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Okay I’m going to start my thread on Namjoon’s English from the perspective of an ESL teacher (me) and before I get started I want to talk briefly about what it means to be an English language learner and how we as a world need to recognize the issue with our thoughts on what is
“Proper English”. Most people very wrongly assume that in order to speak English well you have to sound like a Native English speaker, which for the sake of time and space I’ll refer to them as NES, for non native speakers I’ll refer to them as NNES. But this idea is
seriously flawed because if we look at the history of English, old English sounds very different from Middle English, which sounds different from modern English, and Modern English is the English of Shakespeare btw, but it’s the closest that we have to contemporary English which
is what many would refer to as “standard English”. The most “standard English” that you would find now days is American English. Since the founding of the US, English pronunciation specifically has not actually changed much but it has in Britain. In fact, most people would say
Shakespeare sounds better in American English, but I digress. Does this mean that UK English is any less standard? Absolutely not. Well, what about Australian English? In New Zealand? How about Ireland? Singapore? Rwanda? Kenya? Barbados? Jamaica? Did you know at least 67
sovereign entities have English as their official language? Did you know that the United States doesn’t have an official language? Did you know the country where english is growing the fastest is India? Did you know that NNES now outnumber NES in terms of speaking English.
So what does that actually tell us about the English language? Is there a recognized standard? Well, for most people who teach English as a second or foreign language, they would say the standard is to be understood. Sounding like a NES is not the standard anymore, because the
fact is, accents and differing pronunciation doesn’t matter as long as you can communicate effectively. That’s why British people can pronounce Aluminum as Al Loo Min Nium and it’s not wrong. The BASE level of speaking a language is being able to communicate a need. The second
is to build relationships. I’ve digressed a lot, but one point: ARMYs, stop saying “oh my gosh, they sound like a NES” because they don’t, and that’s okay because they don’t need to sound like a NES or an American, or a British person, what they should
sound like is the person that is teaching them/taught them English, which usually in school, unless tutored, is a South Korean teacher who speaks English so they are speaking, you guessed it Korean English with their own beautiful and sexy accents and differing ways of
pronouncing words and that’s okay because English is built for flexibility. Anyway, what we should be saying is they sound fluent, because they do. Fluency in language is often times thought of as knowing all the Lexis and grammar and also the phonetics perfectly but this is a
flawed way of thinking because as a NES myself, I struggle with knowing English grammar, I don’t know every English word in existence. and within my own country we have different ways of pronouncing words so does that mean I’m not fluent? In my mother tongue? Obviously I am but
that’s why that belief of fluency is flawed. Fluency should be better defined as this: can you communicate your needs and build relationships in a clear and understandable way and can you understand others communicating with you? Congratulations, if you can, you are fluent. Now
lets switch gears and talk about what I want to talk about: Namjoon and his English because as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, his comprehension and usage of the English language is actually startling and I didn’t really fully appreciate it until I became certified
in ESL and began to teach it. There are really three major things I want to talk about when it comes to what doesn’t just define fluency but also mastery of the English language and most of you might think: Lexis, Grammar, and Pronunciation and while those are great they are
not the end all and be all. They are foundational and we already know that Namjoon has an extended Lexis, his sentence structure is very good, and his pronunciation is also quite impressive. Yes, he has an accent and sometimes pronounces things differently but his pronunciation
isn’t unintelligible, people know what he’s saying and understand him. Just like I know what Harry Potter is saying when he says “aloominium”. Anyway, the core things I want to stress which show a mastery of the English language are things that are hard to learn and teach:
Proper emphasis and pauses, polite tones, and fillers. These things are what might seem very simple but they are actually quite hard to master. Someone has to have a real grasp on the English language in order to use these properly and they aren’t something that you learn at the
beginning or even the middle, these are things that, and I cannot stress this enough, you either learn how to do over time or you don’t because they are extremely hard, if not impossible, to teach in a classroom and a person just has to really master the language in order to do
them properly. That doesn’t mean that there are not going to be words that he doesn’t know or even fully comprehend (especially with denotation vs connotation, something even some NES struggle with), but what I’m saying is: for a NNES, it’s freaking out of your mind impressive.
This is turning into a freaking essay, but I’m just really passionate about ESL learning and I know this is helpful for some of you who are NNES and might feel shy about your English because you don’t sound like a NES. Anyway, let’s start by talking about emphasis (aka tones)
English has the most variations of emphasis/tones in a sentence than any other language. This is true! Even more variations than Mandarin or even Thai which are both tonal languages. And emphasis is placed amidst a sentence in order to change the meaning so it’s something that
many, especially Koreans who learn English, struggle with. Koreans especially have difficulty because Korean does not have as many variations in speech and emphasis as English. For lack of a better term, it’s more “monotone”, it’s not an insult to the language it’s just the way
Korean works- you don’t add emphasis on to the words in the sentence and in English you do. Constantly. Let’s take a look at this interview that BTS did at the Grammys when Joon is responding to enjoying the ride of success, don’t just listen to what he says but how he says it
He emphasis “we are trying” as a reply to what the man says, this emphasis reveals that they are attempting to do something that’s rather hard for them, and then he emphasizes “too” in the sentence to say “but we don’t want to get crazy” and this emphasis I think most
people don’t pay attention unless you are an ESL teacher. Correct emphasis in sentences is such a hard skill to learn and it’s often times overlooked even though it’s one of the most important skills to know. Now watch this clip and listen to the last word of the three sentences
do you hear that little uptick of the tone on the last word? It’s something English speakers do when they are listing off things. Listen to any NES list off things that they want, there is always that little uptick at the end of the word. Also it conveys a sense of hopefulness
Now let’s also look at the way Namjoon pauses. Natural pauses are also a very hard thing to teach. There is a reason why they are called natural pauses, because they are supposed to happen naturally, and for Korean and Chinese ESL students it’s especially difficult because
their language doesn’t have a lot of natural pauses. In Korean it’s rare and in Chinese it’s pretty much nonexistent. English is a language full of natural pauses, and Namjoon accomplishes this well. His pausing doesn’t make him sound less fluent, it makes him sound MORE fluent
The way he tells his story has natural pauses in it, to draw in the listener. We should also talk about polite tones! Polite tones are something that aren’t really necessary to speak English fluently, but they are necessary to avoid miscommunication with NES.
