Images from “Learn Korean with BTS,” provided by Big Hit Entertainment.
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The management agency of K-pop boy band BTS launched a series of short video clips designed to provide Korean language education to non-Korean fans, and the series is receiving positive responses from the public.
Big Hit Entertainment released the first three episodes of the series, “Learn Korean with BTS,” on Weverse, the mobile app for the BTS fan community, last Tuesday.
Twitter and other flatforms are overflowing with comments, with one saying, “I think I will remember the experience of learning Korean consonants with words that BTS members often use for a long time.”
One Twitter user shared a note from watching the contents on their post.
In fact, the prevailing criticism is that Korean is not suitable for the lyrics of a song sung by people around the world due to its angular and hard tone.
A recent report by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange also cited the “difficult and unfamiliar Korean lyrics” as an element that hinders K-pop’s growth. Such a result was pointed out by K-pop lovers in Asia.
However, BTS overcame the prevailing difficulty and delivered the charm of Korean lyrics.
BTS is delivering the message that anyone can relate to their songs, and they are even encouraging fans around the world to learn the Korean language.
The first episode of “Learn Korean with BTS” begins with member Jin’s comment, “Many people sing along to our songs in Korean.”
BTS already unveiled a short Korean lesson for global fans on YouTube in February 2018 while shooting the cover of the U.S. Billboard Magazine.
To allow Army, the official BTS fandom, to participate and enjoy in their concerts, they have unveiled a term that they usually use in concerts.
They would write down “mo-du twi-uh” and interpret it as “everybody jump!” They would also write “so-ri jil-luh” to teach the phrase, “make some noise.”
Learn Korean with BTS is a short-form content format designed to help global fans overcome the language barrier they face in enjoying BTS music and content by learning the Korean language easily and enjoyably.
If content learning Korean with existing K-pop was focused on easy-to-use words in everyday life, the attempt was more systematic and concrete.
The agency announced that it will come up with content not only for Korean culture, but also for grammar and expressions.
The “Learn Korean with BTS,” a Korean language education program that Big Hit is presenting for the first time, was developed and supervised by professor Heo Yong of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and researchers from the Korea Language Contents Institute.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
