Why I often hate English songs and lyrics in Kpop

    Their English pronunciation and intonation seem a bit off, and it's sometimes hard to catch what they're saying in the English lyrics because it sounds like they're mumbling.


    I'm not a native English speaker either, and my English isn't perfect, but it wouldn't hurt for the company to provide more training in pronouncing English lyrics. They don't need to sound like native speakers, just make sure the lyrics are clear and not rough to the ear. Singers in my country practice a lot to get their English lyrics right, even if they can't even speak in that language or understand it. Yet, they put a lot of effort to ensure their songs sound smooth and their pronunciation are clear especially for those who speaking that language.


    K-pop is going global, and they're releasing more English songs and lyrics. These idols don't have to be English experts, but it would be great if the company put in a bit more effort. Aespa's "Better Things" is a good example of clear and smooth pronunciation, even though there are clear differences between Giselle and the others. If I'm not mistaken, only Giselle is fluent in English, but in that song, the other three also suprisingly did a very good job with their enunciation.

  • AllKill VIP

    I think the off pronunciation is cute.


    For meaningful songs, I think it’s so powerful when all the lyrics are in Korean except for the chorus. It works very well because the writer can just focus on expressing in Korean while the chorus lets international fans know what the song is about. An example of this is “Either Way” by IVE.


    When utilized effectively, English can be a tool to emphasize certain themes or messages in a song.

    I think they do provide training or at least a lot of the bigger and mid tier companies do but at the end of the day English is their second or even third (a lot of them also have japanese training???) language so it's understandable if it's not perfect


    also whilst most of the students in SK would learn English in School?? (I think they do???) for a lot of them that don't undertake high school or go to an arts high school might not study it or learn it in detail and they will rarely have the opportunity to use it in their daily lives which adds to the difficulty

    I rant about this at least once a month it seems like lol.


    I only get mad at the most egregious violations (the way Jenlisa pronounced "the" in Happiest Girl, Soyeon's penchant for just making up English grammar and pronunciation rules on the fly, that fired SM producer who couldnt be bothered to update the ATROCIOUS lyrics to Dreams Come True for Aespa poor Giselle had to be DYING inside while being forced to sing the nonsense gobbledygook "you make it feel me good dont you wanna up and down").


    I know how hard the English language is especially for my poor Izone girls ;(;(

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    As someone who's first and only language is english, I think some instances bother me In terms of the pronunciation


    In Hoshi's Spider, He pronounces emergency like ee-merg-en-cy its hard to explain so ill just link the timestamp here

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    In Taeyong's Love theory with Wonstein,

    They pronounce "theory" and "dictionary" completely wrong. I think it's to go with the flow of the music, but It still bothers me nonetheless.

    It's a great song otherwise

    I don't even know what they were trying to accomplish with Dreams Come True.

    Yujin has come a long way since "I'm a children" ;( . She's gotten a lot better. Wonyoung is the Queen in terms of speaking English among the former IZONE members.


    In general, idols that secure international branding deals seem to become more proficient, understandably, because they travel to Paris, Milan, London, etc. where English is the international language of choice. Karina was/is a fast learner. I've also noticed that Miyeon has improved a lot in the last year as well.

  • AllKill VIP

    sometimes i like that their pronunciation sucks lol but yeah definitely not ok in a fully english song.


    i love kpop cause i can listen to it without having to know what theyre singing about lol. they lyrics are often so dumb i cant. so i dont really like when they make english songs

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