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Being a polyglot is another trend to pave way for a successful K-pop musician in Korea, as speaking multiple languages means a better chance to penetrate overseas markets and appeal to English-speaking fans. Vote for the most appealing, language prodigy K-pop star on the poll below.
1. Nichkhun of 2PM
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Born to a Thai father and Chinese-American mother, the Thai-American Nichkhun Buck Horvejkul from California has embraced many languages, such as Thai, English and Chinese since a very young age. He also took a one-on-one lessons for Korean and Japanese for his activities in East Asia.
2. Rap Monster of BTS
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Before debuting as a hip-hop musician, Rap Monster of BTS had a deep interest in studying English. He earned a score of above 900 in TOEIC -- better than most job seekers in Korea -- when he was still a middle school student. He only has four months of experience studying abroad, in New Zealand.
3. Jackson of GOT7
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Hong Kong-born GOT7 member Jackson speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and English. In addition, as a K-pop singer, he has a working-level proficiency in Korean. Despite some flaws in his Korean, he managed to communicate as a Korean soldier, with bandmate and fellow multilingual speaker Bambam, in MBC’s mock-military experience show “Real Men.”
4. Eric Nam
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Other than his mother tongue, soloist Eric Nam has proved his perfect English skills by hosting a number of English-only interviews in shows such as Arirang TV’s “After School Club,” MBC’s “Section TV” and contents provider Pikicast’s interview series “Why Not?” Nam showed off his Spanish skill in MBC’s talk show “Radio Star” by introducing himself in Spanish. Also, he speaks a bit of Chinese, with the help of his nine-month stay in Beijing for study abroad experience.
5. Henry of Super Junior M
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Born in Canada to a Taiwanese mother and a father from Hong Kong, Henry has long been exposed to French and English, used in his place of birth; and Mandain and Cantonese, used among family members. As a K-pop group member, he learned to speak Korean, and has been featured in many Korean entertainment shows such as MBC’s “Real Men” and “We Got Married.”
By Son Ji-hyoung (json@heraldcorp.com)
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