On The Hallyu High

Teachers and content creators predict 'explosive demand for Korean language classes in the country this year amid the soaring Hallyu wave.

- Kashika Saxena

In July last year, I came across an Instagram post for a Hangul workshop - where beginners would be taught the Korean alphabet. Having been obsessed with K-dramas since 2017, I'd seen the Korean letters on my screen so many times that there was only one thing to do - register. After that, thanks to the Instagram algorithm, I kept getting recommendations of Korean tutors until I found one who suited me and started taking regular classes. It has been a long and arduous process, but the joy of understanding snippets of dialogue while watching a K-drama is unmatched. And I'm not alone.

THE FASTEST-GROWING LANGUAGE IN INDIA

The Hallyu wave, or the rise in global popularity of South Korean culture, had taken over India a few years ago, but it exploded during the pandemic. The number of people who started watching K-dramas and listening to K-pop skyrocketed, fuelled by OTT platforms heavily investing in South Korean programming.

Recently, language-learning app Duolingo surveyed 1,013 people across 10 Indian cities and found that Korean is now the fastest growing language in India. While it was the seventh most popular language for Indians in 2020, it rose to the fifth position in 2021, and will only continue to go higher. Duolingo's 2021 language report attributes this in large part to the release of Squid Game in 2021.

PREPARING FOR EXPLOSIVE DEMAND IN 2022