Korean is a language that's spoken by over 80 million people around the world. Naturally, Korean is mostly spoken on the Korean peninsula in North and South Korea, but there are also large Korean populations in places like the United States, China, Japan, and Canada.
If you're thinking about learning Korean in Brisbane, here are our favourite reasons to do so and some of the places and ways you can!
Why You Should Learn Korean in Brisbane
If you don't want to learn a language, you never will. To learn a foreign language, you need to be motivated and have a good reason. Fortunately, here are a few that should convince you that learning Korean will be worth it.
For Your Career
The most pragmatic reason to learn Korean is for your work life. South Korea's economy is doing well and is forecast to do even better in the future. This means that a lot of people and businesses are and will be looking for employees with Korean language skills.
Beyond that, if you're going to live and work in South Korea, you're also going to need to speak the language. While there are jobs there that don't require candidates to speak Korean, many others do and if you want to be considered for all of them, you should speak the language.
That said, you can also increase your employment opportunities at home as well as abroad. For one, employers recognise foreign language speakers as having transferable skills that come with learning a language. They'll see you as driven, a good communicator, empathetic, and a useful asset to have at work, provided you have the other skills required for the job, of course!
For Yourself
Learning Korean is both a challenging and rewarding endeavour. If you manage to master the language, you'll not only improve your work life, but you'll also improve your personal life.
Once you speak Korean, you can meet more people. Whether you're networking with others for work or looking to make new friends or finding "the one", you can broaden your search with Korean language skills.
For Your Health
Did you know that learning a language is good for your health? In addition to delaying Alzheimer's and dementia, learning a foreign language has also been shown to help fight anxiety and depression.
Of course, you can't just learn Korean and expect everything to be fine, you still have to lead a healthy lifestyle that includes a good diet and exercise, but learning a foreign language can help!
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Because It's (Relatively) Easy
One of the special things about Korean is that it's one of the easier languages to learn. Before we explain why, though, you have to remember that learning a foreign language is never easy and that it can take hundreds or thousands of hours of practice and study before you can even start really using it.
However, Korean has a few qualities that make it easier than certain languages. For one, the writing system (Hangul) is completely phonetic, which means that you'll know how to pronounce any word as soon as you read it. Unlike English, which includes silent letters (knife, lamb, muscle, etc.) and letters that change their pronunciation depending on where they are in a word, everything in Korean is as it appears.
The writing system is also fun because it's based on little diagrams of how your mouth and tongue should be to pronounce the sound it represents.
In addition to the writing system, Korean also doesn't feature verb conjugations for different subjects. Unlike in Romance languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, where you need to conjugate every verb according to the subject (I, you, he/she/it, etc.), Korean just uses the verb tense and the subject.
Because It's Fun
The last (and most important reason) to learn Korean is that it's fun. Learning to speak Korean can open doors to an entirely new world of culture and history.
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You get to enjoy learning about new cultures as well as gaining access to those cultures through cinema, literature, television, and music. Once you can understand Korean, you can enjoy all of this on a whole new level.
If you relish a challenge, few things offer more of a challenge than learning a language and whenever something clicks or you have that “eureka” moment, you'll be both relieved and delighted.
Speaking Korean (or any other foreign language) is a wonderful experience and worth all the effort!
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Where and How You Can Study Korean in Brisbane
So now that you know why you should study Korean, here's where and how you can learn the language in Brisbane.
These aren't the only ways or places, but they should put you in a good position to start finding Korean lessons and work out what's best for you.
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland offers a broad range of classes for different levels and different situations. They don't come with any entry requirements so you can quite easily enrol. However, that doesn't mean you should just enrol in a high-level class.
The Institute of Modern Languages at the University of Queensland has quite a few classes for absolute beginners including shorter courses (10-20 hours) such as Korean Survival or a Korean Beginners Short Course.
The longer courses (20-40 hours) like Korean 1A or the combination of Korean 1A+B are also suitable for beginners.
If you already know a bit of Korean or have studied it before, there are courses across various levels from Korean 2 to Korean 6. Their website features a level guide so it's a good idea to work out which would be best for you before enrolling.
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LaPont Language Centre
LaPont Language Centre offers 10-week Korean courses with weekly 90-minute sessions. The lessons are taught by native Korean speakers. Courses start regularly throughout the year so you don't need to worry if you're not lined up with the academic calendar.
If you enrol early, you can get the 10-week courses on an early-bird special for $325 with classes for beginners and intermediates.
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Language Exchanges in Brisbane
One of the best ways to learn how to speak a language is from native speakers themselves. If you're on a budget, you can always consider language exchanges.
In a language exchange, you meet up with speakers of the language you want to learn. For part of the session, they'll help you practise Korean. After that, you'll help them practise English (or any other language that you speak and that they want to learn).
Sometimes, language exchanges are free (especially if you organise them directly with your language exchange partner) and other times, you may have to pay the organisers to attend the session.
Learn Korean in Brisbane with a Private Tutor
When it comes to learning foreign languages, everybody's different. What works for one person won't necessarily work for another. Fortunately, private tutors can tailor and adapt every session to their students.
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Anybody wanting to learn Korean in Brisbane should consider looking for private Korean tutors. While tutors aren't free like some language exchanges or by teaching yourself (more on that in a second), there's a broad range of tutors for all budgets and thanks to the internet, you can broaden your search to find tutors all over the world.
While it can be really useful having your tutor there in the room with you, you can find more tutors by looking for online tutors from all over the world (and maybe even Korea!) and since online tutors don't have to travel to their sessions and neither do you, it can work out cheaper.
Don't forget that everything comes at a price, though, and the best and most experienced tutors will likely charge more than those new to tutoring, but you can still find good tutors at any price.
With both offline and online tutors, you can shop around and try a few different tutors out first before choosing the perfect tutor for you.
Learn Korean for Free at Home
With all the resources out there, there's no reason you can't teach yourself Korean. For anyone wanting to learn a language on a budget or for those with awkward schedules, you can always opt to learn a language on your own.
Whether it's with apps, books, online communities, or other resources, you'll be spoilt for choice. Have a look for beginners' exercise books and textbooks if you want to work through grammar and vocabulary.
If you're the kind of student who prefers more engaging and interactive activities, you can also look at apps and computer programmes. Some of these can be quite costly, but you can always look for deals and free trials to test them out before you commit to them.
Even if you use some resources to teach yourself, that doesn't mean you can't combine them with guided and structured tuition from a tutor or through the courses we've already mentioned.
It's up to you and how you like to learn.
Good luck!
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