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SB Chat Box #4: Be My Baby, Big EMA Win, Epic Engrish

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Written by On November 10, 2011

This week, Subi and I continue our discussion of the Wonder Girls now that they’ve officially released their album, along with many, many other things:

  • Be My Baby (0:50)

  • WG + Big Bang (8:49)

  • Big Bang’s big win at the EMAs (12:55)

  • Awesome, amazing, epic Engrish in K-pop (21:35)

  • Park Jaebum vs. Jay Park (35:13)

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Download the podcast here.

Shouts again to hapacalgirl for getting all the songs correctly from last time. The songs shouldn’t be too difficult this go around, so start guessing!

As usual, you can listen to our past podcasts here and you can leave a comment below on anything you would like to hear us talk about in future episodes.

Until next time…!

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  • http://twitter.com/AsherTua AsherTua

    Nothing’s showing up @_@

  • Anonymous

    I really like these podcasts! Listening to your discussions and hearing your tone makes these matters more interesting.
     
    Few things:
     
    As far as I know, Teddy Riley only composed the music for “The Boys.” Most of the lyrics were written by Yo Young Ji (I think his name is) and the raps were written by Tiffany.

    I share your sentiments towards Big Bang’s win. Good for them but… yeah.
     
    I agree about the Engrish. Seriously, they need to fix that up. I never found it cute or interesting and it’s more like something to poke fun at, especially in Western countries where improper English and made-up words are seen as a sign of unintelligence.
     
    I disagree a little about Jessica and Tiffany’s English. I was really disappointed when I watched their English interviews. They weren’t eloquent at all, to the point of being nonsensical. Seriously, a large portion of their MTV Iggy interview had to be cut out because they were making little sense and sounding like twits. They say “like,” “what,” “totally,” and “um” waaaay too much and that just doesn’t come off as good. I think their English has to do with them living in Korea so long. Being totally immersed in a different language can actually make you forget your native language bit by bit. The other members know a few English words and phrases but are by no means fluent.

    • LAla

      Tiffany and Jessica always sound like twits when they speak English
      to me. You can say they lived in Korean for so long and forgot how to speak
      English, but what about Brian Joo and other Korean American singers in Korea
      who have been in Korean much long them. Brain sound like he has never left
      America.

    • Nana

      Jessica and Tiffany sound unintelligent because they speak like Valley Girls i.e. airheads. Or maybe Jessica has been blond too long.

    • Anonymous

      Come on peeps, the SNSD bashing is getting a bit overboard. The reason why they sound like airheads is because they moved when they were t(w)eens, hence they speak like airheaded t(w)eens. Their english level hasn’t gotten passed the last time they studied in the USA, I don’t see the problem.
      All the other english Korean speakers all debuted after high school/college so speak at a higher level.

      • Anonymous

        I wasn’t really trying to bash SNSD (though it did more or less come out that way), I was making an observation. You may have a point, but I don’t know. I looked up information about Jessica and Tiffany and they went to an international school in Korea, where all the classes were taught in English. If this is true, there would be no excusing their poor English skills. Their English really isn’t that big of a problem now but it could be a potential problem in the future, should SNSD start gaining popularity in the West. Because the others know little to no English, Jessica and Tiffany would be like the spokepeople for the group. However, their way of speaking in English will cause people to judge them and the rest of the group, especially people that aren’t familiar with Kpop. However, I agree that other people were a bit too harsh in agreeing with me about Jessica and Tiffany. I don’t think the girls are actually stupid or airheads. This entire thing is pretty irrelevent.

  • dt22

    “Staples are helpful when they are holding pieces of paper together but not by themselves” Wow thats genius Subi! Can you grant me permission to use that? :)

    • http://twitter.com/miss_subi Subashiny

      IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER and TWEET ME ALL THE TIME!

    • http://evacuatewithstyle.org/blog Amy

      Subi is joking. Don’t get scared.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2HLWIJFBCMMYGQYBMYXOPTEXF4 Mq

    another addition to the bad engrish… “4 minute sluts” by huyna. I cringe every time.

    LOL, staple = Jay. I do agree.

  • http://twitter.com/passionfruitluv Ria

    Wonder World … I HATE Be My Baby, but the rest of the album is AMAZING. I’m not even kidding. Stop! and Me,in definitely deserve to be checked out. Me, in is the song from the first teaser, and it’s as feirce as it sounded in the teaser. I think that JYP produced Be My Baby because it has that ‘Korean’ sound. Me,in (the second title track) would probably shock their fan base to bits (although it seems to be the preferred title track among international fans.).

    I think that Big Bang DID say their acceptance speech in both English and Korean. G-dragon said a sentence in English and then two or three sentences in Korean. After him, Taeyang spoke in english pretty well… people just exaggerated the part where he did speak in Korean. If you’re going to be ‘disappointed in them’ actually watch the clip first to see what happened instead of relying on hearsay. I felt like I had to say this even though I’m not a VIP.

