Jessica teases foreign fans demanding she speak English

[typhlogirl.livejournal.com]

"She was interacting with fans in her Instagram comments and when all of the foreign fans kept asking her 'English please~' she replied back in Korean 'Learn Korean :P'"





"She's the jjang ㅋㅋㅋㅋ and looks gorgeous in that picture..."

"I'm so tired of foreign fans always asking for 'eng plz'"

"I really wish foreign fans would stop it with the eng plz ㅜㅜ if you're going to be a fan of a Korean idol, at least try to learn the language ㅠㅜㅜ"

"Yeah... I don't really see foreign fans who don't bother to learn Korean as having that much love for the idols they claim to like."

"This is why I love Sica ㅎㅎㅎㅎ"

"Seriously... it always frustrated me seeing them ask for English all the time"

"I feel it ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I was watching INFINITE's V app and people kept spamming that they were Turkish Inspirits... no one asked"
- "I saw that too, no wonder Dongwoo mentioned Turkey over 2-3 times"

"I know an unni who is a fan of a model and she learned that model's language ㅋㅋㅋㅋ she's mastered 7 languages so far like that"

"Or use a translating machine... every time I go into the video comments of Korean singers, I always see 'eng plz' comments"

"I agree ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ learn the language already!"

"Foreign fans, let's learn Korean ^^"

"But on the flip side, I find it so cute when I see foreign fans writing in Korean no matter how awkward it is ㅋㅋㅋㅋ"

"When she speaks in English and Korean fans complain about not understanding, she tells them to learn English too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ"

"Yeah, I don't think you can get as dedicated as Korean fans are with their celebrities. Korean fans will go as far as to learn the languages like Japanese or Chinese... but I noticed foreign fans demand that Korean celebrities speak English for them ㅋㅋ"

"Sica actually uses a lot of English too but they always still ask her for English.. ^^"

"Seriously, it's so frustrating when fans just demand English from Korean stars.. if you like a Korean star, you should be speaking their language or at least trying to learn it ㅋㅋㅋ some just straight up demand that they speak in English"

"Oppa English plz"

"Pretty sure it'd be easier for foreign fans to just learn the language so that they can go to concerts and communicate with their favorite idols better."

"I even see foreigners report her posts and some comments for not using English, pisses me off"



Source: NetizenBuzz via Instiz

Omona, has your love of K-pop inspired you to study Korean at all? Do you think foreign fans should learn the basics, at the very least?

Alternatively, do you ever get frustrated by the langauge barrier between you & your faves (assuming they only speak Korean)?

Comments

[pseudo-shigure.livejournal.com]

i don't understand korean, but i kinda know some things they're talking about. so i thought it was ok.... but then i have a chinese bias *cries in my native language*

[showminomoney.livejournal.com]

On a similar note Jessica once playfully told a Korean fan to learn English (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzejHrmfAKc&feature=youtu.be#t=6m5s) when they said they couldn't understand her during her Legally Blonde Fan meet.

Personally I've learned how to read hangul, mostly cause it's super simple and a very cute looking system. lol And after all the footage I've seen getting/being into kpop & korean shows, I've naturally come to be familiar with a few words and phrases. I've even installed a hangul keyboard into my phone so that I can quickly check google translate when I want to understand something.
I don't think foreign fans have to learn the language if they don't want to, but I also don't think they also should be demanding that off of the idols either. It's definitely fun to hear them speak in English, but it's a very entitled mindset to think that they have to do it at all.

[cosmicjam.livejournal.com]

Yeah i agree with you that fans don't have to learn the language but they also shouldn't be entitled.

May i ask how you taught yourself to read hangul? I've always been interested in doing that but i'm not really sure how to go about it

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

i've always found it almost second nature to learn new languages, so when i first discovered this cool korean group called 2ne1 and listened to all their songs i ended up picking up quite a few words anyway. and then i figured i might as well study it properly. it's a lot of fun! i think if you find yourself picking up korean words you should give the language a go too.

[niyarav.livejournal.com]

"I even see foreigners report her posts and some comments for not using English, pisses me off"

What? Is this for real? Because that is one of the most absurd and entitled things I've heard.

[fallendaydreams.livejournal.com]

How would someone even know who reported what?

[kpopsteve.livejournal.com]

oh jessica what a tease

[smilla-sini.livejournal.com]

those 'eng plz' messages seem very rude to me.
basic korean is not that hard to learn and idols rarely use difficult vocabulary on sns anyway. i don't see why they can't learn it at least to that extent if they are that invested.
at the same time, there is so much content in english these days and everything is being translated very fast. it's very different from when i was a teen and had to use a dictionary to understand what's going on on tiziano ferro's fan board.

