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I recently stumbled upon a huge stash of old Korean videos that I hadn't seen in over half a decade. Watching these old videos brought back memories, but it also served as a reminder as to how far Korean music has really come. Let's just say that if you thought the Engrish lyrics are bad now, they were certainly worse back then. Hell, if one didn't know any better, one would surmise that they purposely made them that terrible just for enhanced comedic effect. These events inspired me to look for the worst Engrish lyrics in Korean music's past and present. While this is by no means a truly comprehensive list, each of these either made a little piece of me die inside, or had me spitting my drink all over my monitor. So without further ado, I present Korean music's worst Engrish lyrics.

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Artist-S.E.S.
Song-The Twilight Zone
Lyric-"Baby, You can't search thing that you want."
Evidence-22 Seconds Into This Performance

While S.E.S. may not be the most frequent Engrish offender, they sure make up for it in quality. This lyric is so confusing it made me want to do a full analysis on this multi-layered piece of literary genius. I would probably go with working title of, 'You Can't Search Thing That You Want: An Exploration Into Cryptic Double Speak'. Sure, you can laugh at that now, but just think about how S.E.S. is inventing a new type of language that only hyper intelligent beings can decipher. After all, they do have an alien in their group.

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That's what I thought, you won't be laughing so hard when she contacts the rest of her race and they enslave Earth, bitch. Either way, at this rate, I doubt our feeble human brains will be able to decipher their code anytime in the near future.

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Artist-Hyori
Song-Anymotion
Lyric-"Come into my member, please come into me."
Evidence-1 Minute 35 Seconds Into This Music Video

I dunno what's scarier, the fact that she insinuates that she has a penis, or the fact that she beckons all comers (or cummers, har har har) to unload into her spacious vaginal canal.

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Artist-Eric From Shinhwa
Song-Anymotion
Lyric-"And i'm so damn hot, they call me vampire."
Evidence-2 Minutes 39 Seconds Into This Music Video

That's right, the Engrish in 'Anymotion' is so bad that it garnered two mentions. Honestly though, what the hell is he talking about? If anything, vampires would be cold because they're f*cking undead. The lyric makes about as much sense as Eric growing up in America and still consistently spewing terribly pronounced Engrish lyrics that make absolutely no sense in any context.

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Artist-Boa
Song-Miracle
Lyric-"It's miracle, so miracle."
Evidence-2 Minutes 19 Seconds Into This Performance

What exactly is "so miracle"? It's been years since this has been released and still nobody really knows. I guess it'll remain a mystery that's up there with Area 51, Roswell, and Rain's wardrobe choice. At least the "destiny is shine or not" lyric makes sense if you add a few words in here and there. For example, "is my destiny to shine or not" makes perfect sense. On the other hand, what the hell are you going to do with, "it's miracle, so miracle"? Even if you add a few words so that it's grammatically sound, nobody knows exactly what the f*ck is so miracle. I love Boa, but her Engrish makes her songs borderline mentally retarded at times.

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Artist-Shinhwa
Song-79
Lyric-"Let's have the stash, keep the heat on a dash, it's simple math, front get one of the ass."
Evidence-No Video

Dear Shinhwa,

I am writing to you with hopes that you stop. That you stop hurting yourselves, that you stop hurting the reputation of Asian men, and that you stop hurting people everywhere. I am here to inform you that nobody has the right to rap as if they were hardcore gangsters if they have ever taken a group photo that comes within a light year of this:

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Thank you for your cooperation in this vital mission.

Signed,

All Of Humanity

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Artist-Yoo Chun From Dong Bang Shin Ki
Song-Show Me Your Love
Lyric-"You know it. It's like bling bling ball! Can't stop it, even though it's not that cool."
Evidence-16 Seconds Into This Performance

Having to read through those lyrics is equivalent to contracting AIDS of the eyes. He even admits that it's not very cool of him to give us all AIDS, but that there's nothing we can do to stop him. That's cold blooded like Rick James.

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downer

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Artist-Legacy
Song-Jinusean Bomb
Lyric-"I be the concubine of all rhymestresses, dismissing any witch from here to Eastwick."
Evidence-No Video

First of all, can somebody please get out a dictionary and inform Miss Legacy that being a concubine to others does not carry a positive connotation? Thanks. Secondly, why the hell would anybody want to be a concubine to any "rhymestresses", much less all of them? In one line she basically manages to not only admit that she is a lesbian, but also that she enjoys being used as a sex object by all the other lesbian "rhymestresses". So in her effort to establish a tougher image, all Legacy manages to do is conjure up the image of her scissoring with some other butch dyke rapper.

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I leave you with the words of Mrs. Garrison from 'South Park', which, ironically for the sake of this article, is a perfect play on words.