    Oh engrish… so unnecessary… I feel like lyricists either a) have atrocious english grammar and don’t care or b) think that they are being hip.  Cube and SM have some of the WORST english. JYPE seems to have pretty good English because JYP actually is fluent in English. The Wonder Girls songs haven’t had any completely nonsensical lyrics. Oh and when YG makes songs in english for 2NE1′s Japanese promotions, the english lyrics are LOLZY.

    Oh and the Boys ooh god. “Call an emergency, I’m watching the phone ring, I’m feeling this in my heart.” UGH. Get it in, I don’t know what that means too. Tasha also used “Get It In” title track. I totally agree with the YEAH, COME ON, breathy inserts into the song being STUPID. The mystery, history crap is an SM thing. It’s in BoA’s song, F(x)’s song, and SNSD’s song. I also hate the whole -ic thing in almost ALL recent SM songs.

    FISH AND CASH? What?!? I’ve never heard that in the song. I didn’t understand what the HELL they were singing about because I’ve heard that song. But now I totally hear it, wow, ok, ew.

    • Anonymous

      ‘Get it in’ is a slang term used in NY. It means to get laid, go hard with something, go all out with drinking or partying.  The girls are going all out with the sexy. *diva finger snap*

  • RedOcean

    O.O I really loved Be My Baby and I can remember the chorus fine so…

  • Nthen.

    I’ve given your chatbox podcasts a couple listens before yet I still find myself  unable to finish any of them. While the topics are current the opinions/discussions leave much to be desired. While opinions are just that I find that they’re baseless without extensive knowledge of the topic ie the Wonder Girls. I mention them only because this and the last podcast I tried to listen to were full of things I repeatedly disagreed with in terms of the WG ( a few others would as well I imagine) yet the discussion was so one sided it didn’t seem to be a discussion rather a something akin to a kind bashing. Where was the person who instead of saying “the song is like christmas song” said “the vocals are basically untouched compared to other songs that are being hammered up with effects” etc just something more analytical.Also I feel that a lot of kpop fans who paid attention to the Wonder Girls in 2007 would have noticed that Miss A’s songs sound a lot like the WG’s first album and that ‘BGGG’ & ‘Love Alone’ by Miss A were tracks meant for the WG that the WG gave up for Miss A.    Maybe I’m taking this too far but I hope I was able to convey what I wanted.I just feel that these discussions lack an extensive knowledge on kpop (when full house was the hey day and kpop girl groups meant big mama) that would not only deepen, give credibility and make the discussios more well rounded.

    • Anon

      ia and it would also help to listen to a speech if you’re going to talk about it otherwise you end up looking even more foolish than you already are.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t think GD did his speech in Korean because he couldn’t do it in English or anything, but rather because it was a shout-out to Korea. There’s a lot of national pride that comes from things like these.

  • chelle

    My two cents is that Yoobin is not a real rapper, and there are no real rappers in girl groups (those who actually have some flow and demand presence in their skills) except for BEG and 2ne1. The difference between yoobin and the others is that her voice is unique. From the snippets of her actually singing I enjoy but she’s in the rapper mold so she can’t progress vocally. When does she ever get a chance to sing a verse or two? Maybe switch up the rapping duties to Lim Mr. JYP or actually have all of them sing because wonder girls has the ability (probably the second best) to vocalize as a group together extremely well.

    • Babie-cassie

      She does sing in a lot of the songs of the albums…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ORSXPERTNAEPCKZBGEZMP7A3NU Bianca

    GD spoke english! I was actually totally proud that they still spoke Korean.

  • Revy

    Big Bang-Lady, Gara Gara Go. Taeyang-Break Down. DBSK-Wrong Number. SHINee-You. 2PM-Angel

    Wonder World- Be My Baby was ok but i still don’t understand why Sohee got the majority of lines. She can’t exactly sing. Also i found the rap weird and out of place but Yoobin saved it a little bit. There is alot of good songs on the album but i just wish they would promote Me,In. That sound is so fierce.

    Congrats to BB for winning. It was really great seeing the 5 of them together on the same stage.

    KPOP engrish is one of the things i can’t stand. It’s so annoying. Cube & SM definitely have the worst engrish in all of kpop. They really need to stop for good.

    I actually think Jay is better off being a solo since he get to shine more & be creative with his music. 

  • Anonymous

    But on DBSK and fail English though, I’m surprised you guys didn’t mention their most notorious venture: Yoochun’s “I really wanna touch myself.”

    I mean, he pronounced it just fine—but I’m pretty sure that was not at all what they meant to have him say.

    • Mnh13

      LOLOL. Who could forget ‘Purple Line’ and Yoochun wanting to touch himself?

