This week, appeared twice on The Kelly Clarkson Show to perform their latest English single, “Moonlight Sunrise”. While fans were excited to see the K-pop girl group, many especially appreciated how warmly and respectfully Kelly handled their interview, which was conducted with the help of an onstage translator.
Despite having nine members in the group (Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu), Kelly made sure to address each of the women — and by name — during his questions about their mutual relationships. on the Relationship audition show and on their favorite foods.
However, fans especially appreciated how Kelly made a point to pronounce each member’s name correctly exactly how her translator pronounced them – even though she did start the interview by saying that she expected that she was getting their names right and joking, “If I’m not, I’m sorry. I’m Texan.”
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At one point, after addressing Nayon—which Kelly pronounced Neagh-yon (as in whiningBorehood) – Kelly found that his translator, when repeating the question in Korean, pronounced his name nigh-yeon (as in, “the end is Near“). “Nayon, sorry,” Kelly said, quickly correcting her accent.
Later, upon asking Tzuyu – who is also the only Taiwanese member of the group – about the meaning of “Moonlight Sunrise”, Kelly took a moment to confirm with both her translator and Tzuyu that this was the proper way to say her name. What is.
“Tzuyu,” Kelly originally began—pronounce it ju-yu – before turning to your translator to check whether he has said it correctly. Their translator then pronounced her names both phonetically based on the English romanization, as Kelly had, and properly in Korean.
Now, to break the fourth wall, as I’m writing this to you, dear reader, bear with me for a minute: In Chinese, tzuyu is written 子瑜, and in Korean, tzuyu translates to 치위 and is written. That’s then pronounced jeju-wee in Korean — or, twice as fans (called once) affectionately call it Chewie in English.
“Jeju-V? Oh, okay – wait, wait, what?” Kelly asked in surprise. ,ju-yu Good,” his translator quickly said, but Kelly insisted: “No, no. Its ju-yu, How can you say that?”
“In Korean, it’s Jeju-vi,” his translator explained. Kelly then turned to Juyu himself and asked, “How do you want me to say this?” To which JooYu replied, “JeJu-V.”
“How do you say that’s adorable! Well then, Jeju-V – I think I said it right, I’m trying,” Kelly said, referring to the meaning behind her latest single “Moonlight Sunrise.” Continuing to ask about when you are in love, tzuyu appears as a metaphor that means “the throbbing of the heart”.
The entire exchange lasted less than 30 seconds, but it completely captured the hearts of onlookers. Many people noted how comfortable Kelly seemed to make the group feel and appreciated the effort she made to say all their names properly – especially by asking JuYu directly instead of just accepting his translator. .
And there you have it folks. While this sounds so simple, it tells a lot about how much work we need to do to properly normalize the pronunciation of non-English names – or, at least, a moment to make an effort. Take.