In recent years, interest in learning Korean as an additional language (KAL) has rapidly grown among Iranian youths and women. This study adopted a mixed-methods QUAN→qual design to examine Iranian learners’ motivation for and experience in learning KAL. For this purpose, 174 Iranian learners of Korean were requested to complete a motivation questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted with nine of these participants. The results indicated that the participants pursued KAL learning more in terms of the Ideal Self, meaning that they found KAL learning as an opportunity to realise their internalised aspirations and ideals, which were primarily integrative and, to a lesser extent, instrumental. It was also found that the female participants were driven by stronger motivational intensity to learn Korean. The results of the qualitative data analysis corroborated those of the quantitative data analysis regarding the participants’ self-guides in learning KAL. The qualitative results also showed that the interviewees had a positive experience of learning Korean in the classroom, though this positive experience seemed to overshadow concerns over learning priorities and outcomes.
