SNSD Gets Criticized For Bad Pronunciation In Japan

Dec 21, 2011

SNSD recently performed the Japanese version of “The Boys” on a top variety program in Japan. However, the emcee pointed out some pronunciation flaws during the song and thus, has become quite an issue among the netizens.

The issue arose after an episode of popular Japanese variety show “Hey Hey Hey” aired on December 19, during which SNSD performed the Japanese version of “The Boys.” The emcee of the program is comedian Hamada Masatoshi and as soon as SNSD finished their performance, he jokingly said, “What are they saying? I have no idea what they are saying.” At Hamada’s unexpected comment, the other guests uncomfortable faces were caught on tape and the other emcee of the show, Matsumoto Hitoshi quickly changed the subject.

Japanese netizens commented, “I hope this will be a good lesson and warning for the Korean artists who come to Japan and sing in Japanese with motives of making more money,” while Korean netizens commented, “I hope the way our artists sing in Japan in Japanese will change.”

Clips of this part of the episode of “Hey Hey Hey” were posted online and have received over 200,000 hits.

Korean netizens commented, “It is no longer ‘K-Pop’ if Korean artists go overseas and sing their songs in a foreign language. Why don’t they take this opportunity to stop singing in Japanese all together,” “Let’s try to understand our Korean artists, who are probably having a hard time in a foreign land with foreign cultures and languages.”