While many K-pop idols have shown off their Malay language skills, it seems Stray Kids’ (스트레이키즈) Han (한) may be the only idol whose Malay skills are almost at a native level. The 24-year-old recently showed off his linguistic prowess in a video, leaving many local fans impressed.
The idol group recently appeared in a video by Spotify Indonesia to promote their upcoming album, ‘ATE’. In the video, the eight members took the “Bahasa Challenge” and tried introducing their new release in Indonesian. Member Changbin (창빈) was the first to take the challenge – but rapper Han (full name Han Jisung (한지성)) caught the attention of Malaysian K-pop fans when he started speaking.
If you didn’t know, Han spent a good few years of his childhood in Malaysia and lived in several districts in Selangor. Those years living in Malaysia proved to be handy for this video because Han tackled the “Bahasa Challenge” with almost no issues, to where even the captions praised his fluency. However, it’s worth noting that while the language he spoke in the video is technically Indonesian, many of the words are also used in the Malay language.
The scene from the video was then reshared on Twitter and went viral amongst locals. Many were impressed by his language skills and some fans even joked that the “Budak Ampang (Ampang Boy)” in him came out when he started speaking in Indonesian/Malay. The nickname is an inside joke amongst local STAYs (Stray Kids fans), who affectionately call him such because Han previously lived and attended school in Ampang.
The video also had many STAYs urging the group to consider holding a concert in Malaysia. Stray Kids recently announced their upcoming world tour, “’dominATE”, which includes stops in multiple countries, including Singapore and Indonesia. Unfortunately, Malaysia was not part of the tour’s stops, which caused a lot of disappointment amongst local fans as the group has never performed here since their debut in 2018.
We also hope Stray Kids can one day perform in Malaysia, especially given their popularity here. We’re sure the boys won’t have any issues with communication or travelling since they have an almost local member.
Here’s a look at Han speaking in Indonesian/Malay:
