This article suggests that there is a correlation between the popular Korean Netflix series, Squid Games, and the sudden increase in Korean language courses taken. Duolingo, an online language course service, reports that there was roughly a 40% increase of Korean courses in the U.S. and a spike of 76% by British users. “Language and culture are intrinsically connected and what happens in pop culture and media often influences trends in language and language learning,” said Duolingo spokesperson Sam Dalsimer. This makes me question pop culture’s effect on language learning, perhaps if more popular shows were played in different languages then those languages will also spike. However, I do believe that the spike is momentary, being that users will be interested in learning the new language for only a few weeks while the novelty of the language and the show wears off, unless something new in the media comes around to once again reinforce that desire to learn. I think it will be interesting to get some data to compare whether the effects of pop culture on language learning are momentary or significant.