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

yesss tell them!

i don't think fans ar obligated to learn korean, as long as they don't bother idols like this and are patient and grateful for those fansubbing. i started to learn korean 2 years ago exactly! i understand the basics now but i still want to learn more - i still have to rely too much on subs

[cafetin99.livejournal.com]

RUDE as fuck, the fans who demand English and she telling the fans to "Learn Korean :P" (even with the passive-agressive emoji)
No matter how you want to put it, that's rude, asshole behaviour, from both parts (even if some of her fans say she was joking/teasing/whatever~~~~~~)
No one can come and tell you that you should speak in a language and no one can come and tell you that you should learn X language.

Also, no, I listen to music from all over the world, and I don't have nor I want to learn their language, you can always find translations.

[merlugd.livejournal.com]

Exacto

[ah0000.livejournal.com]

Isn't there a translation feature in instagram now too lol. I mean it doesn't always work properly but I usually can get the gist of things that way

[buckleyourboots.livejournal.com]

Mte, and if the auto-translate didn't do the best job, I check the comments or replies if it's on Twitter and someone's usually been very helpful and translated it.

[thranduiles.livejournal.com]

i can read hangul and got to know some stuff etc because it's used a lot, but i wish i had more time to actually study it more.. studying languages is fun imo especially when you're rewarded immediately because you gradually find yourself understanding whatever ur faves are saying more and more without subs

i can't at those comments saying eng pls, they're so annoying and entitled. if you really want to fully understand ur fave u should learn the language and if you don't want to learn then just be patient and wait until someone translates

[itsanonyx.livejournal.com]

I tried learning Korean but I'm not that good with this. :o/

I already learned English and a little bit of French. Does this also count? ;D


"When she speaks in English and Korean fans complain about not understanding, she tells them to learn English too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ"

If this is true then they don't have any rights to complain about the people who ask for English. They are doing the same thing! -_-

[setsuna16.livejournal.com]

I mean, the only reason I follow BoA on twitter is because she will occasionally say something in English. And I do wish she would say more in English, but I don't begrudge her for communicating in her native language more than Japanese or English.

I don't think foreign fans "should" learn the basics, because in my 13 years of being a K-Pop fan I don't know shit so it would be hypocritical of me to think that. I understand that Jessica is a unique situation, being Korean-American and all that, but if she wants to communicate in Korean, on her account, let her.

[jaequeeragenda.livejournal.com]

im so conflicted on this cause the whole "OI learn this fucking language cause of XYZ" type of mentality always rubbed me the wrong way (as someone who lives in the united states and in the latinx community) but on the other hand if u wanna make ur idols more reachable, would it be difficult to hire (or even let fans) subtitle videos into various languages, like spanish, french, arabic, german, etc etc etc? cause i doubt an idol is gonna have the time to learn 452324234 languages, i sure as hell won't.

i aint learning korean for an idol tho lmao it aint that important to me. someone eventually subs it or i eventually move onto other things. ok so basically, it doesn't effect me as much cause i dont really care to know what they're really saying lol just give me pretty videos and good songs 👍👍👍 however i can understand both sides of the arguement~~ lol

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

I'm conflicted because there is a lot of rudeness from fans on this issue.
Jessica has been teasing fans for not using one language over the other already and she speaks both English and Korean so I don't think her answer was rude, more playful. Like many idols, I'm willing to bet that she's happy about having fans ready to buy her albums, whatever country they're from/language they use lol.
But the fans... it's just as rude to flood a picture with "eng plz" comments (especially when apps like vlives are catching up with translation + many fans do all the jobs for free, f*ck, just be patient, the idol is not there to answer any of your wishes) than to express disdain like some of these comments (not every fan have the will/time/opportunity to learn Korean, and I'm laughing internally too because at least half of the kpop fans I know irl have learned a bit of Korean anyway). Can't we all just calm down and be more respectful?

[miyozari.livejournal.com]

I hate the eurocentric attitude of so many kpop fans and the "eng pls" comments are fucking annoying.

Due to watching a billion of Korean dramas, I ended up taking one Korean class and learning hangul. I already learned four languages, so I might as well learn another one and I love learning unique words, which cannot be directly translated into other languages.

[yixingsforehead.livejournal.com]

eurocentric? lol for some reason i always assume the eng pls people to come from countries where english is the main language.

