Korean 2 (Level 4)

Course Overview

Our Korean 2 short course builds on Korean 1 and will work towards helping you pass the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK)* Level 1, and continue your study of Korean into post-beginner/elementary level.

The course provides you with more complex grammatical structures, more advanced skills of expression and vocabulary, and opportunities for conversation practice to be able to express yourself in a variety of social situations, including for travel in South Korea. You will develop the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) necessary for comprehending and communicating in a range of social and personal situations such as talking about hobbies, travel, habits, places, preferences and others. You will also learn more about the culture and society of South Korea.

Classes are interactive and taught by native speakers.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• make yourself understood with a reasonable level of accuracy in a variety of everyday topics and some work situations, such as talking about:
  • hobbies
  • travel
  • habits
  • places
  • preferences etc.
• begin to understand the difference between, and manipulate, casual and polite forms
• understand communication exchanges concerning various familiar subjects spoken in face-to-face situations and via electronic media with reasonable accuracy
• begin to understand essential points of announcements or information in a public setting, such as travelling
• understand various less complex texts which you may encounter in everyday life and some business situations with reasonable accuracy
• begin to understand the main meaning of relatively simple but semi-authentic materials written in Korean
• formulate messages and texts in various everyday situations with relative ease and create basic documents in some work situations with reasonable accuracy.

Assessment is via three sets of coursework (15%, 20% and 20%), a three-hour examination including an oral interview (40%) and class participation (5%).

As a student on this course, you will study alongside Birkbeck students enrolled on one of our undergraduate or postgraduate courses, giving you the opportunity to network with a range of Birkbeck current students whilst you learn.

*The Test of Proficiency in Korean is a six-level Korean language test for non-native speakers of Korean, administered by the National Institute of International Education which is a branch of South Korea’s Ministry of Education. It is a widely recognised and default proficiency test for the Korean language. The levels are roughly tiered in the same way as the CEFR framework (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2).

This can be taken as a standalone short course or as part of:

• Culture and Language (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese) (Certificate of Higher Education)

Credits: 30 credits at level 4