[2009.02.19] People criticize Nicole for acting like she can't speak Korean. “I am frustrated too”.


hopelesshong

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I really don't see why anyone would lie about not knowing a language well enough. Considering the homogenity of South Korea and the pride Koreans have in their language, I really don't see what benefit Nicole would get if, hypothetically, she was faking it this whole time. Let's see, she'd get laughed at and teased repeatedly for poor use of the Korean language, and she'd never be able to do simple tasks because people wouldn't be able to understand "bad" Korean. Older adults would talk behind her back saying things like she should feel ashamed for not speaking Korean fluently enough, especially as a celebrity.

Oh wait, she's already being made fun of on TV shows. So what does she do? She goes about improving her Korean. If she were intentionally faking it, her reaction would be something like "oh silly me, my Korean's so bad, la la la~~" and continue what she was doing before. I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't be stupid enough to do something that would let people make fun of me over and over and over.

Edited by KARAokeing
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i dont think she's acting. what for would she? lol. in her defense, i think it's hard to come up with something funny to describe each week and i think people are expecting that from her.

she's a smart girl, and it very quite known that her Korean is still not that good. her speaking improved, she's not stuttering as much as before and i''m sure she's still working on her vocabulary.

nicole made the segment a lot more fun than it was before too. lol people just have to find something to pick on. -.-

thanks peter. :lol:

^

KARAokeing, i never seen people making fun of Nicole's Korean other than the members. (the Kara4) Whenever she comes on a show or a radio program, people recognized her because of Star Golden Bell.

when she was on Food Expedition, they even requested for her to do her SGB segment for them and it's probably because they find it amusing to try to guess her way of thinking. It's like trying to break a code. lol

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lol i never seen anyone criticizing her for bad korean before i got this article for translations... -__-

when did that happen lol

the only i remember is korean people liking Nicole on Star Golden bell... lol weird article...

Thanks Peter for the Translation... (just making myself feel good)

Edited by hopelesshong
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Geez.

I don't think she's acting at all. I think we all knew that she was going to get picked on because of this. But I know Nicole will get over it, and keep her head up strong and high.

Nowadays, All I see about kara is anti-fans bashing them. For me, I feel like it's a sign that their getting bigger, and when you get bigger you get more anti-fans. But Kara is a great group and will be able to get through it all.

And Nicole's Korean will get better as she goes on!

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KARAokeing, i never seen people making fun of Nicole's Korean other than the members. (the Kara4) Whenever she comes on a show or a radio program, people recognized her because of Star Golden Bell.

when she was on Food Expedition, they even requested for her to do her SGB segment for them and it's probably because they find it amusing to try to guess her way of thinking. It's like trying to break a code. lol

It's not just the times when hosts would pick at her pronunciations, as infrequent as it may be; I'm referring to the editors of television shows - the guys who slap on coloured text. Taking SGB as an example, there were a fair number of occasions where the editors would paste text giving a proper pronunciation in contrast to what Nicole just said. Doing this repeatedly, in my mind, gives me an impression that these guys are trying to make her weird pronuncation into some sort of running gag.

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You can tell Nicole gets frustrated and a bit discouraged during SGB...the judges even once said "You can sing in Korean but you can't speak it?" which may be funny to them but terribly discouraging..I'd be very hurt. And honestly I know a few people who think that pretending to not know their own language can be used to their own advantage..basically they think it can be "cute" and gain attention. But I know Nicole isn't like that. She's very cautious with her words and constantly tries to improve.

I think one of the reasons why her Korean sounds a little shaky is bcs the way she talks is very fast. Since Level With Me is a race against the clock she has to think fast. Netizens need to clam down, why would someone fake not knowing their own language..

Edited by SML
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@Karaokeing

I understand your reasoning. there are many times I kind of sigh and shake my heads when i watch what they do on Korean Tv shows. but it happens for every single korean celebrities out there... i guess its more like a "korean" thing. I think koreans like to just tease around with people's mistakes a lot... even my parents are condescending to me when i make mistakes but its just a "korean" thing. i think?

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I think koreans like to just tease around with people's mistakes a lot... even my parents are condescending to me when i make mistakes but its just a "korean" thing. i think?

I guess so, cause at least with English, people tend to be more tolerant of the existence of other varieties of English, and the various vocabularies associated with them. For example, a lift in the UK is an elevator in the US, but people aren't going to laugh at you; more likely than not, they'll either ask you what you mean, or they'll have an idea of what it is you're referring to. In contrast, in Japan, if you've ever seen anime characters with Kansai accents, a typical running gag would be side characters not understanding their Japanese, or that their Japanese is somehow "weird". I'm guessing Koreans' attitudes towards non-standard pronunciation (or at least accented) are similar.

Compared to what Nicole is going through as depicted in this article, I know for a fact that the teasing that Ahyoomee gets for her Japanese-accented Korean is far, far worse than what Nicole gets. Guests on those game shows aren't afraid to openly snicker at her pronunciation (e.g. this one time when she was reading some newspaper thing out loud), and hosts have picked at her pronunciation countless times - even on that 1000 song challenge show.

Edited by KARAokeing
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well she might be talking about the message boards, where she's being criticized...

if nicole's faking then she must be faking her Korean even when they debuted lol

b/c she knew one day she'd be on Star Golden Bell ridiculous much? lol...

Nicole is very conscious especially with Korean.. that's why she was practically mute

when Kara first debuted.. she didn't say anything..

but you can't please everybody.. it's either she really needs to work on her korean

or she's faking not knowing korean lol..

but i think she's doing a great job and she's entertaining people

i mean she should know lots of people tune in each week to watch her segment :D

thanks Peter :(

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I think I know why the Koreans are thinking the way they do.

A Korean who lived abroad might fake his/her fluency in the language

Just to brag about the fact that hey, I came from the States.

Anyhow, it's so obvious that Nicole isn't faking it.

Since her debut, she's been struggling with Korean,

Not understanding words, speaking hesitantly, and

Always trying to improve her command of the language.

Thanks for the translations Peter and Mae.

Edited by whaleatape
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oh here comes something really ridiculous... i couldn't find even a single reason why one should pretend to be lacking... not to mention that she's a star... she has an image to protect... i'm quite sure she wouldn't do that kind of a thing

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I don't think Nicole fakes her korean : couldn't see the reasons !

We already know she had so much difficulties with Korean at KARA debuts and then she worked hard to learn it. Now we can see her improvement but It's so obvious that she is still not totally fluent.

This article is so stupid !

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its ok nicole.. we all know your not acting!!

how can they expect her to be fluent in korean

when she has only been learning it for a few years.

she is trying so hard to improve.. im proud of her!!

thanks for the translations.

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Netizens X__X Aish, why they gotta hate, ya know?

Nicole is like one of the only reasons that keeps me watching SGB *It got so boring and they changed the 5th line completely GAHH!* And yeah, she's trying really hard and is obviously getting frustrated at times. People need to take other things into perspective or just straight up get over themselves.

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What good would come out of faking, in the first place? Nicole's too smart for that. I believe that when she says she's having a hard time with Korean, then she really is having telling the truth. >:|

I'm really happy that she's trying hard to study Korean well. It's really hard to learn a new language, so I hope the critics would go away. Shoo~shoo~ er... >:D

Thanks for translations~

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nicole is jjang :D..

love her stumbling kakakaka

we believe in nicole :thumbup:

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