Grading Twice’s Korean | Mina & Tzuyu

In this series I grade some of your favorite K-pop celebrities who are non-native Korean speakers. This episode features the members Mina and Tzuyu from the K-pop group “Twice” speaking in Korean. I’ll grade them on how well they did, how they can improve, and everything between.

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Intro: 00:00

Mina: 0:56

Tzuyu: 13:52

[tjohnsmith]

Sana and Momo said that Mina had already studied on her own and had learnt a lot of Korean when they first met

[safi]

when j-line arrived in korea, members said that mina was the fastest to pick up the language since she trained the shortest among all of them (1 year). they also mentioned multiple times from debut until now that mina is the smartest and is the most quick-witted. 

however i think sana improved rapidly and surpassed mina overtime due to her outgoing, extroverted and outspoken nature. sana is like the most extroverted member and mina is the most introverted member.

[zheke_music]

*the foreign line actually said that they think korean like the other members and sometimes dream korean, and when they're talking to their relatives they start to talk korean all of a sudden*

[LetsBuildThatApp]

For the Taiwanese, the "ng" sounds are often less audible and morphed into an in between "n" and "ng" sound, this is perhaps why tzuyu makes this mistake. Hearing korean with small hints of their native tongue is definitely unique and adds character. It's almost like hearing a french person speaking American english, quite interesting to listen to.
Now here is some unsolicited critique I'd like to offer for your korean. In order to reach native levels, an American needs to talk with a different tone when speaking an Asian language. It's hard to describe, but Asian languages are spoken with a ton of indecision and a lot of pauses and gaps and run-ons. English speakers definitely tend to gravitate towards putting everything they try to say in one perfect sentence, but this is quite awkward sounding in something like everyday Chinese. Best way to describe this is to sound more "stuttery" with a lot of "eh", "hmm", "ah", "mmm" in between sentences. This may seem counterintuitive, but this is definitely one of the subtle reasons foreigners will sound foreign with Asian languages.

[kongyathong]

yes yoda is tzuyu's nickname, yoda from star wars😂😂😂

[insertnamehere]

I'd like to see a (G)I-DLE version of this video.
Half of the members are foreigners, it'd be interesting to watch, especially Shuhua's Korean! She was not confident with it, but she's better now!
Btw Minnie's Thai
Yuqi's Chinese
And Shuhua's Taiwanese

[tiffunnystraykidsnoona]

16:38 Tzuyu has Yoda like ears that's why her nickname is Yoda XD

[danielalozovska]

Even my mom thinks Mina is the sweetest person ever. So, she is basically perfect.

[madclown]

Actually Mina is a K-pop fan before she even got to JYPE and i think that contributes to her being in good korean in for just 2 years.

[tjohnsmith]

I'm pretty sure that the Japanese girls all speak to each other in Japanese when they are alone, but use Korean when they are in a group or on camera, so that the audience can understand even if it's just them together. Tzuyu however doesn't have any Chinese speakers in the group, but when she speaks to other Chinese people in Korea, She often uses Mandarin

[tw]

Tzuyu name sounds like chewie as in the nick name for chewbacca. The twice members made that connection but they think she is more like yoda than chewbacca because she is sensible and she always has wise words so they call her yoda instead.

[elmeralbiar]

Well, the introvert brainy mina and a gamer.

[Luaxon]

Mina is really good at reading Korean compared to the other non-Native members.
I guess that has to do with her being an introvert.

[sufianstevens]

It's great to see how Billy enjoys watching those Twice clips

[tiffunnystraykidsnoona]

I knew you would use Tzuyu 's funny clip mixing 지겹다 & 즐겁다 ㅋㅋㅋthis is how I learned both words XD

[sunginlight]

Actually I like how Billy talks, like if Tzuyu was really going to receive his feedback. Amazing!

[ogabrielalbar]

Sorn from CLC, the Thai multilingual Queen of Youtube (also, if possible, this SHOULD be a collab)

[timjimu]

Tzuyu's accent is very Taiwanese. Different from China's Mandarin, Taiwanese people don't pronounce every word clearly. So like eng and en, zh ch sh and so on. I guess it is because of the influence of Taiwanese and Japanese. ㅇ and ㄴ are also hard for me.

[choerryscockroach]

Maybe you could do a video on IZ*ONE's Japanese members yet, they've been in Korea for only 2 years but they seem to know it decently - especially Sakura

[derpderp]

omg XD
I don't follow Twice but I gotta say Tzuyu is my favorite member so far, she seems very outgoing and funny lol