Sign language overtakes Portuguese, Punjabi and Urdu as the most desired language to learn in 2023
Over the past month searches for ‘How to learn sign language’ have increased worldwide by 300%. Therefore, it is no surprise that people are turning to TikTok to educate themselves on a critical form of communication.
Interested in sign language’s recent popularity, Revision Centre analysed hashtag data on TikTok to reveal the most desired languages to learn in 2023.
Most popular languages to learn in 2023
| Rank | Language | Total TikTok hashtag views |
| 1 | English | 10.9 billion |
| 2 | Chinese | 2.6 billion |
| 3 | Korean | 2.0 billion |
| 4 | Japanese | 1.2 billion |
| =5 | French | 1.1 billion |
| =5 | Spanish | 1.1 billion |
| 7 | German | 633.8 million |
| 8 | Arabic | 413.8 million |
| 9 | Russian | 296.8 million |
| 10 | Turkish | 233.5 million |
| 11 | Sign language | 65.6 million |
| 12 | Portuguese | 32.2 million |
| 13 | Urdu | 20.4 million |
| 14 | Punjabi | 15.9 million |
| 15 | Hindi | 15 million |
Sign language is the 11th most popular language to learn on TikTok
Revision Centre can reveal that sign language is the 11th most popular language to learn on TikTok, with 65.6 million hashtag views for ‘#Learn sign language’. This is around double (33.4 million) more hashtag views than for Portuguese with 32.2 million. With Portuguese being the official language of nine counties including Brazil and Angola, it is quite interesting that sign language has surpassed it’s hashtag views on TikTok.
Sign language is becoming more mainstream with the likes of Rhianna’s Super Bowl interpreter going viral for her impressive performance, and Ed Sheeran’s tour in June 2022 marking the beginning of Wembley Stadium offering sign language at every live concert. It also goes without saying that sign language is becoming popular in the film industry, with The Last of Us cast learning sign language for deaf co-star.
English is the most popular language to learn on TikTok
English is the language people are learning the most on TikTok with 10.9 billion hashtag views for ‘#Learn English’. This is 319% more views than ‘ #Learn Chinese’ in second place with 2.6 billion hashtag views.
‘#Learn Chinese’ places second with 2.6 billion views, 600 million more hashtag views than ‘#Learn Korean’ in third place. Chinese is spoken in many countries, such as Hong Kong, China, Macao, Singapore and Taiwan. However, With 1.2 billion native speakers, Chinese has the highest prevalence in China.
In third place is ‘ #Learn Korean’ with 2 billion hashtag views on TikTok. This is 800 million more hashtag views than learning Japanese in fourth place with 1.2 billion views.
