She called it “TikTok English.”
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NCT‘S Jaehyun was the last guest on Young Lee Jithe famous alcoholic talk show, No preparation (also known as My alcohol diary), while promoting his first solo album J.
During the show, Lee Young Ji challenged Jaehyun to an English battle, as they are both known to be proficient English speakers. The clip went viral on TikTokwith 818.8K views at the time of writing.
@marycha232 #jaehyun #youngji #nct #nct127 #leeyoungji #fyp #fypツ #foryou #kpop #xyzbca
♬ original sound – may
Netizens commented that they were shocked by Jaehyun’s modesty about his fluency, despite having lived in the United States for at least four years. Many were also surprised to find out that he had a different name. His birth name is Jeong Jae Hyun, but he legally changed it to Jeong Yoon Oh (also romanized as Yuno).
But something else caught the attention of internet users: Jaehyun and Lee Young Ji immediately started using Blaccents while speaking in English.
Netizens pointed out that Lee Young Ji told Jaehyun that she speaks “TikTok English,” but clearly meant that she speaks AAVE (African American Vernacular English).
Lee Young Ji isn’t the only person who has commonly misidentified AAVE as “TikTok” or “Gen Z” slang. Read more about K-Pop idols’ use of AAVE below.
K-pop idols use AAVE: is it a problem?
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