Is Girls’ Generation’s Yuri Really Fluent in French?

Shortly after the 15^th episode of SBS drama “Fashion King” that aired on May 7, Korean media was quick to dub Girls’ Generation’s Yuri as the next “intelligent” K-Pop star with both the looks and the brains.

Her new nickname was based on a scene in “Fashion King” where Yuri speaks in French over the phone. Sitting next to Yoo Ah In, Yuri says how good looking her boss is and promises to show him to the person on the phone tomorrow. Although it was a brief 20-second conversation, Korean press and netizens lauded the young idol star for her ability to “master” two foreign languages (English and French) in such a short period of time.

Netizens commented, “Of course, she’s our next biggest Hallyu star,” “I knew she could speak English, but now she’s fluent in French too,” and “Who knew she was this smart?”

But we weren’t sure if this was another case of the Korean press/netizens “blowing things out of proportion.” So we contacted our French sources for verification, and their response wasn’t so positive. They said Yuri’s accent was “strange” and definitely “awkward,” adding, “It’s almost like us speaking in Korean.”

You can watch the scene in the video below. Can you tell how good her French is?