When I first started getting into kpop it took me a few weeks to want to learn Korean because I simply wanted to connect with them. I have been doing this all my life. I used to love Telenovelas so I learned a bit of Spanish and Portuguese. Etc, etc. Mind you, English is not even my first language, I already speak/understand four (4) languages even without English.
I don’t get wanting or demanding someone who you know only knows Korean to speak English just so you can understand when you are the one who came to their culture. Its normal to travel and learn the language of that place. Loving kpop is the same, you should want to understand them in their own context too.
BUT I think its also wrong for big kpop artists, or people who know for a fact they have Englsih speaking fans, especially if they’ve been in the industry for years to not accommodate their non-korean fans. I mean, everyone cringed at Timothy Chalemet for going all out trying to integrate and do the most in China. But he knew he wanted Chinese people to like his movie, he needed to make them understand that he cared about them as a people and liked them too. It’s just basic decency to try to immerse yourself in someone else’s culture/language, especially if you want their approval or support.
A drama could tank in Korea, but do well globally, and you’ll still have the variety shows those actors were on be completely in Korean. I know they can’t force those variety shows to translate, but at this point there’s enough foreigners marrying Koreans and enough influence from kpop and kdramas globally to know that Koreans are not the only ones tuning anymore. So what is this behaviour? In the big 2026?
Most of the rest of the world literally knows English to some degree because its a universal language, but they wanna capitalise on those fans without making them feel accommodated. There are still some variety shows that are never translated, or done so very poorly even when its clear English speaking fans (or fans who can ALSO speak English and can understand it better than Korean) would love to participate.
The benefit in me having been learning Korean for the past 6 years is that I can clock badly translated Korean and SOME phrasing. But I don’t have a Korean person around me to help me as much as I need to understand the whole thing without subs. And nowadays you have the Korean youth constantly using abbreviations, some which are created on the spot with no background context, and can only be understood by someone in the same context and language. Its a little sad, and its frustrating. I’ve liked you for so many years and you still won’t try your best to accommodate me even though you know me and people like me exist. No, its actually very sad.
And this is not me saying they should be speaking English for everything, and I actually think fans who want that are very rude, but at this point there are some artists I can’t defend when they speak Korean the entire time knowing fans will only get 70% of what they were saying through a few kind fans who are willing to translate, because even companies these days don’t care how well their stuff is translated or if its done on time. But watch them look for numbers outside of Asia for tours and festivals😒.
I love it for Korea, that for once people need to understand them as well. And I actually need people to stop commenting demanding artists to speak in English. It’s not hard to guess how well someone you came to watch knows and understands English, so if you know they’re not that good then what do you expect them to do? Speak broken English so you can make funny edits out of them?
But on the other hand, especially if they’ve been here for a minute and know they have foreign fans, they need to do better. The world is watching, and all we’re seeing is them being just as exclusionary as people once treated them. I’m not sure that this is the way they should be handling this.
Kudos to those artists who try, and kudos to those fans who try to learn Korean as well. But mostly many thanks and hugs and kisses to those fans who go out of their way to translate for us. You guys are the pillars of these global fandoms.
submitted by /u/YoungComplete7208
[link] [comments]
