Level

Overall Scale

Category

Scale

1st

Can perform basic language skills needed for survival such as introducing oneself, shopping, ordering at a restaurant. Can comprehend and express basic, personal and familiar topics such as oneself, family, weather, etc. Can produce simple sentences using 800 basic vocabulary and basic grammar. Additionally, can comprehend and produce simple sentences for daily life and practical writings.

Vocabulary &Grammar

·Can understand and use the most basic vocabulary necessary for daily life (e.g. words for things, numbers, actions, states).

·Can understand and use vocabulary related to personal and familiar topics (e.g. words for family, weather, food).

·Can understand basic sentence structures and sentence types, and use them appropriately.

·Can understand basic particles and word endings, and use them appropriately (e.g. 이/가, 을/를, -고, -지만).

·Can use tense, negation and irregular words (蝡, 耑, 耈) appropriately.

Writing

·Can make conversation adopting formulars or memorized expressions.

·Can understand basic structures of simple sentences and conversations.

·Can write short notes and messages relating to matters of daily life.

·Can understand the principles of word formation and spell correctly.

Listening

·Can discriminate the basic phonemes (consonants, vowels, and final consonants) of the Korean language.

·Can answer simple questions relating to daily life.

·Can get the meaning of simple conversations relating to daily life.

·Can get the meaning of very simple conversations relating to personal and familiar topics.

Reading

·Can understand basic signs and sign words.

·Can understand the topic of short descriptive sentences.

·Can understand the content of simple daily life texts such as diaries and letters.

·Can understand simple practical writings such as memos and receipts.

Level

Overall Scale

Category

Scale

2nd

Can perform basic language functions such as making a phone call, asking a favor, and making a suggestion; and functions necessary for the use of public facilities such as post offices, banks, and hospitals. Can understand and express familiar and personal topics such as daily schedules, hobbies, appointments by employing 1,500∼2,000 words. Can use the Korean language appropriately according to formal and informal situations.

Vocabulary &Grammar

·Can understand and use high-frequency words of daily life appropriately.

·Can understand and use basic and high-frequency words used in public facilities.

·Can understand and use frequently-used particles and word endings correctly (e.g. '보다', '이나', '-는데', '-으면서').

·Can use pre-noun word forms ('-은', '-는', '-을'), honorifics, irregular words ('르', '耔', '耝', '耆') and frequent auxiliaries (-고 있다, -어 보다) correctly.

Writing

·Can make sentences with frequently used particles and connective endings.

·Can make simple dialogues of everyday life.

·Can write notes and messages relating to matters of usual and familiar topics.

·Can write practical writings such as short memos, letters, and notices.

Listening

·Can discriminate difficult phonological differences or changes.

·Can answer easy questions relating to daily life.

·Can get the meaning of simple conversations or stories relating to daily life.

·Can understand practical discourses frequently encountered in daily life such as common announcements.

Reading

·Can understand the meaning of everyday signs.

·Can understand expository texts and short texts relating to daily life.

·Can understand simple advertisements and notices of common daily life matters.

Level

Overall Scale

Category

Scale

3rd

Have little trouble in leading one's daily life in Korean. Can perform language functions such as using public facilities: the immigration office, travel agencies, etc.; and functions needed for maintaining social relationships: explaining, describing, rejecting, etc. Can understand and express one's opinions at the paragraph level on familiar social topics such as occupations, events, nations, cultures, etc., as well as familiar personal topics. Can understand the basic differences between written and spoken texts, and produce them accordingly.

Vocabulary &Grammar

·Can understand and use most vocabulary used in daily life.

·Can understand and use basic vocabulary related to business and social events.

·Can understand and use comparatively complex particles and connective endings (e.g. '만큼', '처럼', '-어도', '-자마자').

·Can use non-honorific forms, indirect speech, causation, passivization, and relatively frequent auxiliaries ('-어 놓다', '-어 버리다' 등) correctly.

Writing

·Can write fluently and correctly on personal and familiar topics.

·Can write on familiar social topics.

·Can write simple expository texts with the understanding of their functions.

·Can understand the basic differences between spoken and written texts, and write texts with the typical endings of written texts.

Listening

·Can catch the meaning of most daily conversations.

·Can get the meaning of most stories on personal and familiar topics.

·Can understand simple dialogues and conversations relating to familiar social topics.

·Can get the overall meaning of practical discourses such as advertisements, interviews, weather forecasts.

Reading

·Can understand most daily life materials.

·Can comprehend the content of simple texts dealing with familiar social and cultural topics.

·Can understand simple advertisements and notices of usual daily life matters.