[xdark-symmetryx.livejournal.com]

i've been fortunate enough to have somehow picked up the korean language by the sheer amount of exposure to tv shows/vids, so i don't have much of a problem with idols not having english subs or speaking english at all.

usually the only time that i find it irritating when international fans demand for english subs for fancams from fansigns/fanevents bc the fansite admins are already nice for sharing in the first place, and expecting subs for unofficial vids is a bit entitled tbh

if fans are invested enough, they should really try to learn the langauge tbh. there's a time and place when idols can speak to international fans like vapp and stuff, but fans expecting idols to speak english when they might not have the skill or means to do so can really come across as rude when fans being overly demanding

[tsuyoi-hikari.livejournal.com]

I dont feel the need to learn Korean properly since everything is translated very fast nowadays. Its different with Japanese though.. I need to learn it properly to understand my fave long concert MCs OTL

[queenhinata.livejournal.com]

gosh i hate those ENG PLZ comments so freaking rude

i don't think learning Korean is a requirement to being a kpop fan especially with how fast subs are BUT it is nice to learn another language if you have the time/ability to do so... lol and personally it seems stupid to me to be into korean music/shows for years and not even learn Hangul and the basic phrases. so I've been learning for the last 3 years now

[yixingsforehead.livejournal.com]

one of my biggest pet peeves. just went on a rant to a colleague about a similar thing this morning. (he moved to a country that he doesn't want to bother the main language of, and then compains when something is not accessible in english.)

the eng pls and eng sub pls thing is so unnecessary and inconsiderate. when i have time i go and explain to those people how hard it is to sub things and that they should also start to work on subbing if they need translations so much.

it's like... if you don't bother to learn the foreign language (i say bother, cause if you have that much access to the internet to follow kpop, you have access to korean lessons, too), at least be patient, and wait till someone nice translates for you. and then telling it straight to the idol... lame, lazy, etc.

we're the aliens in kpop and it's nice when we get content in english, we should not for a moment take it for granted... doesn't matter if it's a bilingual person or not.

it was actually my frustraition with english subs of korean movies that made me learn a bit of korean. i actually process korean content both based on english translations and straight from korean. even the biggest korean movies get really poor subtitles sometimes, and it used to be frustrating... but i just learned the basics, and now i understand what they really mean in the movie, even when the eng subtitle is off. (for the same reason i learned basics of many other languages.)

i simply cannot process when people actively follow kpop or kdrama and don't want to learn the language at all (and then complain re lack of english). like if you have enough energy to stare at lee min ho for hours in a row, you should be able to learn hangul very quick...

as i said, it's a pet peeve. /rant

[a-cheshire-grin.livejournal.com]

QUEEN OF EVERYTHING! xddd

But seriously...Sica regularly posts things in English on her IG and also has Q&A sessions with fans in English.
Whenever she is in China, she is also speaking mostly English because her Chinese is not so good yet. So English-speaking fans really have no right to demand that she should speak English, when she is having a conversation with her fans in Korean for once! ~.~

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

I studied Korean for my uni degree. I won't lie and say that kpop didn't have a part in influencing me but there was also an academic influence because I'm a history nut and Korean/East Asian history is hella interesting.

but honestly in this day of Not Unintelligible google translate, commenting 'English pls' is both rude and lazy.

[chastainy.livejournal.com]

What's your degree in?
I really wanted to take Korean history just cause it seems really interesting when compared to European/US History but the Uni I went only offered 1 Chinese history course and it was being offered the semester after i graduated lol

[lovelyxbeauty.livejournal.com]

She already speaks more English than Korean on insta tho... fans can be so entitled sometimes. Jessica has a big fandom as well that translates everything she does say, just follow some fans on twitter.

[jinkiestabi.livejournal.com]

I don't think her comment was rude at all, more playful tbh. Male idols say the same thing during V Lives. Shrug.

Fans have nerve telling her that she needs to do what they say on her own page. Demanding someone to do anything they technically DON'T have to do is very entitled and rude behavior. As if you can't go on Tumblr and find a translation from 12 different people, one right after the other. Not even bothering to do the bare minimum of sticking it into a translator? You can't do that much?

And OP, I appreciate language and linguistics. The music I dabble into, I try to be familiar with the language, if I'm not already. Even that time I was into only Brit entertainment, I learned Brit slang to understand things better.

[words-by-ash.livejournal.com]

I'm in the process of becoming fluent in Korean and while it's a lot of work, I'm enjoying all aspects of Korean culture. Kpop and K dramas are just an aspect of it.

English speakers are so entitled.

[dorawa.livejournal.com]

How long have you been studying?

[unelixir.livejournal.com]

yeah ok i'm sorry your foreign fans dont have enough time to learn korean i guess?
i know this was said in a playful manner but it's rubbing me off in awrong way