- Business Insider spoke with Korean Billy.
- He's a YouTuber who makes videos explaining British slang and dialects.
- Studying in the north of England inspired him to make videos.
- Korean Billy's most popular videos include the dialect of Liverpudlians and London 'roadmen.'
Read the full transcript below:
The first time I met the British dialect was when I went to the UK as an exchange student three years ago.
And, at the time I spent my time in Preston, Lancashire, as an exchange student.
When I actually went there on my first day, I was really surprised by all the northern accents.
Because I didn't know very much about northern accents and different British accents at that time.
So, I made the first dialect video about two years ago. And that was after graduation, and after spending my time in the UK. So after graduation, I just wanted to work as a broadcaster actually, but I couldn't really get a job really easily. I opened my YouTube channel, and I was just thinking of some video ideas, and I was reminded of my time in the UK, especially in Northern England.
Two years ago I made a video about Cockney accents and Liverpool accents. I think after two weeks of posting my first accent video, it just started to get hundreds of thousands of views. It got featured by lots of media and newspapers. I just made that video for Korean audiences, Korean viewers. But what was really surprising was British people started to come to my channel and watch my videos. That was a really exciting and surprising moment for me.
I think that British people think that it would be really interesting to see a random Asian guy - from the opposite side of the globe - speaking in a Scouse accent, and a Scottish accent.
The visual, as they see that an Asian guy speaks in Scouse, like: "Alright, la?' 'Brekkie, la?" stuff like that.
I think that kind of fact was really interesting and shocking to a British audience. That made my videos go viral and get successful.
Produced by David Ibekwe. Special Thanks Alison Millington.