"Scissor me timbers."

wink

Comments

1.  newyork
Feb 17, 2008 - 09:59 PM

omg this cracked me up. nice article. the engrish now is still as bad as before. lol

2.  mk23
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:03 PM
mk23's avatar

HAHAHAHA.  It blows when nonsensical english lyrics come up randomly in a song, especially a song which you were liking and feeling, then suddenly comes the “you wanna ride my pony, thats right, no baloney” kind of lyrics.

I give this article a 10/10.

3.  inflo
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:22 PM

hahahaha. this made me cry until I laughed!

4.  kensai
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:24 PM
kensai's avatar

newyork-Yeah, but I think they’re actually trying to make it respectable now.  I think.

mk23-Seriously, it just ruins the song for me.  I would almost rather have them just jibber jabber to the beat than to mutter a terrible lyric.

:o

inflo-I’m not sure what that means exactly, but it sorta sounds positive so i’ll take it.

5.  FoxyLady415
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:29 PM
FoxyLady415's avatar

lmfao!!! I loved reading this article!

6.  TheProdigy
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:31 PM
TheProdigy's avatar

yo you know, lets try some noise bet.  lolololoolololol

DBSK - O It’s supposed to be noisy beat

7.  Annielicious
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:31 PM

Regardless.. Shinhwa is DAMN AMAZING!!!! I dont give a crap.

8.  jason
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:33 PM
jason's avatar

WTF! HOW COULD YOU MISS H.O.T! they had the wrost english lyrics ever!!!!

9.  kensai
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:33 PM
kensai's avatar

TheProdigy-I had to leave some out too.  Like, “Even if you were down with Lenscrafters, you couldn’t see me.” There were some by H.O.T. too.

Annielicious-How can Eric be so bad at English though?  He grew up in America! :o

10.  kensai
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:34 PM
kensai's avatar

jason-I apologize.  My female source on all the boy bands was never into H.O.T., therefore I did not get the scoop on them.

:o

11.  resabambino
Feb 17, 2008 - 10:37 PM

Oh my! This was so funny. I can’t stop laughing.

12.  SCS
Feb 17, 2008 - 11:01 PM
SCS's avatar

High-Five of Teenagers FTMFW

13.  kpop_rubba
Feb 17, 2008 - 11:10 PM
kpop_rubba's avatar

maybe Legacy meant shes the hottest concubine…
Eric from Shinwha has the best or worst (depending on how you look at it) Engrish lyrics of all kpop…
Yoochun has been giving him a run though…

14.  aeri
Feb 17, 2008 - 11:24 PM

lol… i’ve always thought those two lines in anymotion were horrible.  you’d think with all the americans that SM has in their company someone would say something about those lyrics. even now SM still produces some horrible lyrics. dbsk has some other winners like “yunho lets try some noise beat”

15.  Vicky
Feb 17, 2008 - 11:27 PM

ENGRISH!!

16.  jinny in a bottle
Feb 17, 2008 - 11:33 PM

LOLLLLLLLLLL<3 chad

17.  janeberryblue
Feb 17, 2008 - 11:36 PM
janeberryblue's avatar

wow, you must’ve spent quite some time on this one ahaha

so i guess the winner is… SM Entertainment!! :D
i don’t think anyone will ever quite match eric’s fobbiness… and yet i still find him incredibly hott ._.

18.  johnnydorama
Feb 18, 2008 - 12:02 AM
johnnydorama's avatar

Does anyone else think the Anymotion video is racist? they used black people in the shop lifting scene.

19.  kensai
Feb 18, 2008 - 12:08 AM
kensai's avatar

kpop_rubba-Even if she did mean that, it’s really still not something you want to be bragging about. :o

Jane-And just imagine, when you go on dates with Eric, he can also keep you laughing non-stop just by starting to rap in Engrish.

johnnydorama-That was the point of those pictures.  Hahaha.  That sh*t is so racist.  It was also meant to infer that she wants the five black guys to “come into her”.

20.  johnnydorama
Feb 18, 2008 - 12:12 AM
johnnydorama's avatar

lol… that video is hilarious

21.  kensai
Feb 18, 2008 - 12:17 AM
kensai's avatar

johnnydorama-Somebody just needs to let Hyori know that nobody gives a sh*t about her pseudo-artistic 10 minute long music videos.  Rather, everybody just really wants to see her shake her a*s in as little clothes as possible.

22.  LIM33853
Feb 18, 2008 - 12:24 AM
LIM33853's avatar

im full korean, but can speak only broken korean. i came to the states when i was 3, im slowly getting into korean music/entertainment, but damn, i cant believe this is true. its laughable!! “Come into my member, please come into me” wtf!!

question. why do they even have english lyrics/titles in korean songs. are the korean lyrics this bad in korean ballads?

its strange they plagerise the beats/music but they dont steal the lyrics

23.  igoRAWR
Feb 18, 2008 - 01:13 AM
igoRAWR's avatar

hyori was the funniest
and boa XD

24.  0zzie
Feb 18, 2008 - 01:47 AM

LOL WTFZZZ Hyori. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wrote that part herself.

