75 pc of language learners in India under 30: Duolingo
In India young people are the ones most passionate about language learning (Photo: Foto/Unsplash)
According to Duolingo, a popular language learning platform, learners in India are among the youngest and 75 pc of them are under the age of 30.
75 pc of language learners in India under 30 (Data: Duolingo)
Language learning in India, it seems, is primarily popular amongst the age group between 18 to 29, with fewer teenagers studying new languages, and the overall numbers dropping off quite a bit after age 30. This pattern however in the US is quite different. For example, learners between 13 to 17 age groups in the country make up 22 pc of all learners.
Around the globe, young people are the ones that are most passionate about language learning with over 60 pc of them being under the age group of 30. The influence of young learners therefore isn’t unique to India as this is evident amongst countries as geographically, culturally and linguistically diverse as Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and the US.
According to the 2021 Duolingo Language Report, language learning is seen as a medium by young people through which they build and maintain connections with the family, culture, and media they care about the most.
Also, right now with the evolution of technology, it has become much easier to learn new languages and people can use language learning to complement new interests such as learning some basic Korean while watching the popular Netflix Korean series ‘Squid game’ or show empathy and support for Ukrainians by studying their language.
Language learning especially popular amongst youngsters in India (Data: Duolingo)
Though the overall percentage of young learners doesn’t vary much across the globe, notable differences are still evident when we look a bit closer. Take for example for the fact that language learning is especially popular among young learners in Japan and India, while in Germany everyone studies languages.
It has also been found that there have been differences in the languages that people of different generations prefer learning. For example, in the US, Spanish is the most popular language amongst all the learners in all generations.
After that, the variation in the cultural, entertainment, and travel interests become clear. One of the most interesting trends is that Gen Z learners usually tend to study Japanese, while their parents and grandparents take Italian.
Japanese language 3rd most popular amongst youngsters (Data: Duolingo)
Amongst all the languages, Japanese has scaled up to be the 3rd most popular language for learners between the ages of 13 to 22. It then drops a bit for older age groups. For learners between 40 and up, Japanese is ranked a distant 6th in popularity. Similarly, Korean language also follows the same pattern, with its popularity peaking at 6 between 13 to 17 year olds and then getting less popular for older learners.
It seems that learners of all ages make a very personal decision when it comes to the language they decide to study. These decisions have been found to be heavily influenced by the age group they belong to, experiences, interests, even with preferences of movies and TV according to the generation. Therefore, it is no surprise that different age groups are attracted to different languages.