      I think it’s to be interpreted somewhat like this(?): “I really want to get in touch with myself.”

      Oh and another one from Yoochun: “But tonight I don’t need a damn explain.” Just needed to add the ‘-ation’. =___=

      • Anonymous

        I know, right? His English is…always almost there…how frustrating.

        • Mnh13

          Haha there are a bunch of of other k-pop songs with engrish in it. Too many to name. But for some reason when it comes down to it, DBSK almost always comes to mind lol. And I don’t know whether to laugh or cry because I really like them.

          • Katherine

            I want to figure out why DBSK always comes to my mind when Engrish is mentioned as well lol. Engrish = Yuchun to me lol (sorry to all the fans but it just does).

      • —

        “But tonight I don’t need a damn explain.”

        lol, This. To get through that one when I’m listening, I just mentally change the lyrics to “But tonight I don’t need you to explain” or something.

        • Jelly

          omg. you too?! lol i do that too. except this is mine: “But tonight I don’t need it. Damn eplain!” but now I think I’ll use your one if ya don’t mind. :D It makes more sense.

          • Jelly

            Oh and does anybody how italicise the font on this? i tried CTRL+I but it doesn’t seem to work.

          • —

            lmao, I have a feeling many people do it! Your version’s just as good; love how you still kept “damn” in there. XD

            And to answer your other question:

            bold = TEXT
            italic = TEXT
            underline = TEXT
            strike = TEXT

            blockquote

            =

            TEXT

            Use the codes without the spaces. Hope it shows up all right…

  • e smith

    I totally agree about Big Bang’s sound now!!! It is too redundant.

    • Ann

      this is a genuine question, how is bigbang’s sound redundant? how does cafe, love song, stupid liar and what is right sound anything like revious bigbang songs or other kpop songs out this year. bigbang is not the height of creativity or inventiveness but if anything, their new songs this year brought them out of the creative slump they were in before they went on hiatus in 2008. lies, haru haru and last farewell are nice and all but they’re all cut from the same musical cloth.

  • Lydia

    Songs:

    Lady – Big Bang
    Gara Gara Go – Big Bang
    Break Down – Taeyang
    DBSK – Wrong Number
    You – Shinee
    Angel – 2pm

    Big Bang really should go back to what they had in the past. I did enjoy some of the songs in the new album, but really, they need to get their groove~ back.

    If I’m not wrong, Taeyang did the other half of the acceptance award in English though.

    Not going to mention the Engrish, it’s been repeated and reflected on too many times.
    I agree with the opinion that Jay would fit better in a group. He’s kind of vocally weak to stand on his own… And I kind of miss Jay in 2pm. It’s like something’s missing without him there.

    • http://twitter.com/CherylTYL Teo Yan Ling

      I love both Big Bang’s old and new music! Their new music just proved that they are deserve to be loved because they dare to challenge, change, transform and improve themselves to a different level and kick all other boy-groups behind them!

  • Jin

    OMG why you guys made me laugh so much!! When Amy mock-sang Tiffany’s lines going, “Yeah! Come on!” Lol Epic. And lmao at jj getting ‘fish’ to rhyme ‘cash’ haha. How is that possibble?!

  • http://www.twitter.com/hipployta Hipployta

    I liked Jay’s songs…he wrote his songs too so the idol risk is there lol. I think he did a great job on Immortal Song 2. I do think 2PM with Jay was much better.   

    The BB speech was in English and Korean but I think GD used Korean on purpose to shout out Korea

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1575728366 Nadifa Ibrahim Sheek Ahmed

    i miss wonderbang

  • Ann

    totally disagree with your opinions on top. he was grunt rapping in gara gara go and was and is largely unintelligible in their japanese songs but i haven’t heard any shouting on stage. one of the best parts of the bigbang mini was that top makes full use of the 30 secs he has in each song and changes his delivery in every one of them. having followed bigbang from the beginning and not being very fond of his rapping style, i was pleasantly surprised by how far he’s come. and after seeing them live a few times in the last three years, i can safely say he’s one of the best kpop rappers i’ve seen live. he’s always on point, uses very little of the backtrack and sounds pretty much exactly like he does on the recording. he’s also constantly adlibbing and is just a lot of fun to watch. and he seemed to get some of his groove back with the gd&top performances.

    gd, on the other hand, has gone the other way. there’s no improvement or growth. maybe because he’s not interested in hip-hop/rnb much any more, idk. but other than brief glimpses of what he can do (she’s gone for eg), he’s stuck in a rut and doesn’t seem to want to come out. he also relies on the backtrack way too much for my liking.

