Fans Flock to Korean Classes After ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Boom

Across the United States, Americans are enrolling in Korean language classes as interest in K-pop and K-dramas grows, a trend that The New York Times reports has been amplified by the movie "KPop Demon Hunters" (Jan. 31, 2026). The article notes that the film’s hit song "Golden," which mixes English and Korean and is up for four Grammys, has prompted millions of YouTube and TikTok views of clips breaking down Korean pronunciation.

The movie is also described as Netflix’s most popular film ever, with more than 325.1 million views, and the film was nominated this month for two Oscars. Demand for Korean instruction is rising from California to Arkansas: universities are expanding Korean courses, language institutes are recruiting teachers, and Duolingo reported a 22 percent growth in Korean learners in the United States over a one-year period.

Tammy Kim, executive director of the Korean American Center in Irvine, told The Times, "We are limited only by our own capacity." Instructors and reports cited both easy early gains and long-term challenges: the article says it can take a few hours to learn hangul, the Korean alphabet, but attrition at advanced levels remains a problem.

The State Department has designated Korean as one of the most difficult languages for English speakers, and teachers note differences in sentence structure, honorifics and grammar that lengthen the path to fluency.

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