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Language learning app Duolingo Inc said the
nine-part thriller, in which cash-strapped contestants play
deadly childhood games in a bid to win 45.6 billion won ($38.19
million), had spurred both beginners and existing students
hoping to improve their skills.
Duolingo reported a 76% rise in new users signing up to learn
Korean in Britain and 40% in the United States over the two
weeks following the show's premiere.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has established
itself as a global entertainment hub with its vibrant
pop-culture, including the seven-member boy band BTS and movies
such as Oscar winners "Parasite," a black comedy about deepening
inequality, and "Minari," about a Korean immigrant family in the
United States.
Just this week, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added 26 new
words of Korean origin to its latest edition, including "hallyu",
or Korean wave, the term widely used to describe the global
success of South Korean music, film, TV, fashion and food.
President Moon Jae-in this week welcomed the additions, calling
"Hangeul", the Korean alphabet, the country's "soft power."
"Language and culture are intrinsically connected and what
happens in pop culture and media often influences trends in
language and language learning," Duolingo spokesman Sam Dalsimer
said in an email.
"The rising global popularity of Korean music, film and
television is increasing demand for learning Korean."
There are around 77 million Korean speakers worldwide, according
to the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange.
Pittsburgh-based Duolingo said it has more than 7.9 million
active users learning Korean, its second fastest growing
language after Hindi.
The King Sejong Institute, which is run by South Korea's culture
ministry, had around 76,000 students in 82 countries last year,
a rapid expansion from just 740 students in three countries in
2007.
Milica Martinovic, a Sejong Institute student in Russia, said
she wanted to master the language so she could watch K-dramas
without subtitles and listen to K-pop without needing translated
lyrics.
Catarina Costa, a 24-year-old from Portugal living in Toronto,
Canada, said the language had become more popular since she
began learning it two years ago, when most of her friends did
not understand why.
"People are fascinated when I say that I am learning Korean,"
said Costa, who is using studying via the e-learning platform
TalkToMeInKorean.
The program has 1.2 million members studying across 190 nations,
learning words including those added to the OED, such as kimbap,
a cooked rice dish wrapped in seaweed; mukbang, a video, often
livestreamed, showing someone eating a large quantity of food,
and; manhwa, a Korean genre of cartoons and comic books.
"There were thousands of people who wished to learn Korean even
before Squid Game or the BTS craze, yet they were often studying
in solitude," said Sun Hyun-woo, founder of Talk To Me In
Korean, a local e-learning platform with 1.2 million members
studying Korean across 190 nations.
"Now they are part of a 'global phenomenon'; learning Korean has
turned into a much cooler pastime," he said.
($1 = 1,194.0000 won)
(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Additional reporting by Yeni Seo,
Dogyun Kim and Heejung Jung; editing by Jane Wardell)
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