Korean Center Inc. – Korean Language Program

This is one of the best language school in SF. Teachers are very nice and classmates are very friendly. Tuition is very affordable and two-​day schedule is fantastic. I highly recommend this school to other people.

Update: After sending some critical emails to the teacher and office liaison, the syllabus was changed, which I greatly appreciate. The ridiculous and time consuming group projects were dropped, we’ll complete the book we’ve been using this year, and the teacher really listened to our advice on how to maximize teaching time. No longer will we spend 20 – 30 minutes taking a quiz in class; instead, we’ll do that at home and review it in class. We are finally blazing through the material, and I feel like it’s worthwhile again. I have to say, they both really went out of their way to listen to our feedback and alter the class to fit, and make sure the students were happy.
So students need to be very vocal if they happen to get a teacher that isn’t very effective at teaching. The school really strives to make it fun and interesting for the students, and hence why they have inane things like singing in front of the class (yes, one teacher made us individually sing songs in class and it was horrifying). But what they need to understand is that a lot of us are older in our years, and we’re not young high school students that need these kinds of activities. Focusing on material, books, etc would serve us better. There was another student in our first semester who dropped, because it seemed like we didn’t spend enough time actually learning, even though it’s a 3 hour class!
So, be vocal, don’t be shy, and state your opinions, esp if you happen to get a teacher that needs feedback. Everyone wants to make sure that the students are receiving the best level of education here.
It’s still not perfect, but I hope that the faculty will hold some meetings and learn from each other. Also, it would help if teachers from every quarter would discuss the covered material, level of students, etc with the new teacher.
But the fact that the faculty is open to criticism and willing to enforce changes, speaks volumes for the future.

I have been studying level 1 (absolute beginner) Korean for a little over a month now and am amazed how much I’ve learned. I studied independently using language books for 6 weeks before deciding to sign up for the class because I had heard King Sejong Institute provides a community and cultural experience on top of language classes.
And that is exactly what you get! It’s so much more than just a language course (which by the way, is fantastic. By the end of the first 3 hour class, I could read hangul — be it very slowly, but I could read! MUCH MORE PROGRESS than studying by myself for 6 weeks in ONE CLASS!)
There’s always events that you can go to, korean movie screenings, korean cooking classes, special cultural ceremonies, and it’s just such a fun place to learn that you make friends quickly who are also interested in Korean cultural and language.
I can’t recommend this place enough. I know that the price is a bit high at about $ 400 for a 4 month class — especially for recreational language learners (I just wanted to watch Kdramas without having to read subtitles!!) — but it is completely worth it. You learn so much, so quickly, and you gain more than just a language course.
I will be signing up for level 2 and 3.

I love studying IIC School. They have a flexible schedules. Students can do morning class or afternoon class. Besides, They have 2 days/​week or 4 days/​week classes too, Staffs are very friendly and helpful for the new students as well. They provide the useful information such as free clinics, Renting apartment, insurances and ect. The Locations is very convenience too, I can walk to school no traffic for me!

FYI, the house with the Korean classes is at 1362 Post Street (between Gough & Franklin). I haven’t made it around to enrolling, but what I have done here is attend as well as volunteer for events, including a mini event of couch assembly. In addition to language classes, some things that happen here are dance and music performances, movies, dinners, end-​of-​semester skits, traditional seasonal celebrations (Chuseok, Seollal /​Seolnal), and just celebrations in general.
The seasonal open houses are cool because different rooms are set up with ongoing activities such as calligraphy, food & drink, coloring, traditional board games, crafts, getting your photo taken wearing a hanbok, and more. Exploring the rooms will have you moving up and down among the floors of the house. So if you’re here with family or a group, you might want to bring your cell phones to more easily figure out where each person is. In any case, once the food breaks out, sooner or later everyone can be found downstairs.

I found this place by google after a year of Korean pop music my brother had infected me with. I came in here before the summer of 2011 had started. I hated language classes back in high school but it was because i did not find Chinese interesting. My teacher in high school was not motivated and we learned 80% vocab and no grammar rules or sentence construction.
When i came here to register, the lady who helped me was pretty nice. She understood that i did not speak any Korean at all.
First day of class and it was packed, the classes get pretty basic to ensure everyone knows the characters, pronunciation, history. Then after a couple weeks you learn more about grammar and vocabulary on the side with history occasionally. I noticed that slowly people started dropping or not attending and they would fall behind, ATTENDANCE IS IMPORTANT. The teacher i had in the summer was VERY GOOD. Her name is YoungKyoo Yoo ‚(Rachel) she taught the very entry level Korean, but i hear she is not going to teach after fall 2011. She was a great teacher and spoke very well English. I also made many friends here as well, not every student here is Korean and the majority of them are not.
In the immediate following fall, I registered for beginning level 2, the second semester of beginning Korean, a continuation of level 1, immediately in fall 2011 to continue my interest in Korean language and culture. The beginning 3 weeks were like hell. My teacher Junghyun Byun (Marie) spoke very little in English during class to help us use Korean more, don’t get me wrong she speaks english very well, she just wanted us to require less English, i became completely lost in class, She will be teaching entry level Korean in spring 2012, she is also a VERY GOOD teacher. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS, questions only make you and the rest of your class more knowledgeable, DO IT. eventually some students dropped out and mostly the determined ones continued.
This semester there were lots of students in the beginning 1 and 2 class but i notice a lot of them drop or don’t have time. There is also conveniently, private tutoring to help you, which i am taking during my regular college classes.
The teachers are VERY HELPFUL, you need to just try or put in effort to ask questions and they will help you!
Both my teachers were very nice and the new person who helps you register/​sign up for tutoring is really nice.
will be signing up for my 3^rd semester in spring 2012 soon!

IIC offers many levels of Korean, helping you find a class that’s just right for you. I jumped in at Beginning Korean II, but the transition was easy. The instructor is very attentive to each student’s abilities and to the flow of the class. For a once a week, 3-​hour class, the cost is only $ 420 including the cost of the textbooks. That’s a big draw-​in!
The only rough patch is that different instructors teach different classes, and they may vary from semester-​to-​semester. So you may end up with an instructor less motivated. But at this price, it’s worth the gamble. I really enjoy the class, and the classmates too. It’s a fun, easygoing atmosphere. So far, the class has been going on for several weeks, and no one has opted out! Instead, people show up early to get some cramming done!

I’ve taken two semesters of Korean language classes here. I plan on taking more classes, just taking a break this semester. Work was getting in the way of my doing homework and juggling the rest of my life.
The teachers and administrators are incredibly friendly and accommodating. The classes are very affordable. They teach from a fairly stuffy book but the teachers try to make up for it with supplemental materials. The classes in the upper levels get pretty intimate; I had 4 to 5 people in both of the classes I took.
The downsides are there isn’t much listening comprehension. The classes are focused on grammar and vocabulary. The teachers try really hard but their english is a little spotty.

I was referred here by my Korean friend. This is my first semester here, I am taking Beginning Korean I. So far, so good. My instructor is really nice and funny. Large class, but small classroom. I am learning a lot, and actually should be studying right now instead of Unilocaling. But you know how that goes. I look forward to coming here for more Korean classes. You can actually earn college credit though these classes.