The Motivation of Hong Kong University Students to Learn Korean

This study used an online questionnaire to examine which factors motivate university students in Hong Kong to study Korean. Analyses of responses from 101 students who were taking Korean language courses at a university in Hong Kong revealed that their motivation to learn Korean could be categorized into six factors. These six factors ranked by mean score are as follows: Attitudes toward Foreign Languages, Interest in Korean Language and Korean Learning, Interest in Korean Pop Culture, Favor toward Korean Culture, Ideal L2 Self, and Interest in Korean Society, History, and Way of Thinking. Other findings from the questionnaire included that all Korean learners had high interest in Korean Pop Culture but that students minoring in Korean showed even higher interest in Korean Pop Culture than non-minor students, that learners with lower Korean proficiency had stronger Favor toward Korean Culture than learners with higher proficiency, and that female students had higher scores than male students in Interest in Korean Language and Korean Learning and Ideal L2 Self.