More Indians learning Korean language as popularity of 'Squid Game', BTS rises: Report

Indians have traditionally watched international movies and followed global musicians, but most of the artists or ventures were either based in Hollywood or countries like the United States of America and England. With the rise of Over-the-Top platforms, more netizens in the country are accessing content from other countries. That explains the popularity of series like Squid Game, Money Heist and of K-pop artists like BTS and others.

Now, the consumers of such global content are not just enjoying the content, but are also going a step further. More people are learning Korean as a result of the popularity of the South Korean artists and the shows. This was revealed in a report by the American language-learning platform Duolingo.

More Indians learning Korean after the popularity of Squid Game

The Duolingo Language Report of 2021, as reported by Business Insider, has shared that more Indians were being influenced by pop culture. As a result, more youngsters in the age group of 17-25 were learning Korean, the report said.

As per the report, Korean has gone on to become the fifth-most popular language that Indians are turning to learn on the platform. The other top 4 languages that Indians were learning were English, Hindi, French and Spanish. The popularity of the survival thriller Squid Game was mentioned in the report as a factor that was prompting more people to take to the Korean language.

On a global scale too, this was evident with 56 per cent of the respondents stating that movies and OTT series will prompt them to learn a new language. As per the report, 28 per cent of people across the world started learning Korean after watching Squid Game.  Similarly, 37 per cent of people around the world started learning Spanish after watching Money Heist.

Among the other details of the report was that 40 per cent of the respondents were learning a new language at the moment. 38 per cent of the people said that they would be interested in learning European languages. French, Spanish and German were the top choices of the respondents. 38 per cent of the respondents were keen to learn English and a regional Indian language, the report said. 

Image: Twitter@BTS_BIGHIT/NETFLIX