The Korean language, spoken by an estimated 73 million people on the Korean Peninsula, is a complex mixture of Chinese lexical influences and a unique native word and sentence structure. While Korean grammar shares many similarities with Japanese, Turkish and other agglutinative languages, no definitive genetic link has been established between Korean and other languages in the world, and the language's origin remains a heated topic of academic debate. Korean boasts the most scientific script in the world, Hangeul, which was designed by a team of royal linguists by order of the Korean king in the 1440s.
Following a period of unprecedented economic growth, South Korea today has emerged as one of Asia's powerhouse economies. Korea's advanced modern business landscape boasts some of the most widely recognized brands in the world, and the country remains at the forefront of international developments in science and technology. Korea also boasts a rich popular culture that has become an export commodity of its own right in the form of food, popular music, and film.
The CLS Program at the Annual ACTFL Conference
The 2019 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages kicked off this week in Washington, D.C. and staff from the CLS Program were there to meet with our colleagues and alumni from across the United States, and all over the world. The...
Read morePosted November 22, 2019
Domestic student profile: Angel Trachta
University of Iowa student Angel Trachta received a Critical Language Scholarship Award to study Korean in 2019.
Posted November 19, 2019
The Power of Sport as Public Diplomacy
Former Olympian and CLS Alumna Siobhan Heekin-Canedy (Russian 2016) writes about the importance of sports diplomacy in the context of the Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Posted November 06, 2019
