Learning Korean and Chinese characters

September 6, 2024

SEOUL – Learning Korean continues to grow in popularity around the world, but the speed of growth may be slowing as the popularity of K-pop has plateaued. Universities in many countries have seen a decline in second language learning as part of a broader shift away from the humanities. Over time, this could result in a weakening of important institutional support for Korean classes.

According to the “2023 Duolingo Language Report,” an annual report produced by the popular language learning platform, Korean moved up one rank to displace Italian as the sixth most studied language in the world. Korean was the most popular language in one country, Mongolia, and ranked eighth in that category, down from the fifth in the 2022 report. Korean was the second-most popular language in six countries, ranking sixth, the same as in 2022. Among Asian languages in the 2023 report, Korean is the second most popular after Japanese but is more popular than Chinese, which ranked eighth.

Duolingo only measures the use of its platform for second language learning. Users vary widely, but almost all use it for self-study, either as a hobby or to augment the instruction they are receiving in a classroom somewhere. Many learners use other tools, such as YouTube videos and translation platforms, with or without a specialized language learning platform.

Today, learners of Korean have many more options than even 10 years ago, let alone the late 20th century. For years, paper coursebooks, usually written for use in a language program, and paper dictionaries for Korean students were the only tools available. When I first started learning Korean in 1983, I used coursebooks that were part of the language program I was enrolled in. I