25.  monkeyz89
Feb 18, 2008 - 02:10 AM

OMG ROFL. this cracked me off. I LUV all of the singers listed above. They are all my fav. singers...but seriously their english is way off. Ive realized the SM company makes weird things up...Lee Soo Man needs to take care of that. However JYP and YG are pretty good in english when it comes to rapping too...hmm..haha.

26.  Padme
Feb 18, 2008 - 02:23 AM

LOL! Can’t stop laughing. I’m a DBSK fan, and have heard many hilarious lyrics from them. Not to offend some fellow fans, but they need to consult an fluent English speaker before they finalize their lyrics. All those literally translated lyrics’ killing me!

27.  xevilangel117x
Feb 18, 2008 - 02:23 AM

omg i’ve noticed this for years in kpop among the most popular groups. one of the lyrics by BoA in her ‘number #1” song, “you still my number one” bothered me for YEARS. she repeats that phrase at least 10 times in her song and it’s like omg! just put the word ‘are’ in it! is it that hard!?!? i’m shinhwa’s fan and i admit that their english rap is like the worst but they are hot anyway haha

28.  midnightparade
Feb 18, 2008 - 02:25 AM

ahaha! i *finally* signed up.
DUDE!! your articles are too short!

“you see this way. it’s looks like purple line. let me introduce myself” -DBSK
“yo youhno, let’s try some noise beat” -DBSK
“never lies to be your mind got to be true” -DBSK
“if you wanna man like a stronger” -shinhwa
“i wanna make you to be my girl” -shinhwa

Pretty much every song that comes out of SM should be proof read for quality control there- hell ask Tablo 2 proof read your shit.

Also- i didn’t think Eric had any credibility as a rapper. Doesn’t he mention something about a toaster in some song?!

DON’T STOP THE WAY! DON’T STOP THE WAY!

p.s. i love allkpop. its daily visit for me =)

29.  kensai
Feb 18, 2008 - 02:50 AM
kensai's avatar

LIM33853-I don’t know the exact reason they incorporate English into their songs.  I guess it’s because speaking English is sorta cool in Asia.

The native lyrics aren’t bad at all actually, I prefer it when the songs are all Korean.  Makes a lot more sense.

monkeyz89-Yeah, I guess there really is a trend with the SM artists.  Part of me wants to believe that they make the lyrics all messed up because the majority of the fan base doesn’t really understand perfect English.

xevilangel117x-I’m a huge Boa fan, so I guess i’ve always just found her terrible Engrish lyrics cute or something.  I mean she has some of the absolute worst.  “So shine we are!  Can you feel the brightness love?”

midnightparade-Unfortunately, I do not do this for a living so I can’t go on a 10 page soliloquy here.  Besides, I doubt anybody would want to read them anyway. :o

Eric doesn’t have any credibility as a rapper.  He has the most ridiculous lyrics, and he’s really not very good.  “Surprise!  Mexican food with guacamole!” I mean, seriously, wtf.

30.  namcod
Feb 18, 2008 - 03:15 AM

i understand this one “ Let’s have the stash, keep the heat on a dash, it’s simple math, front get one of the ass. “ . Rappers call it multi “ ash-ash-ath-ass “ , sometimes it doesn’t make sense. But when you write a lyric for a Rap song without multi , we know your skill is so bad ^^ .

31.  belleeee
Feb 18, 2008 - 03:16 AM

lol. funny. i dont know if i should mention this im going to die..

but can you explain why DBSK wanna touch him/themselves in Purple line? hehehe.

anyway. this is funny! lots of green jokes and i love it. ^^

32.  anystar12
Feb 18, 2008 - 09:48 AM
anystar12's avatar

i liked ses’s twilight zone and BoA’s miracle

33.  bobacious
Feb 18, 2008 - 10:10 AM

OMG...you guys crack me up w/ all these lyrics!  just a thought...maybe these lyrics are originally grammatically correct on paper but the artists just f*ck it up when they’re singing it cuz they don’t know what the hell they’re saying or what they mean?

34.  cardinaltree
Feb 18, 2008 - 11:44 AM
cardinaltree's avatar

OMG WHY MUST YOU DO THIS?! I HATE YOU! I am in the school library and I’m laughing my freaking head off! AHAHA!

I’m surprised there isn’t more Dong Bang Shin Ki. For some reason they seem to trust Yoochun to handle the English language with care, but he comes out with things like, “Let’s make some noisy beat”, not to mention the entirety of “My Girlfriend” (even though I don’t know if he wrote that).

