As K-Pop idol groups attempt to venture into Chinese and Taiwanese markets, a good grasp of the Chinese language is extremely helpful as they record Chinese songs and promote on variety shows.

Of all the K-Pop idol stars who are not of Chinese descent, who is the best at Chinese?

One of the best K-Pop idols in the Mandarin language is none other than Sunye of Wonder Girls. The girl group made a huge hit with “Nobody” in 2008 and started a huge K-Pop wave in Taiwan, along with Super Junior’s “Sorry Sorry” in 2009.

While promoting at a Taiwanese variety show called “Kangxi Is Coming” in April of 2010, Sunye was able to converse fluently with the hosts, showing off her strong grasp of Mandarin. The Wonder Girls as a group recorded Chinese versions of their biggest hits, “Nobody” and “2 Different Tears.” Sunye, who is now married and a soon-to-be mom, reportedly studied Chinese for 2 years while training at JYP and says that she loves the language.

Out of all other idols, Super Junior-M is the group that has spent the most time promoting in both mainland China and Taiwan. Their fluency in Chinese is unbelievable, and the group had a long stay in Taiwan, which helped them get even better at Chinese. During their promotional activities on television variety shows, all the members were able to converse easily in Mandarin.

Although two of the members, Zhoumi and Henry, already knew Chinese, the other members worked hard to learn the language. Out of all the Super Junior-M members, Kyuhyun has the best pronunciation and speaks like a native. During the press conference for the group’s Chinese album, “Too Perfect,” Kyuhyun drew attention for his ability to recite Chinese idioms at lightning speed. On variety shows, Kyuhyun would also be able to make jokes in Chinese and sang famous Chinese songs, including “If You Also Heard” by Taiwanese singer, A-Mei.

As for other Super Junior-M members, Ryeowook is the most diligent of them all and writes in his diary using Chinese in order to practice the language. Siwon, who landed a role in Taiwanese Drama “Skip Beat!” along with Donghae in 2011, has studied in China before and could quickly pick up the language. Donghae is also known for saying sweet Chinese phrases to fans, such as “I will meet you all in my dreams tonight.”

Other than Super Junior-M, Park Jung Min of SS501 has also received attention from Taiwanese fans for his knowledge of many difficult Chinese phrases. He learned Chinese through acting in Taiwanese Drama “Fondant Garden” in 2012. He was able to interact naturally with his Taiwanese co-stars in Chinese, and even joked around with them.

Park Jung Min further showcased his Mandarin skills when he sang for the drama’s OST in Chinese with a song called “Bad Guy.”

More recently, 2PM’s Taecyeon revealed that he and his fellow 2PM member, Nichkhun, have both studied Chinese in the past. In an interview for “We Got Married: Global Edition,” Taecyeon said that the two had studied in the same advanced-level Chinese class. While Nichkhun’s pronunciation was better, Taecyeon was able to recognize and read more Chinese words.

In Taecyeon’s virtual marriage with Taiwanese actress Gui Gui (Wu Ying Jie), the beast idol showed off his Chinese with occasional words like “Cheers” (Gan Bei) and “Thank you” (Xie xie). He was even able to write out Gui Gui’s name in Chinese characters in the snow. It seems that the 2PM members’ foreign language skills were able to help them “get married” to lovely Chinese ladies, as Nichkhun was also virtually married for a time to f(x)’s Victoria.

Fluency in Mandarin Chinese may prove to be even more helpful as K-Pop’s influence continues to spread to Chinese-speaking regions. The idols’ diligence in mastering Chinese will help them avoid awkward situations that arise with translators assisting in between during promotional activities overseas.