Netizens Defend Aespa’s Winter After She Gets Accused Of Using “Ilbe” Slang

If you’ve been a fan of aespa‘s Winter, you’d know that the stunning girl group member is from Yangsan Gyeongsangdo, which is district known for their distinct Korean dialect. Following her trainee days in Seoul, Winter corrected her adorable dialect in order to prepare for her aespa debut.

However, in an unlikely turn of events, some bitter Korean netizens have created an unnecessary controversy over the way Winter spoke through text messaging—all because of her Gyeongsangdo dialect.

Recently, Winter communicated with her fans through Bubble, which is a messaging app specifically catered towards K-Pop idols and their fans. And while the conversation was nothing more than a wholesome back and forth between an artist and a fan, some Korean netizens turned an innocent exchange into something more.

In South Korea, there is a far-right community called ilbe. Created by angry young men within the nation, this community of anonymous online users are known for their hate-filled, misogynistic views. These are the very men who once went to a Sewol Ferry fasting protest, where they began to mock and eat in front of the hundreds of grieving families.

According to netizens, the users of ilbe speak in a specific “dialect” amongst one another, which is similar to the Gyeongsangdo dialect—which is how aespa’s Winter found herself in the middle of such a strange controversy.

As seen in her Bubble conversation, her Geyongsangdo dialect frequently uses “노” (no) at the end of some of her phrases.

However, according to some netizens, this is also a type of verbiage used by ilbe users, known as “no-che” language. Ilbe users began to pick up this language following the late South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun‘s presidency. This verbiage was created in an effort to mock the former president, using his last name “Roh” (also pronounced no in Korean).

Ever since the ilbe association of this language and the meaning behind it, those who reside in Gyeongsangdo have become hyperaware of their dialect and have begun to show caution with their speech.

And as Winter began to make headlines for her supposed “ilbe speech,” hundreds of other Korean netizens came to her rescue, as they refuted the haters for creating a controversy out of nothing. In an online community, hundreds of netizens began to comment on the situation using the exact “no” verbiage to show solidarity with Winter, while calling out the no good netizens trying to hate on the aespa member.

• “What are they saying, it’s pissing me off.”
• “People from Busan use ‘no’ at the end of their words as a part of their dialect so isn’t she just using her dialect?”
• “‘Why are you laughing so much’ isn’t that a dialect? It’s because the kids who are arguing that it’s something else, that’s all they think about in their minds. Is this their way of expressing themselves.”
• “Nononono f*ck you!! Because of those ilbe ba*tards, people can’t even speak comfortably.”
• “The news article is really funny ㅋㅋㅋ”
• “What are they saying.”
• “Wow, something so insignificant is becoming a controversy. It’s just a dialect ㅋㅋ”
• “The trash journalist reported on a trash story. Look at this controversy.”
• “What the heck are they saying.”

Wow, the bitterness of some Korean netizens will never fail to surprise us—but we are glad others stood up for her in light of the bizarre situation. Fighting to aespa and Winter!