Known for popularizing the term "quiet quitting," showing off flashy dance moves, and even helping people to find love, TikTok is projected to have over 800 million users by the end of this year.
TikTok is also, as many social media platforms are, a marketplace of countless communities where people have the opportunity to teach and learn something new every day. It was the language-learning community that gave me a chance to learn Japanese. These communities can be helpful for anyone aspiring to pick up a second or third language.
As a 23-year-old who went through an English-Mandarin bilingual education in Singapore, I've always had an interest in learning new languages. And for someone who would be happiest eating sushi, ramen, and tempura seven days a week, learning to speak Japanese became a goal that I set for myself.
I stumbled upon several TikTok videos that taught me a thing or two, and the more I engaged with them, the deeper the app's algorithm pushed me down the magical rabbit hole of "#LanguageTok."
Learning a new language on TikTok is nothing like the traditional classroom experience. Despite being a language-lover — I went on to major in linguistics in college — there were still many days when I dreaded the monotonous nature of my Mandarin Chinese lessons back in school.
I never found the videos on #LanguageTok boring. Here, the creators are always finding new ways to engage users with interesting ways to teach language.
After learning how to read and picking up some basic phrases on my own, I went on to binge TikTok videos that helped me learn Japanese while having fun.
It's been three months since I started my TikTok "classes," and I would now feel comfortable reading signs at a train station in Tokyo, or striking up a simple conversation with a local while ordering lunch.
Here are the top 3 TikTok accounts I watch on loop to continue picking up the language.
