Free classes, TOPIK, KIIP, and how much you actually need.
7 min read · Updated August 2026
You can survive in Korea with very little Korean. You cannot live well here without some. The gap between 'survive' and 'live well' is smaller than people assume — a few months of genuine effort changes daily life substantially, and Hangul itself can be learned in a weekend.
Korean writing was deliberately designed to be learnable quickly, and it is. A focused weekend gets you reading — slowly, but reading.
Do this before anything else. It converts the entire country from incomprehensible symbols into words you can sound out, ask about, and look up. Menus, signs, bus destinations, product labels. The return on two days of effort is enormous and immediate.
Multicultural Family Support Centres and local government community centres run free or very cheap Korean classes in most cities. They are aimed at residents, they are often excellent, and they are dramatically underused by people who assume they must be for someone else.
University language institutes run intensive programmes. Expensive, but serious — this is the route if you need TOPIK results on a timeline.
Language exchange is free and works. Plenty of Koreans want English practice, and this community includes people who have made lasting friendships this way.
The Korea Immigration and Integration Programme is a government course covering language and Korean society. It is free or heavily subsidised.
What makes it worth more than it looks: completing certain levels can count towards visa requirements, points on the F-2-7 assessment, and naturalisation. People take it for the language and discover it was also the paperwork.
If you intend to stay in Korea for the long term, start KIIP earlier than feels necessary.
The standard proficiency test, in levels 1 to 6. Required for many university admissions, some jobs, and various immigration purposes.
You do not need it to live here. You may well need it to do the specific thing you came here to do — check the requirement for your actual case rather than testing speculatively.
Learn the vocabulary of your own life first, not the textbook's order. The words for your neighbourhood, your job, your regular order, your commute.
Use it badly and early. Korean speakers are, on the whole, generous with foreigners attempting the language. The people who improve fastest are the ones willing to be bad at it in public.
And learn to read a menu. It is the single highest-value thing you can do for your quality of life here.
Community reference only — this is not official guidance from any Korean or Kenyan authority. It is drawn from what Kenyans and other foreigners in Korea have actually been through, and everyone's situation differs: your visa type, employer, region, bank branch and timing all change how things play out. Rules, fees and processes change without notice. Confirm the current details with the relevant official source — Immigration, your bank, NHIS, KRA, the IEBC, or the Embassy of Kenya in Seoul — before you act on anything here.