The aims of a foreign language course are often defined with reference to the four skills: understanding speech, speaking, reading and writing. These aims, therefore, relate to the activities which leamers are to perform. In practice, however, there always seem to be different aims of the leamers. This paper is an attempt to clarify certain issues that seem to arise from the difference of each leamer' s nationality and living place. There are three types of leamers of Korean: 1) foreigners in other countries, 2) foreigners in Korea, and 3) Koreans in other countries. For the foreigners in other countries, teaching Korean as communication by inter-cultural methods is effective. For the foreigners in Korea, teaching Korean as mutual understanding by cultural acquisition is quite important. Finally, for the Kor:eans in other countries, teaching Korean as national identity by cultural awareness is very necessary.