For K-pop Fans, Learning Korean Is About Connection

Any time Laura Krupp began learning the Korean alphabet, or Hangul, lose practice memorizing the characters by doodling the names of her preference K-pop idols in the margins of her notebook. "정국," Lose scribble on the page, burning the distinct vowels and consonants of BTS member Jung Kook's name into memory. Amid a busy college semester, it took the geology major a month to master all 24 letters. "I probably could have learned it in a week if I had had more time," she tells MTV News over a video call from her bedroom in Michigan.


Three years later, the 21-year-old can read Korean phonetically and understands the basics: how to introduce herself; how count 10; why as well as how to read and pronounce the go-to Instagram hashtag of her ultimate bias, as favored idols are known in the K-pop fandom, Lee Know. (The hashtag "#리노는기여어," which roughly translates to "#LeeKnowIsCute," connects her to thousands of posts from fans around the world who use it also) She admits that the process has been slow. Juggling a full course load with teaching herself Korean grammar hasn't been easy, yet she revels in the small victories. "I've left a few comments in Korean on Lee Understands Instagram posts," she says, his poster one of several crowding the bedroom wall in back of her. And as soon as she met Stray Kids earlier this year at a fan engagement on their District 9: Unlock tour, she was able to tell youngest member I.N, "행복하세요," or, "I wish you happiness."


"I was going to tell Seungmin that I fancied his voice [in Korean], although he smiled at me and my brain short-circuited," she says. "So I didn't get to mention that."


While understanding Korean isn't a requirement to take part in K-pop standom, it could enrich the experience. In K-pop, content is king. A crowd can produce hundreds of hours of interviews, livestreams, performances, digital programming, and more throughout an individual promotional cycle. Depending on the company's internal resources, along with because the size of the unit's global following, subtitles and translations can take days to weeks to months to be added, if at all.


And international fans know just how agonizing waiting for subtitles can be. 20-year-old fan Nico, from Ohio, became so frustrated by the lack of translated content accessible for one of her preference girl groups, Weki Meki, that she took matters into her own hands. "Smaller girl groups never get any [English] translations because there's not a big demand for them," she says. "So I pledged to myself that I would learn Korean so that I could help international fans of those girl groups have translations for social media posts and V Lives." She's still working toward that objective ("I'm so close!" She says), yet she did join a Weki Meki fan account to help organize global streaming parties.


For most, the wish to learn Korean stems from something as simple as wanting to connect with idols on a deeper level. 22-year-old media research student Lissete Vega began learning Korean in 2015 because she wanted to sing and also her preference SHINee songs. "I wanted to better understand them through their language as well as through their culture," she says. Right now, she meets with a private tutor once or twice a week and she's able to understand "most of what BTS tweets without having to wait for translating accounts to do it, which is an awesome feeling." She says, "Just being able to connect with them without having to rely so much on outdoors resources like subtitles or translations has been really beneficial."


It's a sentiment a lot of K-pop fans share. Soon considering that, there really are nuances that don't habitually translate well. While music often transcends language, jokes might not directly. "Namjoon's dad jokes are really hard to get in case you don't speak Korean, nevertheless while you do, they're so stupidly funny," 20-year-old Hannah Smith says. The New York University student and multifandom K-pop enthusiast has been teaching herself Korean for years by way of the free online resources; she plans to take Korean as her foreign language elective. "It's an academic way of consuming my entertainment," she adds.


It's also a facet being piece of a more and more globalized fandom. Right now, practically every fan I meet at least is aware how to read Hangul," Vega says.


Nevertheless K-pop superfans aren’t the only people interested in learning the language. A 2018 report from the Modern Language Association showed an increase in Korean class enrollments across college campuses In America by 13.7 percent between 2013 and 2016, while the in general variety of language registrations decreased. Although even as universities across the nation cut foreign language departments altogether, the general rise in popularity of Korean sees several people, like Krupp, teaching themselves. Free resources like Converse with Me In Korean, How To Study Korean, Duolingo, and YouTube make the learning process more available to millions of eager students. Roughly 3.3 million people practice their Korean on Duolingo, making it the sixth-most popular course among English learners on the language-learning app immediately after it was added to the platform in late 2017. Meanwhile, three times a week YouTuber Korean Unnie teaches everything from must-know words and phrases (in both formal and informal speech) to grammar to cultural nuances on her popular channel.


And right now, global superstars BTS have joined the mix: Just as Friends helped BTS leader RM learn English language, BTS desire to help their fans learn Korean.


Two weeks prior, Big Hit Entertainment launched "Learn Korean With BTS," a new online program that integrates language-learning into pre-existing BTS videos. Over the course of 30 free, short-form episodes uploaded weekly to their official fansite on WeVerse, the initiative aims to create learning Korean "easy and fun for global fans who have difficulty enjoying BTS's music and contents because of the language barrier," according to a statement from the company.


"It's a very nice way to bring with each other this massive fandom who are very much interested in learning," says Monica Yadav, a culture writer and K-pop enthusiast based in Mumbai, India. She began teaching herself Korean through YouTube and webtoons to better understand the depth of BTS's lyricism, which is largely rooted in literary texts and philosophy. "Those seven gentlemen have so much power to influence so several people."