Level

Overall Scale

Category

Scale

4th

Can perform most language functions needed for the use of public facilities and for the maintenance of social relationships, and also can perform to some extent language functions needed for general business such as drawing up brief documents and reports. Can comprehend relatively easy news and newspaper articles. Can understand and express one's opinions on familiar social and abstract topics. Based on the understanding of high-frequency idiomatic expressions and typical Korean culture, can understand and describe social and cultural matters.

Vocabulary &Grammar

·Can use frequent abstract words, conceptual words, frequently used journalistic words, and business words correctly.

·Can understand and use frequent idiomatic expressions and proverbs correctly.

·Can understand and use semantically complex particles and word endings correctly (e.g. 치고, 는커녕, -더니, -다면).

·Can understand and use grammatical structures necessary for the description of complex contexts.

Writing

·Can write texts fluently and correctly on familiar social topics and abstract topics.

·Can draw up brief documents and reports on general business.

·Can write simple after-reading essays, expository texts, and essays, etc.

·Can write simple texts expressing one's own ideas logically.

Listening

·Can get the meaning of dialogues or discourses on familiar social topics.

·Can catch the connotative meaning of discourses with complicated contexts.

·Can understand simple news and broadcasting discourses.

·Can get the meaning of simple discussions on familiar topics.

Reading

·Can comprehend or infer the context of expository and argumentative texts on economy, society, and culture.

·Can understand details of contracts, product manuals, advertisements, notices, etc.

·Can understand general meanings of articles in newspapers and recommendations.

·Can understand the content of essays and fairy tales.

Level

Overall Scale

Category

Scale

5th

Can perform to some extent language functions that are needed to carry out one's specialized research and business such as summarizing, arguing, inferencing, and discussing. Can understand and express one's opinions on unfamiliar topics such as policy, economy, and culture. Can use the Korean language appropriately according to formal/informal and written/spoken contexts, and can understand and construct argumentative texts, reports, literary works, interviews, and discussions.

Vocabulary &Grammar

·Can use abstract words describing social phenomena correctly.

·Can understand and use frequent current terms, foreign words of specific fields, words with detailed meaning correctly.

·Can understand and use generally used idiomatic expressions and proverbs correctly.

·Can understand and use grammatical structures frequently used in newspaper articles and editorials.

Writing

·Can write on social and abstract topics that are related to oneself directly.

·Can produce technical texts required for business and academic fields.

·Can write stylistically appropriate texts for diverse discourse situations.

·Can write or summarize after-reading essays, expository texts, essays, reports, and argumentative texts, etc.

Listening

·Can get the meaning of general dialogues on business or technical areas.

·Can understand the general meaning of lectures or interviews relating to familiar social or abstract topics.

·Can understand the intention of the speaker or infer the content of familiar social or abstract topics.

·Can understand the general meaning of discourses for special contexts such as wedding speeches or funeral orations.

Reading

·Can understand the content of texts on policy, economy, society, and science.

·Can understand the content of comparatively easy poems, and novels.

·Can understand most newspaper articles and recommendations.

·Can infer the content or understand the attitude of the writers of serious essays and fairy tales.

Level

Overall Scale

Category

Scale

6th

Can perform language functions required to carry out one's specialized research and business comparatively correctly and fluently. Can understand and express one's opinions on unfamiliar topics concerning policy, economy, and culture. Although imperfectly, can perform most language skills and does not have difficulties in expressing oneself.

Vocabulary &Grammar

·Can understand and use most abstract words describing social phenomena and technical terms correctly.

·Can understand and use frequently used slang, argots, abbreviations, and well-known dialects correctly.

·Can understand and use semantically complex idiomatic expressions and proverbs correctly.

·Can understand and use grammatical structures frequently used in newspaper editorials, argumentative texts, and academic writings.

Writing

·Can write on the topics of one's own business and specialized fields fluently and correctly.

·Can write persuasive and logical texts with the understanding of Korean discourse structures.

·Can use the most appropriate one out of various possible expressions.

·Can write academic articles, speeches and documents.

Listening

·Can get the meaning of most dialogues on business or technical areas.

·Can understand or infer the meaning of most lectures or interviews relating to social or abstract topics.

·Can understand most news or broadcasting discourses.

·Can understand widely known dialects.

Reading

·Can understand the content of expository texts and argumentative texts dealing with technical and abstract topics.

·Can understand the situation of the writings and the psychology of the characters in representative essays and novels.

·Can infer the content or infer the intention of the writers of various types of texts.

·Can understand the academic articles and writings relating to professional areas.