About the Language

The Korean language and culture has been experiencing a surge in popularity in recent years, a surge so remarkable it even has its own name: the “Hallyu Wave”. Fueled by the meteoric rise of K-Pop music, Korean dominance in e-sport gaming, and the adaptation of more and more Korean television series to Western television, the trend seems likely to continue.

Interest in Carleton’s Korean classes too has surged in recent years with record enrolments in our 1st and 2nd year courses.

Learning the Korean language opens opportunities to share in a wonderful and inclusive culture and become part of the vibrant Korean community. For instance, visit the Korean Cultural Centre Ottawa website to see what’s happening at their downtown Ottawa location.

The Korean writing system was created by the Great King Sejong in the 15th century. It is an innovative language with its own alphabetic system that is easy to learn and read.

Korean is spoken by more than 72 million people living on the Korean peninsula and the Korean diaspora in many countries. There are about two million people in China who speak Korean as their 1st language, another two million in the United States and Canada, 700,000 in Japan, and 500,000 in the Russian regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.