Track: Case Studies

Abstract

The consumption of Korean popular culture in Indonesia has always been increased since the early 2000s. In September 2021, the entire world was shocked by the South Korean entertainment industry with the appearance of the "Squid Game" Netflix mini-series. The success of South Korean in exporting its culture can be immediately detected by the hike of interests in learning Korean. This study see the atmosphere of the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the desire to learn languages, especially Korean. This study distributed an online survey using Google Forms where we asked people aged between 18 to 34 years old if they became interested in learning Korean after watching “Squid Game”. The findings show that most of the respondents in this study are very interested in learning Korean after watching the “Squid Game” series and their main motivation is because they are very interested in Korean cultural products such as K-pop, Korean films, and TV programs and also they want to broaden their insight about Korea. This paper contributes to the literature on Korean foreign languages and the use of online platforms to study Korean.