By Gabriela Baron The hype around Korean pop music and pop culture has led to more students wanting to learn Korean language classes. Super Show 5:  Super Junior World Tour in Manila (Arvee Gonzales / MANILA BULLETIN) According to the United States Modern Language Association, students learning the Korean language in the US nearly doubled in just 10 years. It said that between 2006 and 2016, the number of university students enrolled in Korean almost doubled - the biggest increase for any language of 1,000 students or more. It was followed by Arabic and Japanese. Meanwhile, Korea Herald stated that the Korean language hype is not only confined to the US. The South Korean government this year now operates 172 language institutes around the world, teaching Korean to 57,000 students in 56 countries. It was previously from just 13 branches in 2007. "Clearly, K-Pop culture is making people want to know more about the country and learn the language," said Kang Hyoun-hwa, chief of the King Sejong Institute, a Korean language institute established by the South Korean government. The TOPIK test of Korean proficiency has been in high demand lately. In 1997, only 2,200 test takers registered to obtain the official certificate. That number rose to almost 265,000 in 2018. Language-learning app DuoLingo added the language to the platform in 2017 after repeated requests. Currently, it is their sixth most popular course.