I͟n͟t͟r͟o͟d͟u͟c͟t͟i͟o͟n Hello everyone! I haven't made a project in quite a while now. (4 months lol) My singing has been kind of horrible lately, and so I highly lack motivation in terms of my s-pop idol account, but here we are, cuz i think this is quite an important topic! B͟l͟u͟r͟b I think we all know there are many issues with the s-pop community and cultural appropriation (especially with Korean and Japanese). Many idols claim to be one of those two (or both) nationalities for attention or a sense of validation, and even some companies see Korean and Japanese as aesthetic languages meant to be performed, furthermore creating unrealistic expectations. PS. because i say Japanese and Korean a lot in this project, I'll be saying KR/JP often cuz thats just easier to refer to. 0͟0͟1͟:͟ ͟"I͟-i͟'m͟ k͟o͟r͟e͟a͟n͟ a͟n͟d͟ j͟a͟p͟a͟n͟e͟s͟e͟!͟!͟" We've all come across someone who claim they are a different nationality or ethnicity, typically KR/JP. It's usually pretty obvious cuz they all conveniently don't know how to speak the language they are supposedly from. And they always make their alleged culture their whole entire personality. I know for some of you it doesn't feel like such a big deal, but these people have perceptions of specifically east Asian cultures based off of stereotypes, offensive caricatures, and aesthetic trends they've seen. No, saying you're Korean doesn't make you cute or aesthetic. Also, the sheer amount of people pretending to be KR/JP makes it hard to tell when someone is genuinely from those countries. Some people on scratch pick random countries they say their from to protect their actual identity, and that's completely fine. But if you're picking one to either fit in or for the aesthetic and making it your whole entire personality, you're seriously being very disrespectful. So, if you're pretending to be a certain nationality or ethnicity, just stop and own up. I promise, nobody will care if you say "hey guys I'm not actually Japanese sorry I won't do it again". 0͟0͟2͟:͟ ͟T͟h͟e͟ e͟x͟p͟e͟c͟t͟a͟t͟i͟o͟n͟ t͟o͟ s͟p͟e͟a͟k͟ b͟o͟t͟h͟ l͟a͟n͟g͟u͟a͟g͟e͟s͟ This ones slightly more of a hot take. Since s-pop mostly surrounds k-pop, most groups use korean songs to cover, sometimes japanese, and sometimes even both and I think this both creates unrealistic expectations, and hear me out, is somewhat disrespectful to the kr/jp language. For starters, expecting random people to just know how to sing in one, and sometimes two foreign languages is so unrealistic. It's also quite common for groups to not even mention that you'll have to know how to sing in both languages. I remember once I joined a survival show and some of the songs I had to sing were in Korean while others were in Japanese, which is just ridiculous. Secondly, I think a lot of companies treat these languages as tools rather than languages with culture attached to them. When idols are expected to know how to sing in both of those languages without even knowing them, it narrows them down to something decorative and "aesthetic".. Also, most of these companies don't even fluently speak the languages themselves, meaning they cannot check or correct the pronunciation of the members. S͟u͟m͟m͟a͟r͟y Honestly I don't think there's an issue with singing in the languages themselves, it's more of the issues the attach themselves to singing in those languages. I understand why people sing in Korean and Japanese , they want to sing songs they like which is completely understandable. And of course I don't think someone should have to be able to speak a language fluently to be allowed to sing it. The problem is the expectations that idols should just magically know Korean and Japanese, treating the languages as if they're just a tool, and the aestheticization of them by both idols and company. O͟u͟t͟r͟o Anyways, those are just part of my hot take. I found this topic sort of difficult to explain and I'm not too good with words to I just hope everything here makes sense. Feel free to leave your own opinions down below Aerliyn out!
