Korean Language Program

Welcome to the Korean Language Program at University of Michigan. Since   KLP offered its first language courses in 1990, the program has witnessed its consistent growth and development through commitment of Korean Language faculty and support from Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and Korean Studies Program. KLP is proud to offer a complete curriculum in Korean language covering four full years of Korean. We also offer ten-week-long intensive Korean courses through the Summer Language Institute (SLI) in the spring-summer semester and study-abroad programs through the Office of International Programs (OIP). In addition, students who take Korean have ample opportunities to improve their Korean through the Korean Tutoring Progam and the Korean and English Language Partner Program.

Why Study Korean?

There are around seventy-eight million speakers of Korean , including large groups in China, Japan, the former Soviet Union, the United States, and Canada. Korean is ranked as the thirteenth most widely used language in the world, and eighth (second among Asian languages) in the entire US.  The visibility of Korean Americans and Korean culture has increased in recent years in the US.  South Korea is an important export market for the US, while the Korean peninsula is important to the US in geo-political terms because of the continuing threat of armed conflict between North and South Korea.  Korean has a long and distinguished literary history and is the medium of the internationally popular Korean film industry. In addition, Korean is relatively easy to learn due its scientific and phonetically-based script.