真的吗 (really)? An ad in
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iriver with Chinese language.
As with most other countries, the study of Chinese language (Mandarin) has been increasing in Korea as well. Though Korean is not related to Chinese as far as grammar and sentence structure is concerned, due to the influence of Chinese and especially its written characters (hanja in Korean), somewhere around 60%-70% of Korean vocabulary comes from Chinese. Along with the geographic proximity of the two countries, Koreans approach the study of Chinese much differently than they do English.
Also due to the fact that prices in China are cheaper than they are in Korea, generally the best way for a Korean to study the language is simply to get on an airplane and take a short one to two-hour flight to a city such as Qingdao, Dalian, Beijing or Shenyang to study the language. The city of Qingdao has an especially large Korean population, and cities along the border with North Korea such as Dandong and Tumen also have a large Korean-speaking population, though the majority of these will not be from South Korea but rather Korean people born in China.
The HSK test administered by the Chinese government is the one most often taken to assess a person's Chinese language skills in Korea. It can be taken six times a year and is available in most cities, such as Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, Gwangju, Busan, and Jeju. The application fee for low levels is 33,000 won, mid levels are 68,000 won, and high levels are 89,000 won to take. Levels range from 1 to 11, with any level 8 and above denoting a fluency equivalent of that of an actual Chinese speaker. Generally levels of four and above are considered high enough to be worth adding to one's resume.
Korea has a large number of materials for learning Chinese in Korean, including regular textbooks, Chinese through movies, myths, legends and books written in Chinese with Korean explanations and a CD or tape, etc.
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