TWICE’s Sana Hilariously Opens Up About Pretending To Not Understand Korean

[cagallisakura.livejournal.com]

The July 14 episode of “Happy Together” featured global variety stars including guests John Park, Kangnam, Henry, TWICE’s Sana, CLC’s Sorn, and Cosmic Girls’ Cheng Xiao.

Sana reveals that it’s been four years since she came to Korea and she didn’t know any Korean prior to coming. Upon being complimented on her Korean speaking skills, Sana says, “After coming to Korea, I learned how to speak Korean through watching stuff like variety programs.” She mentions how she read subtitles and checked vocabulary words she didn’t know in order to improve her Korean.

She further confesses, “Although I’m good at speaking Korean, there are times when I pretend to not be good at it. For example, at times like when I get caught eating something. When that happened I pretended to not know Korean.”

However, the TWICE member reveals that it was impossible to not get better at Korean because JYP includes a Korean test for their monthly evaluations. She jokes, “Later I worked hard because I had to interpret for other foreign trainees.”

Sorn and Cheng Xiao agree with Sana’s comments as fellow non-Korean members in their respective girl groups. Sorn says, “There are times when people give you more food when you pretend you can’t speak Korean well.” Likewise, Cheng Xiao admits, “I have pretended to not be good at Korean when getting scolded.”


soompi, nate, naver, gif credit

omona, do you ever do this? i do this, especially when i'm in hk or getting scolded in canto lmao

Comments

[hellicoptajuuce.livejournal.com]

literally me when my parents are telling me off

[arysthaeniru.livejournal.com]

Literally half of my knowledge of Tamil is insults from my parents, so I have to pretend not to know that when I go to India and hear people fighting, LOL.

[haixiao.livejournal.com]

i need to start doing this at work when i don't feel like speaking spanish lmao but i always feel bad because most of the spanish-speaking customers are nice enough but there are always the few that want to yell "MUCHACHA!!!!" at me when i'm halfway across the store or on the phone or something...like i take back what i said no puedo entenderte

[921227.livejournal.com]

Basically me! I'm not 100% soso I usually pretended I didn't know any when customers came in, but I eventually stopped once I realized how much better I was getting a after struggling with those same customers

[haixiao.livejournal.com]

same here! i'm not close to being fluent in spanish at all but talking w customers has really helped me become better (and more coherent....LMFAO) at speaking spanish on the spot and i've gotten better at understanding it too

[jinkiestabi.livejournal.com]

English is my first and only fluent language, but I pretend not to know it all the time, lmao.

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

the problem with doing this too often, its that probably other people (specially those who doesnt know you well enough) will end up thinking you are dumb for real...
for better results: dont do it in front of your boss or teachers lol

[dorawa.livejournal.com]

Lol I do this all the time when I'm in an awkward Korean situation or my husband and I are joking around. It comes in handy because they assume I don't speak Korean.

[swegkitten.livejournal.com]

omgs yes except i do it if a stranger starts talking to me in telugu and ill just look at them like ???? and they'll leave me alone bless

[yixingsforehead.livejournal.com]

i do this the other way around... pretending to understand, and respond when i have zero clue what is going on.
it seems i can bluff okay, people think i do understand everything.

whenever there's a colleague who doesn't know i have a grasp of the local language comes to the local colleague's desk next to me... and they start to speak about things that affect me as well: the face of the guy next to me is priceless. he's like trying to signal to the new person that i understand, and desperately trying to switch to english so that it's clear lol

[daikokudanji.livejournal.com]

"i do this the other way around... pretending to understand, and respond when i have zero clue what is going on.
it seems i can bluff okay, people think i do understand everything."

Thank god I'm not the only one who does that hahaha but I do wonder if I ever agreed on something bad, like selling my organs haha

[yixingsforehead.livejournal.com]

well, you're still here, so it can't be that bad. i would think it's one of those fake it till you make it things, so it actually helps with learning...

everyone is all supportive of foreigners here, eg. only speaking in english to them (except select few who are really pushy, like me). but like... i'll let the rest of the foreigners daydream that they would be accepted even if they don't speak the language. and i'll just fake it and try to learn asap.

[typhlogirl.livejournal.com]

My mum + grandma used to talk about me in Croatian when I was younger, right in front of me lmao sob

I really need to learn that damn language (I'm only half-Croat/born in Australia so my only language is English ugh)

[horichansenpai.livejournal.com]

My mum does that to me all the time too, with any Viet-speaking partner. Hell she sometimes rants about me to herself in front of me too lmao

[sehunly.livejournal.com]

i always do this tbh during family holidays where my family have to meet up with my extended family. i just freeze and pretend that i don't speak russian or viet. lol.

[halfdressedliar.livejournal.com]

I unfortunately only know some minimal Spanish that can pull me through sometimes at work, but my one of my co-workers will sometimes say that she doesn't want to speak Spanish because she's really the only who does beside our head of office who's normally somewhere else. Poor thing often has her own line of people who need Spanish, and won't come to me even if she tells me what they need.

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

i can't speak yoruba but i understand enough of it and i used to do this all the time lol, most of my family has caught on tho so i can only do it w ppl i recently met now

[pandaapple27.livejournal.com]

ugh im jealous u can at least understand it, I struggle so hard with yourba and my parents dont have enough patience to teach me! how did you learn?

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

lol well my mom did this thing where she would only speak to me and my bro in yoruba and we were kinda forced to learn it that way. i can't read or write it tho, i wish i knew how

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

I sometimes pretend I don't speak Dutch/English when strange men come up to me at the busstop (or anywhere else when I don't want to be bothered). I live in a city with a lot of foreign students so it's easy to get away with.

[ashdevilrun23.livejournal.com]

I can't speak patois but i can understand it very well, helps when i'm in jamaica. tho i don't know some slang and my family teases me bc of that :P

[kawaiisis86.livejournal.com]

The thing about patois is that the slang changes so quickly so if you're not there in the thick of it, you'll never be able to understand it all. I have the same issue, I can speak it but I sound like someone from the 90s when I do.

[honeyfunnybunny.livejournal.com]

I speak 5-6 languages, so when I don't wanna talk to strangers (people trying to sell me stuff), I just keep switching until people run out of languages to talk to me in lmaooooo..

[senshicalico.livejournal.com]

I have done this with Spanish in Japan, lol. (For those people trying to sell me stuff who think they're being so clever by speaking to me in English.)

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

i do this when i wanna avoid ppl i don't wanna talk to on the street. and nosy vendors who want to sell you stuff. it sucks when the vendor can actually speak your language and i'm forced to socialize lmao

[lettace.livejournal.com]

i used to do this when i was younger so now distant relatives (or relatives that i just don't like) really think that i don't know mandarin

...so to this day i continue to get away with eavesdropping during family events lol. it's fun not being involved in the beef while still knowing about everything that's going on

[confuqued.livejournal.com]

Whenever people try to test how much I understand suddenly I know nothing.

[blck-ink.livejournal.com]

lol i do this a lot, maybe a little bit too much. the thing is i understand my mother language i just can't speak it fluently but when i meet my parents' friends or extended family i sometimes just pretend not to understand anything just so they will leave me alone and not talk shit lol