This is the first volume of its kind to treat specifically the critical role of language in Korean culture and society. Early on, contributors examine the invention and use of the Korean alphabet, South Korea's ""standard language"" vs. North Korea's ""cultured language,"" and Korean in contact with Chinese and Japanese. Several topics representative of Korean socio-cultural vocabulary are discussed, followed by a consideration of Korean honorifics and other related issues. Two chapters on Korean media follow. Finally, contributors look at salient features of the language, narrative structure, and dialectal variation. All chapters are accompanied by a set of student questions and a useful bibliography. A beginning level of proficiency in Korean is sufficient to digest the Korean examples with facility, making this volume accessible to a wide range of students.