Euro-Americans speaking North Korean with native fluency
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This short video claims that these two men speak perfect Korean with a Pyeongyang accent.
Comments by Koreanists (whom I asked if this sounds right to them):
Haewon Cho:
Yes they are native North Korean speakers. Amazing!
Bob Ramsey:
Ross King:
Yes.
What is problematic about the clip is that it shows how the ROK Revised Government Romanization is giving rise to bogus pronunciations like "chee-all" for what is romanized as "Cheol" = 철.
These two brothers are occasionally featured in videos showing 'foreigners' speaking fluent Korean, but that too is problematic: Korean is their first language, and they did not learn it as a second/foreign language, the 'hard way'.
Jongseong Park:
"(I) wanted to have a Korean name."
Uri minjok-ŭl chikʼigi wihan haengwiran mal-imnida.
경애하는 김정은 원수님께 충성으로 보답하고
"repay the Dear Marshal Kim Jong Un with loyalty"
To put this in perspective, bear in mind that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Korean-Americans who speak English with native fluency. Nobody makes the slightest fuss over them. There are even thousands of Euro-Americans who learned Korean "the hard way" and speak it with near-native fluency. Mutatis mutandis, the same is true for many other languages.
I used to love to trick Chinese who spoke to me on the phone into thinking that I was actually ethnically Han. It was even more fun to trick them face to face into believing that I was a Uyghur PRC citizen from Artush / Artux Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in Eastern Central Asia, except that they were skeptical because they said my Mandarin is better (more biāozhǔn 標準 ["standard"]) than that of a Uyghur.
The joy of learning languages!
Selected readings
- "'Communism' in Korean" (7/5/23)
- "In North Korea, it's a dire crime to speak like a South Korean, part 2" (7/3/23)
- "Official Chinglish, with a note on North Korean Juche" (11/22/14)
- "Is Korean diverging into two languages?" (11/6/14)
- "Is there no / any longer a reason / need to learn a foreign language?" (7/14/23)
Valerie Hansen said,
July 16, 2023 @ 1:45 pm
In 2006, Crossing the Line, a film directed by Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner, told the story of two US soldiers (James Dresnok and Charles Robert Jenkins) who defected to North Korea during the Korean War. The father of the two men discussed in this blogpost was James Dresnok. One of the men shown here appears in the film (actually both sons may appear, but I only remember one) and speaks accented English. The film is fascinating for what it shows about North Korea (even if you have to wonder what the filmmakers had to leave out in order to get permission to make and release the film). It's available for rent on Amazon Video.
J.W. Brewer said,
July 16, 2023 @ 2:59 pm
What does it mean to call these brothers "Euro-American"? Their late father was an American defector, presumably of ultimate European ancestry. Their mother was a Romanian lady who was kidnapped from Italy in a covert North Korean operation to provide a coerced bride for the defector and AFAIK had never been to the U.S. So on their maternal side they are of "Euro-" ancestry, but not "-American" ancestry. They do probably qualify under U.S. law for U.S. citizenship (perhaps also under Romanian law for Romanian citizenship?), but I take it have not availed themselves of any of the associated rights or borne any of the associated obligations.
Victor Mair said,
July 16, 2023 @ 7:30 pm
@J. W. Brewer
Your explanation of "Euro-American" is what, after much thought, I intended it to be.
Joe said,
July 16, 2023 @ 7:32 pm
No one bats an eye at Korean Americans speaking their native English, but English has a special place in the world and no one really bats an eye at any color of face speaking flawless English. However, some people who aren't locals may still bat an eye if a person with visible East Asian features speaks flawless English with an accent other than American or British, or speaks flawless French, even though there are growing numbers of native-born Australians and Frenchpersons who trace their ancestry to Asia.
Jenny Chu said,
July 18, 2023 @ 5:52 am
There is a long history of non-(visibly) Chinese people growing up in multinational, cosmopolitan Hong Kong, going to local schools, being well-integrated into the local community, etc. There have never been huge numbers but it's not THAT unusual. Nevertheless, a white person in Hong Kong speaking native-level Cantonese still gets double takes, stares, and amazed responses.