Interest in learning Korean has skyrocketed since the launch of the hit show on Netflix Squid fishing game, tutoring services reported, highlighting the growing global obsession with Korean culture from entertainment to beauty products.
Language learning app Duolingo Inc says the nine-part horror film in which underfunded contestants play deadly childhood games in an attempt to win 45.6 billion won ($38.19 million). , has motivated both beginners and existing students hoping to improve their skills.
Duolingo reports a 76% increase in new users Register to learn Korean in the UK and 40% in the United States in the two weeks after the show premiered.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has established itself as a global entertainment hub with a vibrant pop culture, including seven-member boy band BTS and Oscar-winning films.” Parasite,” a black comedy about deeper inequality, and “Minari,” about a Korean immigrant family in the United States.
Just this week, The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added 26 new words of Korean origin to its latest edition, including “hallyu,” or Korean wave, a term widely used to describe the global success of Korean music, film, television, fashion, and food.
President Moon Jae-in this week welcomed the addition, calling “Hangeul,” the Korean alphabet, the country’s “soft power.”
“Language and culture are intrinsically linked, and what goes on in popular culture and the media often influences trends in language and language learning,” said Duolingo spokesman Sam Dalsimer. .
“The growing global popularity of Korean music, movies, and television is increasing the need to learn Korean.”
There are about 77 million Korean speakers worldwide, according to the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange.
Pittsburgh-based Duolingo says it has more than 7.9 million active users learning Korean, the second fastest growing language after Hindi.
King Sejong Academy, run by the Korean Ministry of Culture, had about 76,000 students in 82 countries last year, up from just 740 students in three countries in 2007.
A sign referring to the “beehive challenge” from Netflix’s new hit series “Squid Game” is seen at Brown Butter Café. (REUTERS / Edgar Su / File Photo)
Milica Martinovic, a student at Sejong Academy in Russia, said she wants to be fluent in the language so that she can watch K-drama without subtitles and listen to K-pop without translation.
Catarina Costa, 24, from Portugal living in Toronto, Canada, says the language has become more popular since she started learning it two years ago, when most of her friends didn’t understand it. star.
“People get hooked when I say I’m learning Korean,” said Costa, who is learning via e-learning platform Talk To Me In Korean.
The program, which has 1.2 million members studying in 190 countries, learns words including those added to the OED, such as kimbap, a dish of cooked rice wrapped in seaweed; mukbang, a video, often broadcast live, that shows someone eating large amounts of food, and; manhwa, a genre of Korean cartoons and comics.
Sun Hyun-woo, founder of Talk To Me In Korean, said, “There were thousands of people who wanted to learn Korean even before the Squid Game or the BTS craze, but they often learned in solitude. 1.2 million members learn Korean in 190 countries. ” Now they are part of a ‘global phenomenon’; I said.
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