8 Hilarious Moments of NCT’s Multilingual Struggles in 8 Languages

The members of NCT are indeed, much like their name, “Neo Culture Technology”. The languages they speak include varied levels of English, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, Thai, Cantonese and Wenzhounese. This calls for many moments of language struggles as the different ones buffer in their head and get mixed up. Here are some of the iconic moments that prove just how “Neo Culture” they are!

1. When Jaemin told us not to have Mark as an English teacher.

Although I’m sure we’d still want Mark as our teacher for any subject, Jaemin made sure to warn NCTzens against having a native speaker for English teaching, as when he asked Mark about a particular grammar or sentence structure, Mark evidently just replied, “I don’t know, just go with the flow!”

2. ASAP!

Probably one of his more iconic moments, Jungwoo‘s comedic re-enaction of the English phrase, “as soon as possible” is one to go down in the books.

It’s a lot funnier with the sound, so we recommend you take a look at this short clip when he brought it back during the American leg of their world tour.

the asap is back pic.twitter.com/NCSv1VvCwT

— jungwoo pics (@picsjungwoo) June 4, 2019

3. How do you spell “barbecue”?

Everyone say it – Jungwoo comedy king. The reserved-looking member, who’s actually one of the funniest, was tasked to spell out “BBQ” in full, by which he stumbled for a moment before relating it to the band’s hit song, “Regular“, which has a line that goes “VVS my diamonds/ I don’t need no light to shine“. He has all the members rolling on the floor laughing!

BBQ = Barbecue = BBS (VVS) my diamonds I don't need no light to shine

😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/WeOntxiGTn

— ⁰⁵ 에바 (@tumblade) September 4, 2019

4. When they had to match the words themselves.

During an interview, when Chenle was struggling to find the words in Korean to describe his dream, the members of NCT Dream stepped in to help him translate the phrases to Korean.

5. When in doubt, use body language.

During an episode of “NCT LIFE“, the boys had to play a game where Winwin was given the chance to choose someone that raised their hand first. As Mark explained that in Korean, WinWin was having difficulties understanding. Jaehyun quickly stepped in to demonstrate using body language. Eureka!

 

6. Just smile and laugh, boys.

During a filming of “Weekly Idol” where the entire NCT was invited over, the hosts Doni and Coni asked the foreign members that were having difficulty understanding what they were saying, to raise their hands. It turns out that most of them were simply laughing despite not knowing what was going on!

7. When you have too many languages in your head.

As Jaehyun and Winwin had to partner for a cooking challenge, they had to come up with a team motto, which ended up being “Orange, Lemon, Cross!” As lemon in Korean is “le-mon” while lemon in Chinese is “ning-meng”, Winwin ended up saying “ni-mong”.

8. When speakable charades don’t work because you can’t understand the word itself.

On “Weekly Idol” when the members played charades, the foreign members were facing difficulty as they didn’t know the meaning of the words to act out, resulting in the chaos that ensued amongst the Korean members that had to guess.

 

With that many languages going on in their brains, it is understandable that they are not as fluent as they would like to be in some of them, although it makes for comedy gold. It is amazing to see how the boys have bonded as a team despite the large number of members as well as the varied languages that they speak!