Korean Is the Most Studied Language by Filipinos, Study Says

Annyeong! Did you know that this simple greeting — along with many other Korean words — is gaining popularity among Filipinos? So much so that Korean has become the most studied language by Filipinos, according to a study by WordTips, an online word finder platform.

The findings published on WordTips’ website reveal that, among 26 countries in Asia and Oceania, the Philippines has one of the highest numbers of locals either learning or wanting to learn Korean. Only three other countries share this distinction: Brunei, Nepal, and Singapore. For clarity, this study considers Asia without including the Middle East or Central Asia.

Most studied languages in other places

It’s no surprise that English is the most popular language to learn in 14 of the surveyed countries, including Cambodia, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka. Japanese ranks second globally, and is the top language studied by residents of Australia, Bhutan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan. For the Philippines, Japanese is the second most studied language after Korean.

Image credit: WordTips Official Website

WordTips based its conclusions primarily on online data. “We used Google’s Keyword Planner to determine the number of searches for ‘learn x language’ (translated into different languages) in every country from May 2020 to May 2021. Then we mapped the most popular language to learn around the world,” the study explained.

Featured image credit: kangso-eun | Pixabay