Foreign language acquisition: a study on how people build the motivation to acquire Korean and Japanese languages through media in Bangladesh

Abstract

With the rise of the Internet, accessing another country's content has become much easier. Not only this, it has also made it possible to learn other languages. Japanese and Korean are two languages that have entered into the Bangladeshi lingual zone. With the popularity of Japanese Anime and Korean drama, Bangladeshis have gotten the opportunity to be exposed to both languages. These are new to this country yet the popularity of their media has made the languages themselves popular. Thus, this paper aimed to research the motivational reasons behind trying to acquire these languages through the consumption of their media, despite the lack of proximity of these languages in Bangladesh. As a result, this paper also aimed to show the motivational differences of both languages. Since both are new languages, it is expected that the learning level of these languages would be a fair study. Through a qualitative approach, this paper interviewed different individuals, who have watched Anime and Korean dramas in Bangladesh. Thus, it was expected that the results will show that these media have a strong grip on Bangladeshi viewers, and thus motivation is created. So, the paper concludes by showing that even though these languages have no close relationship to the Bangladeshi people's native tongue, the will to know and learn has led them to have the motivation to acquire these languages.