South Korean influencers wow Bangladeshis and Indians with their love of Bengali language and culture
- The influencers have attracted hundreds of thousands of followers who lap up online videos of them speaking in Bengali
- One reason for the Bengali language’s appeal to these influencers is some linguistic similarities with the Korean language, an academic says
While pursuing a degree majoring in Hindi, Lee picked up the basics of Bengali grammar from local friends in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and watched Bangladeshi news channels to improve his speaking skills.
His experience has since grown into an all-consuming passion with the creation of Bengali Lala, his Bengali-language YouTube channel, in early 2021. Since then, Lee’s channel, which he runs from Seoul, has attracted almost 2,700 subscribers. He also runs Korean Ka Lala, his Hindi-language channel, which has 278,000 subscribers.
“I love Bengal’s unique culture and [knowing] the language is the best way to understand and experience the culture,” the 26-year-old told This Week In Asia, who said he is a huge fan of the Bengali detective series Feluda and adventure series Kakababu.
One of Lee’s followers, Enakshi Bhattacharjee, says in a comment on Lee’s Bengali Lala YouTube channel that she is mesmerised to hear a non-Bengali person speak the language impeccably.
