Since itsNetflixrelease in September , Korean survival dramaSquid Gamehas become an international pop civilization sensation . It ’s also generated a swell of interest in learning how to speak Korean .
As Reutersreports , the act of U.S. occupier register to see Korean on Duolingo spike by 40 percent in the two weeks after the serial debuted . In the UK , the increase was even more impressive : 76 per centum . Overall , Duolingo ’s Korean language learner total more than 7.9 million , which have helped make it one of the platform ’s most rapidly raise languages ( second only to Hindi ) .
“ speech and culture are intrinsically connected and what hap in popping civilization and medium often influences trends in language and language learning , ” Duolingo representative Sam Dalsimer tell apart Reuters . “ The rising world-wide popularity of Korean music , flick and television receiver is increase demand for see Korean . ”
Duolingo is n’t the only language - get wind service that has seen an influx of interest in learn Korean over the past several yr . In 2007 , South Korea ’s King Sejong Institute taught Korean to about 740 bookman across just three countries . As of last year , those stats had ballooned to 76,000 students in 82 country . One student in Russia , Milica Martinovic , differentiate Reuters she ’s expressly motivated to learn Korean so that she can translate Korean dramas and green - pop music without subtitles and translation .
The reasonSquid Gamein peculiar may have attracted so many new Korean language learners could be relate to the discourse surrounding its English subtitle : Viewers smooth in Korean have lamented how much shade gets lost in translation . Youngmi Mayer , comedian and co - host of the podcastFeeling Asian , convey to TikTok to partake some examples . In one scene , Mayerexplains , a character say something to the gist of “ I am very sassy ; I just never stupefy a luck to study . ” According to the subtitles , however , she ’s saying , “ I ’m not a hotshot , but I still got it [ work ] out . ”
“ That is a huge figure of speech in Korean media , ” Mayer said . “ The miserable person that ’s smart and ingenious and just is n’t wealthy . That ’s a Brobdingnagian part of her grapheme . ”
But chalk up inaccurate subtitles to sloppy translation workplace would be an inaccuracy itself . As Denise Kripper , a translating program who ’s done television set subtitles before , toldNBC News , there are exacting rule — which vary by streaming weapons platform or channel — about profanity , ethnic references , and specially length .
“ In general , subtitles ca n’t be longer than two lines — that ’s even few characters than a tweet , ” Kripper said . “ The most staring of translations still ask to be reword or adapted if it does n’t conform to within those spatial limitations . ”
In unforesightful , the room to get the most out ofSquid Gameis to understand Korean — a principle that more than a few people have found compelling enough to download the Duolingo app .
[ h / tReuters ]
