The wild fascination of a diverse group of Australians with all things South Korean - particularly the country’s music - has led to an uptake in Korean language classes.
South Korean boy band BTS has developed a massive global following and helped popularise the K-pop (Korean pop) music genre further afield than Asia.
The seven-member group, which formed in 2013, this week broke a YouTube record as their new single Boy With Luv amassed 74.6 million views in just 24 hours.
And the group recently topped the Australian streaming charts.
Among its many Australian fans is Monash University student, Susan Alhabsyi.
The 29-year old says her love for K-Pop has prompted her to study Korean.
“The main reason why I started studying Korean was to understand what the lyrics were saying in all these K-Pop songs,” she told SBS News.
“I am a big fan of K-Pop myself and I wanted to understand what they were saying in their videos and all the streams.
Ms Alhabsyi, who has Indonesian heritage, said Korean music introduced her to a whole new world.
BTS concert in Sydney, 2017 Source: SBS
“It’s different to Western music,” she said.
“I am able to connect to them on a different level, emotionally, but enjoy the beat as well.”
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