New Delhi: Young Indians fascinated by Korean pop culture and hit shows like Squid Game are flocking to learn the language, so much so that it is now fastest growing language in India, beating mainstays like English and Hindi, according to a survey conducted on global language learning app Duolingo.
A total of 1,013 Indians aged between 18 and 50 years from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Pune, Ahmedabad and Lucknow participated in the survey.
The findings were announced by the US-headquartered Duolingo Wednesday. The app can be used to learn 40 languages like English, Hindi, Spanish, French, and German, and describes itself as the “world’s most downloaded education app” with 500 million users.
In a company press note, Duolingo added that Korean is now the fifth most popular language accessed on the app in India.
Duolingo attributes this to “Indian millennials” and “Gen Z”, aged between 17 and 25 years. This rise can be attributed in-part to the release of popular TV series Squid Game this year, and the Indian love for Korean pop music (K-pop), according to the company.
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English still most learned language on app
English still holds the top spot, though, among the number of users learning the language on the app. English, Hindi, French and Spanish are the top four languages Indians are currently using Duolingo to learn.
Duolingo’s global language report released Monday says, “English, Spanish, and French remain the most popular languages to study globally.”
The top 10 languages most studied on the app are English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese respectively.
However, the growth of interest in studying Asian languages “shows no signs of slowing” as Korean and far east Asian entertainment become global phenomena.
The report shows Korean is the fastest growing language not just in India, but also in Brazil, France, Germany, and Mexico. Globally, Korean is the seventh most popular language to study.
Japanese is the fastest growing language in the US and UK, and is now the fifth most popular language to learn on the app, beating European languages like Italian.
Chinese is now the eighth most popular language on the app, overtaking Russian and Portuguese.
Users from the Czech Republic, Japan, Belarus, Germany, and Hungary completed the most lessons per user.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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