Let’s just watch this clip of Joon dodging questions from BB. He plays coy but he’s also being polite. His tone is joking, polite and respectful in the fact he cannot answer the questions. Don’t just listen to what he says, listen to how he says it. I can’t stress that enough.
His tone is very polite, and politeness is hard to teach. He uses words like “well” and “ya know” which can be filler words (which I’ll get to in a minute) but they are also sentence softeners. When someone says something that could upset another person, NES will litter their
sentences with sentence softeners and also tend to make their sentences longer, often beating around the bush before getting to the point because that is more ‘polite’. Such as: “I quit” versus “well, I have been thinking about other options for work, and, so I
will be exploring those options.” for some this might seem a long way to go about communicating something but in English sometimes it’s better to use language softeners because it can equate to politeness. Now let’s get to fillers because this is the reason I wanted to
make this thread. I know it’s weird to get excited about fillers because most English teachers in the US HATE them and to many it comes across a lack of fluency and this would be true if Joon used the wrong fillers but he doesn’t, he uses English fillers. Let me explain!
For every language there are fillers that are unique to that language. In Japanese you have “ano” in Chinese you have “naga”, “ah” and “ahm” in German, “ne” or “eum” in Korean but in English you have “like” “uh” “ya know” “just” and all of these are filler words that litter
conversations in English. The greatest of these is “like” and “ya know” which are used as verbal pauses. The thing that I love is that Namjoon isn’t using a korean verbal pauses which is something he might be tempted to do since that is his mother tongue, he uses English verbal
pauses and fillers and this shows he has mastered English enough that he’s not relying on his mother tongues verbal pauses. It’s something that is hard to teach in the classroom, and outside of speeches it is necessary to have those verbal pauses because it gives an air
of casualness. He’s not making a speech, he’s having a conversation. If you learn English and are worried about pausing or verbal pauses, unless you are giving a speech those verbal pauses actually act as sentence softeners too, they make things more causal, and in many
cases more polite. English is quite flexible in that those sentence fillers can actually act as both a mental pause and help make the sentence more polite. All this to say, these are some things I think a lot of people overlook when it comes to Namjoons English but even more so
when it comes to English language learning. Those who criticize others English obviously have never taught a language and probably never had to learn a second language as an older child or adult. Those who critique others English are usually either Mono lingual or they learned
English aside their mother tongue growing up and live in an environment where it is predominantly spoken alongside their native language, I know this because they have the same lack of awareness that NES do about the complexities of English speaking and what makes an English
Speaker fluent. It’s not perfect grammar, no NES even has perfect grammar, it’s not perfect pronunciation because depending on where the English comes from, the pronunciation will change, and it’s not knowing perfect Lexis: I’ve been speaking English for 30 years and I still
don’t know every English word in existence. Fluency is defined by ESL teachers as being able to A. Communicate your needs, B. Develop relationships C. Understand the needs of others. So let’s put an end to this idea that you have to sound like me or any other NES in order to be
good at English or fluent. The most important questions you need to answer: am I understood? Can I understand? And accents and pronunciation are a lot less of a hurdle than you’d think. English is an ever changing and evolving language. English doesn’t look the same as it did
100 years ago. No language is static. From my perspective as an ESL teacher,Namjoons grasp of the English language is not just fluent but he has close to a mastery of it, I say close because it’s near impossible to be a master in a language you don’t regularly speak.
Which makes it MORE impressive because English is his foreign language. Something he doesn’t regularly engage in speaking. If you don’t find that phenomenally impressive, idk what to tell you. He has not only the foundations of the language but the intricacies that no
one pays attention to. He’s to the point most people who listen to him who don’t know, think he’s studied abroad because he’s picked up those intricacies just by practice. He works hard at English learning and it shows. It is truly and absolutely impressive and something I know
I can’t fully communicate because unless you have been taught how to teach a language, you just don’t appreciate those intricacies. Anyway. I hope this thread has encouraged people who might feel shy about their English. Don’t let anyone stop you or make you feel ashamed because
you have an “accent” or you feel that you don’t pronounce things correctly. You are doing much better than you think, I guarantee it! Especially if you are grasping slang and using it correctly! So be proud of your accent, be proud of your unique pronunciations because
you make the English language more unique. You transform it and create something new amidst the old. I’m so passionate about ESL, I love watching people learn my heart language and I love knowing that they are transforming the language I love into something even more beautiful!
Keep trying. Keep speaking English. Keep practicing. Get the foundations and pay attention to the details. You are doing better than you think and I’m SO proud of you!
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Ugh one moment some of the videos were accidentally removed, hold on:
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