continuous assessment (70%) in the AT, WT and ST.
Oral examination (30%) in the WT and ST.