For Jesse*, a 27-year-old Asian-American publicist from San Francisco, California, the fact that they're using their power "to do something positive makes me feel even better about my decision to be a fan." Yet it also signifies what makes the industry so unique. "The way that K-pop actively invites its fans to be a segment of the full experience isn't really paralleled in Western music," she says. "It's a participatory experience. There's so much to do, and thus much they ask you to do, that learning the language has helped me feel more involved as a fan."


Devised by Professor Heo Yong of Hankuk University and researchers at the Korea Language Contents Institute, the curriculum five episodes in has covered pronunciation of consonants, introductions, numbers, and key phrases like "thank you" and why have you been?" — All while using memorable clips from the group's countless variety programs and broadcasts as teaching aids. Reading "안녕하세요" is an accomplishment, yet hearing singer Jimin cutely mention "annyonghaseyo" gives learners a higher end grasp on the language entirely. This is especially critical for beginners.


"It's key to learn pronunciation and annunciation correctly if you're beginning to learn Korean," Eun Oh, a manager and teacher at Korean Culture Center of New York, says. "From a linguistic perspective, pronunciation is the structure of communication." Oh encourages her students to avidly consume all types of Korean media, from dramas to music to Korean variety shows, to not only improve listening comprehension although to also familiarize themselves with how Koreans speak.


"I do like hearing Korean spoken obviously 26-year-old fan Lindsey Bosak says. "I feel like it's a good way to calculate what I'm saying incorrectly." Bosak first began teaching herself Korean three years back with the ambition of one day being able to multitask while watching Korean dramas. ("I wanted have the ability to do things while watching TV, like tidy she suggests.) Although it wasn't up until discovering BTS that she got really interested in her statistics, buying textbooks and practicing on apps while in during the day. "I began reading lyric translations, and I fell in love with the way that they write and the topics they talk about," she explains. "I wanted have the ability to understand that on my own and not have to follow and also lyric sheets."


Bosak turned to BTS content to brush up on her skills, like Bangtan Bombs on YouTube and episodes of Run! BTS and Bon Voyage, which are accessible on V Live and WeVerse. "It's routinely a little bit exhilarating While I recognize a word without looking at the subtitles," she says. "I do try and test myself. As soon as I learn new words, I like to watch [variety program] Run! BTS to be able to see if I know anything. I really like hearing native speakers. It assists the with pronunciation."


This is what Jon Hills, director of New York-based language center Hills Learning, refers to as "authentic material." Basically, it's something that has been written or spoken by a native speaker for a native speaker. "In the language-learning world, there really are textbooks plus an assortment of equipment that are written by Korean speakers for English language speakers," Hills says. Although there's been a move to try and develop more authentic materials. A song or a segment of content from BTS is technically an authentic material. So what they're attempting to do makes sense. You're learning Korean from an authentic source."


Still, a device like "Learn Korean With BTS" is best used as a supplement. "It's not a beginner course," Bosak says right after binging the opening three episodes. "They do expect you to have a generic understanding of the Korean alphabet. I had to watch them several times because they go so speedily. There's not a lot of time to stop and digest what they're saying. Although I like the fact that they're using old content. BTS has been such a big segment of my life the last few years that I think this is a way for me to stick with it. It's an incentive."


And motivation is the key to learning any language. And segment of that incentive, Hills says, is "having external stimulants that you could watch and engage with." However no matter how someone was introduced to the culture, be it through K-pop or Bong Joon Ho films, learning Korean is ultimately a long-term objective. "I really respect K-pop fans' curiosity and love for the language," Oh says. Nevertheless I would love to be able to see that it goes behind K-pop. BTS is first a new door for [fans] to be introduced to a new world, just like how language has opened so several doors for me — converse with people, to interact with people, to understand people."


"There's a whole other world out there," Hills says. "There are a lot of perspectives out there that are not just Western."


In their beginning press announcement, Big Hit mentioned that through learning Korean with BTS the corporation hopes "global fans will have the ability to deeply empathize" with the music of their artists. Although, in the process, they’re helping fans empathize with one another. "I've had full conversations with other fans [online] where they're speaking in Korean, and I respond in English language, and so they respond in Korean," Smith says. "Because they understand English language although can't write it, and I understand Korean nevertheless can't write it. So we communicate that way."


"It breaks down the barriers between Korean and international fans," Ciara adds. The 24-year-old activist from Dublin, Ireland, began learning the language right after gradually picking up words right after hours-long marathons of BTS content. Though it's only been seven months since she started teaching herself Korean, she's already experienced the joy of understanding something before it's been subtitled. And she's excited to begin "Learn Korean With BTS."


"They understand that this is something their fans are enthusiastic about," she says. "Especially with plenty of the fandom devalued or being belittled — a lot of that rooted in misogyny. It's a testament to fans caring about what these artists are saying and not just what people assume fans care about."


And with a higher end understanding of the world comes a higher end understanding of yourself and why you fit into it. "It's made it feel like a smaller world, especially in this time where there's so much going on that's negative," Bosak says. "It's really nice to have something to connect with people over. And I'm meeting people that I probably never would have met had I not began learning Korean."


Back in her bedroom in Michigan, Krupp sums it up perfectly: "It's boring being monolingual, honestly."


*Last name withheld for privacy