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An overseas fan of BTS posted a photo of a message written in Korean on Twitter.

“Though I speak to my parents in Korean, I was born in the US and never learned to read or write in Korean. But these days, I’ve been really enjoying my studies by transcribing BTS lyrics. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ll keep working on it!” —a tweet by @jim**********

“I’m really grateful to BTS! You’re the reason I want to keep studying Korean. You’re an inspiration to all of us.” —a member of ARMY (the BTS fanbase) from Indonesia

“I’m a fan from China. I’m going to keep studying the Korean language because I like Kang Daniel.” —a tweet by @d2t*****

On Oct. 9, thousands of pictures of handwritten messages scrawled in Hangul, the Korean writing system, were posted to social media accounts. Oct. 9, celebrated as Hangul Day in South Korea, marked the 573rd anniversary of the writing system’s creation in 1446. Although the writers represented a variety of native languages — including English, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic — their countless messages all had something in common. They may have misspelled words and gotten the grammar wrong, but they all shared a love for Hangul.

Overseas fans of South Korean idols such as the Bangtan Boys, better known as BTS, and Kang Daniel had organized a “Hangul writing photo relay” in order to commemorate Hangul Day. As of 3 pm on Oct. 9, there were 65,915 tweets with the hashtag #I_learned_Korean_because_of_BTS and 47,752 with the hashtag #Beautiful_Hangul,_beautiful_Kang_Daniel. The tweets were also tagged with the message #HangulDay, a nod to the holiday. The idols in the vanguard of Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, are serving as global ambassadors of Hangul.

The foreign fanbase of BTS (known as “ARMY,” as well as “i-lovelies,” short for “international lovelies”) are well-known for their love of the Korean language. An American national who goes by “Ebi” on Twitter shared the following story: “I’ve been learning Korean by myself in 2018. It’s hard and fun. I really like Hangul and the Korean language. BTS have made it easier for me to learn them. I’m sorry if I made any mistakes.”

Because of the passion of its members for studying Hangul, ARMY was selected by Hangul Cultural Solidarity on Oct. 7 as its Korean language aficionado for 2019. “ARMY is famous for studying Hangul and the Korean language in order to better understand the world of BTS’s music,” the group wrote in a press release.

The interest in Hangul that popular idols have kindled in their foreign fans is also evident in Google Trends, which tracks what’s trending on the search engine. A worldwide search for “Hangul” in Google Trends shows that the countries in which the term has received the most interest are the Philippines, Brunei, and Indonesia — all countries where Hallyu is particularly hot. In a list of the top 10 topics related to Hangul that had risen sharply since the previous period, nine were about idol groups such as Blackpink (the other topic was “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God,” a popular television drama). The list of related queries also included idol groups such as Twice.

“Positive feelings for BTS have led to positive feelings for Korea and have even helped raise awareness of the country’s traditional culture. With BTS in the lead, idol groups are all serving to promote the nation,” said cultural critic Ha Jae-geun.

By Jeon Gwang-joon, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]