Starship Entertainment K-pop girl group IVE may not be quite as tremendously popular internationally as they are domestically in South Korea, but the DIVE fandom is still vast and committed. Naturally, one way to expand a group’s appeal across oceans is to be able to speak foreign fans’ language, and English is certainly the lingua franca. And IVE is indeed a group that speaks more than one language. So among Gaeul, Yujin, Rei, Wonyoung, Liz, and Leeseo, here is the complete answer to who speaks English or another language (like Japanese) in IVE.
Wonyoung Speaks Fairly Fluent English in IVE
Wonyoung speaks fairly fluent English for IVE, despite having never formally lived abroad. Her English-learning began at a young age because she attended an English kindergarten, and diligent study resulted in her current fluency. There are various examples of Wonyoung speaking English, both for special events and just spontaneously.
For instance, Wonyoung offered a very natural English greeting for international fans during IVE’s debut showcase in December 2021. She furthermore scattered impromptu English into a video with Vogue Korea in October 2022. During interviews with Seventeen, Elle, and Cosmopolitan between November 2022 and January 2023, Wonyoung demonstrated the most confidence and grammatical accuracy among the IVE members in speaking English. In January 2024, IVE YouTube also uploaded a video behind the scenes of Wonyoung being an MC for the Asian Artist Awards 2023, where she confidently discussed and practiced both English and Japanese portions of the script.
Since Rei is originally from Japan, she speaks native Japanese, and she is likely the only fully fluent Japanese speaker in IVE. However, all of the IVE members have demonstrated some ability to speak Japanese, even if it is likely memorized statements and phrases, and they have also demonstrated ability to understand Japanese being spoken to them. Likewise, in the aforementioned English-language interviews above, the IVE members did demonstrate some ability to speak and understand basic English. Some fans particularly like to praise Yujin’s pronunciation.
In summary, when it comes to who speaks English or another language among the IVE members, Wonyoung speaks fairly fluent English, Rei speaks native Japanese, and the other members can at least speak and understand some basic English and Japanese. And of course, everyone in IVE speaks fluent Korean.
For more about the group, you can check out how old the IVE members currently are and how tall they are, or you can refresh yourself on who their leader is. We also maintain an archive of all of the IVE music videos, to make it easy and convenient to watch all of their videos in one place. Alternatively, if you would like to learn more about idols who speak other languages, check out who speaks English in Aespa or who speaks English in Le Sserafim.