For years, the youth of UAE have turned to the west for entertainment. American music, television and movies were most enjoyed in the Middle East, with many of the youth growing up with Hannah Montana, SpongeBob SquarePants and many entertainment shows on their TV’s. Yet recently, the region’s youth are looking further to the east for entertainment, specifically from Korea; from K-pop to K-dramas.
The rise of Korean entertainment and culture first began in 2012, through Psy’s “Gangnam Style”, which hit the Billboard Top 100 and is one of the first examples of a global K-pop hit. For months, the only tune and lyric stuck in most people’s head was “Oppa Gangnam Style,” along with its catchy steps. Later, in 2015-2016, the South Korean boy band, BTS, gained significant popularity in the UAE with the release of songs like ‘Mic Drop’ and ‘DNA’.
Their music and performances gained a large and dedicated fan base, due to their musical talent and catchy tunes, and the members having visually stunning stage presence, captivating and influencing teens and preteens in the country. Subsequently girl groups like BlackPink, Twice, Red Velvet also rose to fame with over 50 K-pop bands currently trending globally. The most recent K-pop concerts being on 7th-8th June during the Waterbomb festival, held in Dubai Festival City, 2024.
Talent covers which mimicked these K-pop groups was much lauded amongst majority of the population. This included learning the lyrics, which was mostly in the Korean language.
The cheesy, yet romantic K-dramas also contributed to its audience learning the language, with words like “saranghae” and “oppa” trending all over social media. Many fans were influenced to the point of picking up courses to learn the language and communicate with friends alike.
Chris Brian, a 21-year-old graduate in Dubai, states that a liking for the music is what compelled him to learn the language “I first started out with K-pop and how I like the sound of their music, and that slowly transitioned from mimicking what they say to learning how to read the language so I can sing the songs’ lyrics properly. I learned how to read and write in Korean but I’m not fluent.”
Trisha Mendi, a 19-year-old Dubai Expat, states that the desire to understand her idols—her favourite Korean singers “without subtitles and listen to their music without lyrics made (her) learn the language.” She suggests that she is currently aiming to be fluent in the language through courses online as she believes, “Korean is a beautiful language.”
Samuel Varghese, an 18-year-old student from Wollongong University, Dubai, has recently become fan of K-pop, stating, “I recently fell in love with both, K-Pop and K-Dramas and found that by constantly listening to people speak or sing in the language, I was able to pick up on a couple of words and phrases.”
Ross Pereira, a recently graduated student of GEMS Winchester School, Dubai, suggests that K-pop brings him motivation to study the language, “Learning languages has always been a difficulty for me, but learning through enjoyable songs has helped me find motivation, especially for Korean language through K-pop.”
Lee Nari, a Korean national who grew up and lives in the country, 19, gives us an insight into how the Koreans feel about foreigners learning the language. She says, “Koreans are honoured when foreigners speak our language, we are happy, even when they don’t speak good.” “But since there are a lot of foreigners in Korea now, we are already used to it.” She added.
