'I learned Korean to understand K-Pop'
BBCA British K-Pop fan who could not wait for her favourite lyrics to be translated into English, said she travelled to Korea to learn to speak the language.
Katy Richards from Birmingham, who runs the fan group Hallyu Doing, said: "When I first got into K-Pop you didn't get a lot of English subtitles."
Following the recent comeback of the boy band of BTS and the success of K-Pop Demon Hunters, Richards said: "I think K-Pop is going to storm the charts and it's going to be brilliant."
Alex Howell, who runs the Lilak shop K-Pop shop in Shrewsbury, said the genre was "huge" at the moment and the exposure had "made more people, especially parents more knowledgeable".
Richards said: "K-Pop was definitely my gateway into Korean culture, which I think it is for a lot of people."
But she said that led her into watching Korean dramas and learning more about the country.
After visiting for two weeks in the summer she said she enjoyed the atmosphere so much she "decided to go back and study for a bit".
At the time, because of the lack of English subtitles on Korean exports, she said: "You had to wait for really dedicated fans who could speak Korean to translate voluntarily and put subtitles out for you, and sometimes you had to wait weeks."
"I thought if I go and learn Korean I won't have to wait," she reasoned.
Richards enrolled in a Korean language school at a Korean University and said it was surprisingly easy to learn.
"Korean is known as the most scientific language on the planet and the actual alphabet you can learn in four hours," she said.
The word Hallyu in the name of her club means "Korean wave" and Richards said it was a term used to describe how Korean culture was "washing over the West" at the moment.
"We've all been enjoying Squid Game, Parasite was huge, K-Pop is huge and so all of that is Hallyu," she explained.
The recent livestreamed comeback concert by K-pop megastars BTS drew 18.4m global viewers on Netflix, according to the streaming service.
It was the first time all seven members had performed together since they took a break to complete their mandatory military service in South Korea.
Netflix has also announced there will be a sequel to the K-Pop Demon Hunters movie, which has been one platform's most watched movie of all time and a huge critical success.
Richards said that movie was "a separate beast to K-Pop," with more in common with films like Frozen or Encanto for its young fans.
But she added: "I do think that as those kids get older they'll be more open to listening to K-Pop music."
Howell said she got into K-Pop in 2018 and Lilak shop opened in July 2023.
She started importing Korean merchandise as a hobby, with friends, before realising it could turn it into a business.
She said: "It's huge, we have a lot of people coming from Telford, Whitchurch and Shrewsbury, so we're really hoping to do more events."
Howell added: "Recently K-Pop seems so big internationally, I just think it's made more people, especially parents, more knowledgeable about K Pop and understand what it is."
Richards believes the language barrier, which once sent her to Korea, will become less of an issue the more people embrace it.
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