T-ara speaks Japanese in France, “Do they represent K-pop?”

Girl group T-ara recently stirred up some controversy by speaking Japanese in France.

On February 8, T-ara had a photo-op in front of French reporters prior to their performance for KBS’s Music Bank in Paris.

T-ara said “Bonjour (hello)” in French to the reporters. But after they shot the pictures, Eunjung said “Arigato (thank you)” in Japanese.

In addition, Soyeon said “Arigato Gozaimashita (thank you very much)” in Japanese as well.

People who saw the video of T-ara speaking Japanese said that Eunjung was saying “A bientot (see you again)” in French. But they said Soyeon was speaking Japanese.

On the other hand, other Hallyu stars, who also had photo-ops, spoke French, English, or Korean.

People responded: “How can they speak Japanese when they appeared on stage as a K-pop representative?” “French reporters will think T-ara member are Japanese.” “They don’t know any better.” “There might be another reason for speaking Japanese.”