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Chapter

Korean

“Even though words have no wings, they can still fly a

thousand miles.”

‐ Korean Proverb

GENERAL INFORMATION

 Number of speakers: 78 million speakers worldwide; 42 million speakers in the Republic

of Korea (South Korea), 20 million in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea);

1,141,277 speakers of Korean in the United States (U.S. Census, 2010)

 Writing system: In South Korea, the Korean alphabet is used as a primary written form

and Chinese characters are used to provide additional meaning in some cases. In North

54 Korea, there is no instruction in Chinese characters, and they are not used in newspapers,
54

magazines, or books (Kim, 1987; Kim & Pae, 2007).

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