On September 26, BTS announced their Global Citizen Live 2021 performance by posting the following on their Twitter: “There’s a musical group performing at Korea’s National Treasure No. 1?” Soon after, several translation accounts run by members of BTS’s fanbase, ARMY, posted translations of the group’s message in several languages, English among them. BTS Translations/Bangtansubs, an account with a little over 1.57 million followers, added a small explanation to their translation not present in the original to explain that National Treasure No. 1 refers to Sungnyemun Gate. The gate’s designation as National Treasure No. 1 is well known among Korean ARMY but international ARMY were likely unfamiliar with the title. Something similar happened when they translated the Korean lyrics in “My Universe,” the song that BTS and Coldplay worked on together recently. To better fit the context in the lyrics, “BTS Translations” translated the word “수놓다 (sunota)” as “fill up,” but included a footnote explaining that the word literally means “embroider.”

Translation accounts are important to ARMY because, “more than anything else, ARMY is curious about what BTS is ‘actually’ saying and wants to understand what it means,” Choi Young Nam, general manager of HYBE EDU, explains. ARMY from all across the world want to grasp the full meaning and nuance of everything from BTS’s songs, to their jokes on RUN BTS, to the neologisms and the way they talk on Weverse and Twitter. BTS Translations, cited the phrase “소복 소복 (sobok sobok)” in Jimin’s song “Christmas Love” as an example. Since there’s no equivalent word in English to represent the accumulation of snow, they chose to convey the same meaning by translating it as “softly, gently.” They also reflect words with cute endings (as when she translates “고마워용 (gomawoyong)” as “thank youuu”) and includes an annotation to let readers know j-hope is being cute whenever he uses “-얌 (–yam).” This is more than simply converting Korean sentences into English—it’s an effort to explain the underlying context and each member’s particular way of speaking. The fan translators are ceaseless in their considerations and studies, delving into the new words and trends that arise in the Korean fan community and creating detailed rules on how best to communicate their nuances to English speakers.

There’s a famous story of when RM commented “My vote goes to Silhak” in response to a fan’s post using the Joseon Bungdang (political factions) meme and the trouble the translation accounts went through as a result. In order to make sense of RM’s short comment for international fans, the translators had to explain what they knew about the Bungdang politics of Joseon-era history and how the chart outlining them has been used as a meme on Korean websites in many different forms. For BTS Translations specifically, Agust D’s song “Daechwita” was a major challenge because the title, lyrics and music video all referenced the history of the Joseon era. The translation team researched related documents and continuously discussed the issue so they “could ensure that we were explaining these references correctly and passing on the right information to non-Korean fans.” Translators focus on BTS content to make it so that ARMY the world over are able to easily approach Korean that’s tightly interwoven with everyday life and culture. “Students who study Korean through their interests seem to look at Korean not as rigid studying but as something fun,” Park Yoochan, a Korean language teacher at the King Sejong Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, said. “Students who are very familiar with Korean TV shows or music use words and phrases they didn’t learn here and reactions like ‘헐 (heol),’ ‘대박 (daebak)’ and ‘진짜요? (jinjjayo?),’ too,” and their Korean ability naturally improves.

According to Melissa, a team coordinator at BTS Translations, “it is natural for BTS to incorporate Korean culture into their content, be it addressing societal issues, using traditional Korean instruments in their music or having lively, passionate discussions about food and slang.” That includes educational content like Bon BORAge, which follows a character named Bora, who’s also ARMY, on her travels through Korea, and The BTS RECIPE in Korean, which presents recipes for food that the members of BTS have made. Studying Korean through BTS naturally leads to an interest in parts of the culture like food, and understanding that culture improves one’s language abilities in turn. Park has witnessed how, during a cultural event at the King Sejong Institute about Korean holiday culture and food, “some students know all the names of the foods even before they take the class,” explaining how “their level of exposure to the culture seems to have a positive effect on their Korean studies,” and added that, “when I ask the students, ‘What did you do this weekend?’ most of the students who answer that they watched a drama say they were watching Korean dramas or movies. They ask me if I’ve seen D.P. or Squid Game. They know about Korean entertainment before I do, and I’m Korean.” The reason why so many ARMY around the world ended up learning Korean could be that they held the “#방탄때문에_한글배웠다” (literally, “I learned Hangeul because of BTS”) hashtag event on Hangeul Day in 2019. “That was the first time I ever saw people showing gratitude and happiness while studying,” Choi, the HYBE EDU manager, said, expressing thanks and respect for ARMY’s passion toward learning Korean. “It’s as though when HYBE EDU content gives 100, ARMY use 120.”

