Latest Korean Language News
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I Americas

United States

• Dartmouth College to Offer Official Korean Language Courses Starting in Fall 2025
Beginning in the fall semester of 2025, Dartmouth College, the only Ivy League university without Korean language courses, will offer its first official Korean classes. On September 17, the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages (ASCL) at Dartmouth launched Korean 1 (KOR 1), an introductory course open to all students, regardless of prior Korean learning experience. Dartmouth plans to add intermediate and advanced Korean courses as early as next year and is also preparing to introduce a Korean language immersion program in Seoul within the next two to three years.
 
 

• University of Arkansas Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures Introduces First Korean Language and Culture Course
The University of Arkansas’s Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures has opened its first-ever Korean course, titled Korean ABC & Culture for Beginners, for the fall 2025 semester. This one-credit introductory course runs for eight weeks, from October 8 to December 4, and is designed for beginner learners who want to study the basics of Korean language and culture. Students learn Hangeul, essential Korean expressions, and practical conversation skills for daily life, while also participating in cultural activities such as Korean crafts and traditional food-making.
 
 

I Asia

United Arab Emirates

Wisdom Speaks Korean Program Launched at House of Wisdom in Sharjah
The House of Wisdom, the United Arab Emirates’ national library located in Sharjah, has launched Wisdom Speaks Korean, a Korean language education program open to UAE residents and multicultural families. Running from September 27 to December 6, the program combines structured Korean language instruction with hands-on cultural workshops. Participants learn the Korean alphabet and basic conversational expressions, while also experiencing Korean culture through activities such as wearing hanbok, cooking Korean cuisine, and learning taekwondo. The Wisdom Speaks educational series at the House of Wisdom has previously offered programs in French, Spanish, and Japanese.
 
 

I Europe

Sweden

Nobel Museum Launches Korean Audio Guide Service Starting September 2025
The Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, officially launched its Korean-language audio guide service on September 17. Since opening in 2001, the museum has showcased the achievements of Nobel Prize laureates and displayed donated artifacts dating back to the first awards in 1901. Among the exhibits are items donated by the late former President Kim Dae-jung, recipient of the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize, and author Han Kang, recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. With this addition, the museum now offers audio guide services in a total of eleven languages.* Both standard and children’s versions of the Korean audio guide are available, and notably, the children’s guide is the only one offered in a foreign language besides Swedish and English. The guides include a special welcome message recorded by 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Han Kang.

* Korean, Swedish, English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Ukrainian, and Japanese

United Kingdom

UK Parliament Adds Korean to Visitor Multimedia Guide
Korean has been newly added to the visitor multimedia guide at the UK Parliament, the center of British politics and one of London’s most popular tourist destinations. Beginning October 1, visitors booking tours through the UK Parliament’s Westminster Palace reservation website can now select Korean, Japanese, or Polish as audio tour languages. The multimedia guide provides visual and auditory explanations of the historical significance of spaces such as Westminster Hall, the House of Commons and House of Lords chambers, and the Central Lobby. The guide was previously available only in nine languages, including English, German, French, Italian, and Chinese.
 
 

Portugal

Museum of the Orient Hosts Celebrating Korea Program with Hangeul Day Korean Language Lecture
From October 3 to 10, the Museum of the Orient* in Lisbon, Portugal, hosted Celebrar a Coreia (Celebrating Korea) to commemorate Korea’s National Foundation Day and Hangeul Day. The event featured a special exhibition of rarely displayed Korean artifacts and a variety of Korean cultural experiences, including minhwa (folk painting), taekwondo, Chuseok cuisine, K-pop dance, and K-beauty workshops. On October 9, Hangeul Day, Kang Byung-gu, a Korean instructor at KSI Lisbon with over 30 years of experience teaching Korean in Portugal, delivered a special introductory lecture for local participants on the principles of Hangeul’s creation and the linguistic features of the Korean language.

* The Museum of the Orient is the only museum in Portugal dedicated to Asian art and artifacts. It features exhibits from Korea, China, Japan, East Timor, India, and other Asian countries.

I Sources

(United States) https://fas.dartmouth.edu/
(United States) https://news.uark.edu/
(United Arab Emirates) https://houseofwisdom.ae/
(Sweden) https://audio.nobelprizemuseum.se
(United Kingdom) Yonhap News
(Portugal) https://www.foriente.pt/