Since I only speak English, I find Ri's pronounciation pretty good. He's lacking in grammar and sentence build up but his English is actually good. If he works at it, I am sure it will sound natural. His accent is my favorite. Since you're Korean and Japanese, I wanted to ask if he sounds the same in both and which one is better? I get that he's very good at languages, his Chinese seems pretty good too. I admire this side of Ri too much. People don't know how hard it is to learn languages...
First of all, I am not Korean and Japanese. I am half British, quarter Korean and quarter Japanese but I do speak the three languages with some French and a little Chinese.
Let’s see, I will talk about the way he speaks each language separately.
Korean
It’s his mother tongue so…yeah. Although Seungri’s the only BigBang member who didn’t originate from Seoul, he actually lost his dialect way before debut. If you speak Korean, you would instantly spot it because Gwangju dialect is quite heavy. When speaking Korean, Seungri tends to use a lot of on and off tones going high then low in few seconds. Even if you don’t speak the language, I am sure you noticed how he shouts one word then he says the next sentence too calmly it kind of tickle the ear Haha. Some would think it messes his speech but I personally find it adorable and so does many Kvips.
Japanese
I already talked about it here.
It’s not a joke when I say that Seungri sounds like a native when speaking Japanese. I dare say he sounds much more impressive in Japanese than in Korean. For once, he loses the high and low tone and speaks in a deep voice. That brings out his masculinity at the highest level. It’s especially noticeable in concerts when he starts shouting and complaining. It’s one of my long ‘Seungri Wish List’ entries to see him in a Yakuza role because he can do angry Japanese so freaking well.
Another thing is that he can sound too good when speaking standard Japanese too. Like when he’s invited to variety shows in Japanese telly, he would be too polite, you would wonder if he’s the same Seungchan who’s been shouting all night Haha.
I can talk forever about Seungri’s Japanese but let me stop here.
English
I agree, his pronunciation is not bad at all and he’s getting and better at it. I think Seungri’s problem with English is that he didn’t pay much attention to it. I don’t think he has a constant teacher like Bae. I get the feeling that Seungri still didn’t get serious about it like with Japanese and Chinese because I am telling you, with the level he’s at. He could’ve learnt it to perfection. The problem with Asians speaking English is that they found the pronunciation hard and quite foreign to the ear but since his accent isn’t bad then he could’ve nailed it a long time ago if he wanted to. But again, Seungri’s mainly located in Korean, Japan and Asia in general so I guess he didn’t find the motivation to move along with the language.
Chinese
I only know Mandarin but I am not perfect at it. Anyway, the way Seungri sounds in Chinese is kind of…Cute? Like you just want to bite him. Literally. I mean, I only heard Seungri speaking Chinese too frequently in this MADE tour. He even got serious about it and got a teacher. To be able to speak that much in such a short time is really amazing. Chinese (Mandarin) is quite hard to learn let alone sound natural when speaking it. Those who don’t speak the language might not know this but when you first start talking Mandarin, you would definitely sound constricted but Seungri doesn’t. Not only he can speak many sentences but he can also make it sound too cute. Of course, his grammar needs shaping and he ends some words wrongly but I am telling you, it’s an enormous progress after this short while. I can’t wait to hear him live in Taipei.
That’s what I know considering the languages I speak. Seungri’s not kidding when he keep saying he’s smart. Learning many languages and having the right tongue to speak them isn’t a small deal at all.