I think some good Engrish has been provided by Super Junior in their song L.O.V.E: “Do we have to spread out for you? I don’t think so. We have to spread out for us!” Maybe it makes grammatical sense, but does it make logical sense? No.

35.  charlemagne
Feb 18, 2008 - 01:48 PM

hahaha! and the ones who grew up here have so much pride in thier english and take on american stage names and such but theyre sooo bad

36.  Taejus
Feb 18, 2008 - 01:56 PM
Taejus's avatar

lol, the Hyori one was scary -"Come into my member, please come into me.” loll!!!

and the shinwha one… -"Let’s have the stash, keep the heat on a dash, it’s simple math, front get one of the ass.”
What the HELLL!!

oh and i remember that episode of south park. The supposedly woman was actually a man.
The scissoring part was disturbing.raspberry Wow, alkpop is like the vulgar or evil side of popseoul.

heeeh

37.  sLaVe
Feb 18, 2008 - 01:59 PM
sLaVe's avatar

Haha BoA does have shitty Engrish sometimes. Maybe she’s been staying in Japan for too long :x Don’t get me started with DBSK’s Engrish, esp in their Japanese songs…

-sLaVe

38.  ultramania
Feb 18, 2008 - 02:46 PM
ultramania's avatar

I don’t understand why SM put out so many bad sets out lyrics when they still had human spellcheck a la Brian e_e

40.  sLaVe
Feb 18, 2008 - 03:06 PM
sLaVe's avatar

Oh yeah

P.S. Hyori is a hoe <3
Even the english translations for her Korean songs don’t make sense… Perfect example is NOYE (a.k.a. slave).

-sLaVe

41.  Leester
Feb 18, 2008 - 03:31 PM

Kpop’s wtf lyrics. XD

42.  swtgrllubzyooh
Feb 18, 2008 - 03:35 PM

No lie..
I have to agree with you that the English lyrics
were corny!!!! made me laugh.
you made me laugh so hard.
I still love the songs that Shinhwa sings.
they really addicting despite their broken English.
love the south park picture.

43.  kensai
Feb 18, 2008 - 05:48 PM
kensai's avatar

namcod-I don’t even understand your explanation.

belleeee-That one just missed the cut too.  Hahaha.

anystar12-I didn’t say you can’t like the song, I just said the lyrics were brutal.

bobacious-No, they have to be written that way or else it wouldn’t appear in every performance and the songs. :o

Taejus-I take offense to that comparison. raspberry

44.  sharoro
Feb 18, 2008 - 06:33 PM
sharoro's avatar

PUAHAHHAA omfg so funny
but i like eric tho!

HAHAH i think the worse lyric i’ve heard was from DBSK’s purple line

“I REALLY WANNA TOUCH MYSELF.”

wut the hellllll!???!

45.  khoallister
Feb 18, 2008 - 07:17 PM

Eric’s “I’m so damn hot, they call me vampiya” is my all time favorite line. That ish is pure genius!  He so damn hot. People call him vampiya. Seems pretty clear to me. Hahaha. Brilliant! Gonna put that ish on my tombstone.

46.  steviewonder06
Feb 18, 2008 - 08:29 PM
steviewonder06's avatar

HAHAHAHAHA
this made me laugh soo hard.

ohh well theres “Red Sun” by 2006 SM Town. Yoochuns part,"no way, oh your move, oh its you.” I never got what that meant and it still bothers me

and omg Micky’s “My Girlfriend” song. I had to keep listening to each part he sang more than three times to actually get what he was saying. I liked the beat though hahaha.
I luv DBSK but I would have expected Micky to have better English than that.
I always thought BoA’s engrish was cute too, kensai hahahaha
I still luv BoA though. I think shes gotten better though.

10 out of 10 article!=]

47.  LIM33853
Feb 18, 2008 - 11:02 PM
LIM33853's avatar

kensai, hate to say this, but i believe you will soon have a followup article on this exct topic. ENGRISH 2008. when these korean artists come to the states, and start answering questions in their interviews.

seven- “yo yo whatup!i like to michael jackson dance like! yo yo!”

boa- “i like thank all support. i like singer marah curry.”

48.  jasr357
Feb 18, 2008 - 11:29 PM
jasr357's avatar

waah! i can’t even understand what they meant! =)

49.  sixiaohu
Feb 19, 2008 - 01:34 AM

wow...........I am laughing so hard I can’t feel my arms......lol.....

50.  Jiyool
Feb 19, 2008 - 02:37 AM
Jiyool's avatar

Kensai ~ you are ONE FUNNY man. Because of you I actually took the time from my lazy-@$$ lifestyle and registered. Just so that I can tell you how hilarious this article is! Now that’s achievement!
I seriously don’t know how is it possible that amid SO MANY Americans, the Engrish only seems to worsen. I’m a huge TVXQ fan but I gotta say ~ DANG! They’re making me look bad…

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