BuzzFeed Asks Americans To Try Pronouncing K-Pop Idol Names

BuzzFeed decided to ask some Americans how to pronounce Korean celebrity's names.

Korean is an easy language to read, but not the easiest to pronounce, and BuzzFeed Videos decided to test that out by having some vloggers try to pronounce the real names of Korean stars in "Americans Pronounce K-Pop Star Names."

Starting with Psy, and ending with EXO's Park Chanyeol, the eight native English speakers try their hands at pronouncing Korean names. While some of the participants pronounce the names with relative ease, others struggle to pronounces the vocalizations that are abnormal to English speakers.

The names of 2PM's Ok Taec Yeon, Miss a's Suzy (Bae Su Ji,) Big Bang's G-Dragon (Kwon Ji Young) SHINee's Kim Jong Hyun, 2NE1's CL (Lee Chae Rin,) Rain (Jung Ji Hoon,) Super Junior's Kim Heechul, and EXO's Park Chanyeol are all offered to the eight participants as examples that they have to try and pronounce.

The video is only a little bit longer than 3 minutes long, but the participants struggles and discomfit with their inability to pronounce words right is visible. Even before the video begins, one woman says that her pronunciation would probably be better if she had a shot of alcohol, while another expresses her sadness at finding out that Psy's real name is not, in fact, Psy (it's Park Jae Sang.)

Some of the eight also comment on K-pop act's names, such as not knowing how to pronounce "SHINee," and finding the name "Super Junior" oxymoronic.

The video was viewed over 730,000 times within 48 hours of being published on Feb. 20. BuzzFeed has featured K-pop in the past, including "Americans Try K-Pop Dance Moves."

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Buzzfeed
2NE1
Big Bang
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