Bangtan Academy has been running their own online school since August 2020 via the voice chat app Discord and currently has 2,400 students enrolled in around 40 classes arranged by level. They support learners through Korean lectures on YouTube and other learning materials, while ARMY teachers and students study by voluntarily helping one another out with their work and having conversations around points of shared interest. Bangtan Academy directors Joni, Kerian, Luna and Maria each had their own impetus for studying Korean, including not wanting to be limited to subtitles, to understand lyrics, to grasp not just the meaning of words but the feeling behind them, and to get words across without using machine translation. Bex, another director, now enjoys a variety of Korean food and has a “jar of kimchi that is ever-present in my refrigerator. Making gimbap, enjoying tteokbokki, and making a variety of jeon is now a regular occurrence in my kitchen and my tolerance for spicy food is much better than before.” Bex came to absorb not just enough to speak Korean but to understand Korean culture in general.

In addition to the ARMY who are studying Korean, the overall number of people learning Korean with K-pop and Korean TV is steadily increasing. “I had heard from numerous sources that the demand for Korean language learning has shot up in recent years,” Choi said, “and there are real figures to back that up.” According to a report published by global language-learning app Duolingo last year, Korean is “the second-fastest growing language in the world” on their service and the seventh most popular language overall. HYBE EDU released its Learn! Korean with BTS textbook series last year to be sold in over 70 countries, while nine universities in seven countries outside Korea have adopted the series as their official textbooks for use in formal class settings. “Statistical research shows that a total of 200,000 students from 1,800 elementary, middle and high schools all over the world are learning Korean as a second language,” Choi explained, “and this number is quickly trending upward.” Park, the teacher at the King Sejong Institute, says that “Korean has recently become the first choice for studying a foreign language in Vietnam, and the Korean department at one university in Hanoi had higher entrance score requirements than any other department this year.” Duolingo points to “Korean culture and media, including K-pop, drama series, and movies” as what’s behind the rising demand for Korean language education.

As more and more people in fandoms like ARMY learn Korean, it even serves in some capacity as a sort of official language in which to convey messages amongst themselves. In order to arouse interest in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, some social media users—presumably teenage girls—posted pictures of picket signs written in Korean, accompanied by hashtags that used the language as well. Various Korean news outlets believed this was because Korean, alongside English, is a common tongue that the community of K-pop fans that exists all across the world can understand and was therefore strategically chosen in order to effectively inform many people about the issue. In other words, not only has the number of Korean language learners and users increased statistically speaking, but Korean now also functions to facilitate communication, and carries with it a sense of camaraderie, within a certain group of people. Faith from BTS Translations shared this sentiment, explaining how “phrases like ‘보라해 (boraehae),’ ‘꽃길만 걷자 (kkotgilman geotja),’ … ‘아무행알 (amuhaengal)’ or ‘방무행알 (bangmuhaengal)’ feel like special codewords that tie me to my fellow fans and to BTS themselves.” The directors at Bangtan Academy say it gives them a sense of belonging to be a part of the academy’s ARMY and they feel like they’re connected to people in the world through BTS. They said the academy is an escape from the despair of pandemic life and has given them a “lifeline” to help them maintain a routine.

Rinne, a translator for BTS Translations who’s lived in Europe all her life, says Korean “has made me more open-minded.” Such changes for these individuals can sometimes lead them down new, unexpected paths in life. Born in Singapore, Faith’s personal decision to learn Korean “brought me to Korea for my undergraduate studies, as well as gave me the job I have now working with Korean drama and media.” Kerian, the Bangtan Academy director, says “learning another language is something incredible and it broadens your understanding and tolerance towards other people, and it opens your world.” A new language allows individuals to see their world from a different perspective and even become a member of a new one.

Aditi,a translator for BTS Translations, has “moments where I feel like saying words like ‘수고했다 (sugohaetda)’ or ‘고생했다 (gosaenghaetda)’ to friends or loved ones. Apart from being additions to my linguistic vocabulary, such words have helped me give name to emotions and experiences that I had no way of identifying earlier.” The intricate emotional expressions and heavy use of descriptive clauses in Korean have become a new way of giving shape to such emotions. This is one of the powers of language. For example, it’s necessary to grasp Korean etiquette in order to make proper use of Korean honorifics. This allows people to consider the similarities and differences between other cultures and their own. The result is a broader way of thinking that, as in Aditi’s case, can go on to provide novelty in the way we communicate and even change our attitudes toward other people.

Korean is considered to have high barriers to entry owing to there being notably few speakers in the world and to how much it differs from the Western languages that tend to share a similar alphabet and structure among them. But the rapid increase in the number of learners can’t be ignored. At the core of this increase is the influence of the works of artists such as BTS—and the desire to sing along to one line of a song, to interpret the meaning, and to fully comprehend the message contained within. That simple, earnest feeling alone leads to a deep interest in and understanding of the language. That innocent push behind wanting to know more about the person or group you like. With this shared passion, ARMY find themselves connected through Korean, helping each other in solidarity and fostering a community where they can invigorate one another. Luna said that “learning Korean, to me, means understanding.” Here, understanding might be taken to mean love. To learn another’s language is to learn how to love better. Taken further, that love can be a way to communicate an understanding while living with one another and a connection as well. It’s no different from the way ARMY uses Hangeul and Korean to understand BTS and each other, and in that way, we make new worlds through one another’s languages.