The short answer is no. However, it would be in your best interest to at least learn a few words and phrases, as your life in Korea will definitely be a lot easier if you do.

Most foreigners relate the Korean language to Chinese, and think that it has thousands or characters, but this is not the case. Korean (Hangul) has 24 characters, made up of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Each character block contains a combination of at least 2 of the 24 Hangul letters (known as Jamo). Hangul was created so that each member of Korean society would be able to read and write, no matter what their economic, social or educational background. Hangul therefore does not take long to learn how to read and write – maybe a few hours of practice and you will have the basics down.

Here are a few links to help get you started:

BYKI (Before You Know It)

An excellent site that offers free downloadable material as well as software bundles that can be purchased at a reasonable price. BYKI is great for visualization as well as pronunciation, coming complete with flashcards and audio to go along with each word.

Mr Oh’s Learn Korean

This site is more for beginners who are looking for a few catch phrases that will help them get around in daily Korean life.

Omniglot

This is a great site for learning the characters of the Korean alphabet. It describes how to read and use the Korean characters and combines them in order to form words that will give you a good start in learning Hangul.