K-Pop Idols Want To Speak English Like BLACKPINK’s Jennie—Here’s Why
Language teachers for K-Pop idols revealed why many of their students say they want to speak English like BLACKPINK‘s Jennie.
Recently, Heo Woo Seong—the CEO of JIGOOUH—and Dasom, an English teacher in the company, guested on an episode of AYO‘s “Comment Defenders.” JIGOOUH specializes in foreign language services for idols, so they know a thing or two about speaking English.
In the video, the topic of Jennie’s English pronunciation was brought up. The netizen was surprised to learn that there are different kinds of English accents.
I heard Jennie’s English pronunciation is a dialect. Is that true? New Zealand dialect? I didn’t know there were dialects in English.
— Korean netizen
Dasom surmised that Jennie has an American and New Zealand accent, while Rosé has an Australian accent.
Each country has a different English accent. Rosé speaks a pretty Australian accent. Jennie’s accent is New Zealand and American. For both New Zealand and Australian accents, you don’t pronounce the last bit clearly. In American accents, ‘war-er.’ In Australian or New Zealand accents, ‘wotah.’
— Dasom
Heo Woo Seong then commented on Jennie’s English proficiency, saying, “Jennie basically speaks English well.”
It is precisely because of Jennie’s fluent English and pretty accent that many idols aspire to speak like her. Although that’s the case, Dasom explained that they still try to match their students’ accents to their respective characters.
So a lot of people say to us that they want to speak English like Jennie. We find an accent that suits each member’s character and teach them with different accents.
— Dasom
Hear more about English in the K-Pop industry in the full video below!