Berkeley's 10-week intensive course in Elementary Modern Korean, Korean 1, introduces students to the language, including the basic structures and hangul (Korean script). Emphasis is not only on speaking but also on reading and writing. The class, designed for students with minimal or no knowledge of Korean, is the equivalent of the Korean1A-1B offered in the regular academic year. Korean 10, a second-year, 10-week course in modern Korean with about equal attention given to speaking, reading, and writing, is the equivalent of the Korean10A-1B offered in the regular academic year. Approximately 150 Chinese characters are systematically introduced.
The co-coordinators of Berkeley's Korean language program, Kyung-nyun Kim ("Kay") Richards and Clare Chungbin You, have both received international recognition for their decades of contribution to the teaching of Korean language and literature. Both have authored Korean textbooks and translated multiple works of Korean literature into English.
The San Francisco Bay Area, home to a large and diverse Asian-American and Asian Pacific community, provides many amenities of special interest of Korean language ane culture. Korean films are frequently shown off campus, and the campus Pacific Film Archive maintains one of the largest collections of Asian films in the world. There is regular programming in Korean on local television channels. There are many Korean bookstores, restaurants, and markets. There are also excellent permanent collections of Asian art, as well as frequent special exhibitions at the University Art Museum on campus, the Asian Art Museum and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. Right here on campus, the Center for Korean Studies is one of the nation's most active academic centers for the study of Korean humanities and social sciences.