  • Tiger Holland

    You guys are wonderful! I love your comments on Wonder Girls, Big Bang, and especially on the growing Engrish problem. I’m always incredibly excited to see English words in kpop songs, but the fun is diminished when they’re mispronounced or they make zero sense in context. And I’m a kpop fan. I /want/ to love this music, so I can’t imagine that English speakers who aren’t invested in the music would take kindly to it.

    My favorite Engrish line ever is one of Eunhyuk’s parts in Super Junior’s “A-Cha”, which ends with “Hey, baby, love-crash!” It’s pretty adorable.

    BoA’s history-related lines from Eat You Up are: “When I first saw you, I knew nothing’s like it used to be/ Boy you have got to be the finest thing in history”.

  • Janelle Marie

    When Big Bang accepted their award at the EMAs G-Dragon said in English “Whoa, oh it’s amazing. Thank you so much” Then he said a few words in Korean “We are called Big Bang from South Korea. Nice to meet you all. And because this award is something that our fans have given us, it is a lot more meaningful and gives us more joy. I would like to thank our fans V.I.P once again. And through this opportunity, I hope we can attract more love to Korean music and Big Bang as well” Then Taeyang finished off the speech in English by saying “This is only because our fans, through the ups and down. Thank you for standing by us. Thank you MTV. Thank you so much” Then G-Dragon gave a shout out to YG Family and said in English “Thank you MTV we love you” Then Taeyang shouted “Big Bang”

    • Janelle Marie

      Then Taeyang finished off the speech in English by saying “This is only because of our fans, through the ups and downs. 

  • munkie

    not a fan of be my baby but the wondergirls album overall, was pretty good. i do cringe at the beginning of girls, girls and just wished they didn’t include those cheesy lines bc i actually like the song.
    i do remember some older performances where TOP was shouty but during this year’s promotion, i really haven’t noticed. if anything, he’s starting to sound more like he’s talking rather than rapping. however, i really enjoyed gd&top’s performances bc they were obviously just enjoying themselves and having a lot of fun.yup bigbang started their speech in korean, and ended it in english. so rather than feeling disappointed, i quite liked their incorporation of both languages. while i do enjoy their old music more, i felt like the music they released this year was not only different from their earlier works but also from everyone else in kpop at the time. so i hope their keep evolving and get their groove back. 
    jay seems rather weak as a solo artist so it’ll be interesting to see how far he goes. maybe he knows this himself and that’s why he’s been branching out like taking part in creating a new idol group. 

  • khai vu

    Man, the Engrish has to be the eternal mystery of Kpop. We need an insider to shed light on this issue ASAP, haha.

  • http://twitter.com/flickaddi Felicia Addison

    i disagree with everything you said about Big Bang maybe its cause I got into them because of their new stuff or cause I’m a bias fan. I dont understand how they got annoying? And really? A pile of dog poop? It wasnt only electronic stuff. Tonight definitely was but Cafe uses real instruments, What is Right. Stupid Liar have rock influences. Yeah sure Hands Up Somebody to Love and Tonight are electronic but is that such a bad thing. At least they’re branching out and trying different styles.
    Also I see differences in all their styles when they go solo. if we want to talk about everything sounding the same walk right over to SM. 
    And obviously they were awkward at the EMAs who wouldnt be nervous in a foreign country with a different lanuage getting up on stage when probably half the audience doesnt even know who you are. From what I saw Daesung got happier by the minute

    • http://twitter.com/CherylTYL Teo Yan Ling

      Definitely agree vf ur points! If people ask who is the group that can give you surprise and show different music all the time? The answer definitely is Big Bang!

  • http://twitter.com/KimcheeSushi フェィシア

    Honestly, that day Big Bang won the EMAs was the day Kpoppers mostly united together to click on the button. Though yeah I have to say I was disappointed that GD didn’t do his thanks in English. But Taeyang tried and I thought that was really sweet of him to do that, just.. show appreciation to the international fans and not just the korean fans. 

    For Engrish.. JUST GO TO SOME HAKWON THAT TEACHES ENGLISH AND ASK THEM geez. 

    oh goodness. Jae’s sexy rap <3<3<3 i love wrong number though. and the suit. dayummm :D but erm.. i doubt he knows what he was saying. Because DB5K english is one of the most fails in kpop. even with yoochun. 

  • King-Edqux Robinson

    I really dislike these bitches. Like I gave them a chance but it seems like they just legitimately dislike Wonder Girls and everything that is JYP. I don’t understand why either. JYP artists are amazing, and they have been leaders in Kpop since each of their debuts…so you obviously don’t know shit. Though this is old, I think that you guys are blinded by hate. All of my friends sing Be My Baby (from just hearing me play it once) so it’s def catchy. And it’s funny how you always seem to praise Sm and Yg artists…all of you can go shoot yourselves. Wonder World was the best kpop album of 2012 (and not because I’m a big fan of WG) and the Wonder Girls are making waves everywhere.