This study examines the motivational and demotivational factors influencing Australian and New Zealand university students learning Korean as a foreign language (KFL). It focuses on KFL learners’ experiences and the role of Korean popular culture in their language learning journey. The findings of the study reveal that these KFL learners are driven by integrative and intrinsic motivations, notably their engagement with Korean popular culture and their ideal L2 selves as polyglots. Korean popular culture has multifaceted roles beyond initiating students’ motivation, including bridging learners to Korean culture, acting as a proxy for a community of practice, and offering a benchmark for language proficiency. However, unmet language proficiency expectations, lack of concrete goals, and limited real-life integration into Korean-speaking communities also contribute to students’ demotivation. The findings offer pedagogical implications, including connecting students’ motivation with their learning goals and supporting bi/multilingual identity development through task-based activities that promote real-life use of Korean.
Park et al. (Mon,) studied this question.