SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - A decade ago, learning Korean was a way to catch the nuances of K-drama dialogue and song lyrics. Today, foreigners are learning it to enter universities, build careers and make a life in Korea.
Few can dispute the global ascent of Korean pop culture as K-everything fills social media feeds.
All three seasons of Netflix’s “Squid Game” occupy the top three spots on the platform’s all-time ranking of non-English television series.
Its first season drew 265.2 million views in its first 91 days, followed by 192.6 million for Season 2 and 145.8 million for Season 3.
Korean pop music has traveled just as far. “APT.,” by BLACKPINK’s Rosé and Bruno Mars, was the third most-streamed song worldwide on Spotify in 2025.
The ever-expanding global reach has introduced millions to Korean through lyrics, subtitles and online fan communities.
For some, an affection nurtured on screen is becoming a life beyond it.
Digby Kartney, a 33-year-old American living in Gwangju, traces his path to Korea back to K-pop and Korean dramas.
Kartney bred interest in Korean culture while growing up in the United States and now works as an English teacher.
“I might have started to become interested in Korea through Korean music or dramas, but that interest grew into something big enough that I ended up moving to Korea to make a living,” Kartney told AJP.
He found his current job through the Seoul Foreign Portal, a city-run website providing information for foreign residents.
His experience points to a shift worth considering ahead of Hangeul Day on Oct. 9 - Korean may be a language people discover through entertainment, but it is increasingly one they study for education, employment and a longer-term future in the country.
The holiday celebrates Hangeul, the Korean writing system created under King Sejong in the 15th century.
From subtitles to classrooms
Recent figures suggest that motivations for learning Korean are becoming increasingly practical.
A 2025 survey by the King Sejong Institute Foundation found that 50.9 percent of 1,323 foreigners with experience learning Korean cited preparation for study or academic programs in Korea as a reason. Another 37 percent cited career development.
The foundation’s King Sejong Institutes enrolled a record 239,020 students worldwide in 2025, about 28,000 more than a year earlier.
The expansion is also visible on Korean university campuses.
International enrollment in South Korean higher education institutions reached 253,434 in 2025, up from 91,332 in 2015, according to government statistics — nearly tripling in a decade.
The total included 120,150 undergraduates, 41,278 master’s students and 17,762 doctoral students. Another 58,764 were enrolled in language-training programs.
For Kang Yoon-do, a 35-year-old university international affairs officer, the change has been gradual but noticeable.
He traces part of the early surge in interest to Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” followed by the global rise of BTS and the spread of Korean films and dramas through streaming platforms such as Netflix.
But his conversations with students today often center less on entertainment and more on what comes next.
“When I counsel students, a very large number of them say they want to find a job in Korea,” Kang said.
“In the past, someone might have come simply because they liked Korean content and wanted to study the language. Now I see more people formally learning Korean because they want to live here and make a living.”
Asian students still make up most of the foreign students Kang encounters, although he has noticed a broader mix of nationalities on campus.
National figures reflect that pattern. Chinese students accounted for 30.2 percent of Korea’s international student population in 2025, while Vietnamese students represented 20.7 percent. Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Nepal were also among the largest countries of origin.
The shift extends beyond the arrival of more Western fans. It concerns what learners across nationalities expect the language to offer as an initial interest develops into plans for education and work.
A language for what comes next
Yoo Seong-ho, a professor of Korean language and literature at Hanyang University, said K-pop, cinema, television dramas and literature helped create the initial demand for Korean.
But cultural popularity alone no longer fully explains why people keep studying it.
“Korean cultural content certainly had an impact, but Korea’s overall standing has also risen,” Yoo said.
As more foreigners study, work and establish lives in Korea, the language has gained practical value, he said.
“Watching dramas or films may be the beginning,” Yoo said. “But few people continue studying a language just for that. They study it because of their future and their careers.”
Those opportunities also extend beyond Korea. Some learners return home to become Korean-language teachers or translators, or to work in other Korea-related fields, Yoo said.
“Korean has become a kind of gateway,” he said.
What lies beyond that gateway, however, depends on more than language proficiency.
Yang Jin-young, a 30-year-old human resources employee at Coupang, said foreign applicants form part of the company’s recruitment pool, although requirements differ by position.
Basic Korean communication may be sufficient for some logistics positions, Yang said. For IT and professional roles, recruitment generally focuses on job qualifications rather than nationality, age or gender.
Coupang also recruits foreign professionals under visa categories including D-7 for intra-company transferees and E-7 for designated professional activities, according to Yang.
Speaking Korean does not guarantee employment. A software engineer, logistics worker and corporate manager face different requirements, and language skills are one part of a broader set of qualifications.
Still, the growing numbers of language learners and international students suggest that Korean is acquiring a place in ambitions that reach well beyond the next episode or album.
For years, global charts measured how far Korean culture had traveled. Increasingly, classrooms and workplaces reveal what happens after it arrives.
But for many, the K-wave has carried them from following Korean lives on screen to building one of their own.
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