After receiving heated attention and criticism from the public, Nam Taehyun of WINNER has apologized for his use of impolite speech towards the audience at a recent concert event.
On November 22nd, WINNER’s main vocal, Nam Taehyun, was caught up in a controversy regarding his recent behavior at the GS& Concert 2014 event held in Songpa-gu, Seoul at the Jamsil Gymnasium.
During the group’s introductory speech on stage in front of an audience of ecstatic fans, fellow WINNER vocalist Kang Seungyoon began greeting their loving fans with an excitement. As the cheering of many fans began to drown out the voice of Kang Seungyoon during his speech, Nam Taehyun blatantly shouted in banmal (an informal way of speaking to others in Korean), “He’s speaking here (얘기하잖아)!” putting the rest of the members in a slightly perplexed situation.
However, on November 24th, Nam Taehyun announced a formal apology for his behavior through his agency, YG Entertainment. The idol apologized, “At that moment I was not in the position to get angry. I used banmal thinking that it would make the fans feel like they were close to me, like a friend, but my use of informal speech became a problem. In regards to this, I am deeply sorry. I did not think before speaking.”
Nam Taehyun continued, “Through this mistake I have realized just how important every single word coming out of my mouth is. From now on I will be very cautious.”
Even a YG Entertainment representative stated, “To be completely honest, Nam Taehyun is one of the members who speaks most comfortably around the fans in order to make them feel closer to the group, as if they were friends. Many fans have been disappointed that his true self is never revealed on television, so he often acts very friendly towards fans during fan meets or concerts. However, people who are not familiar with this side of Taehyun have watched this recent video and have mistaken him for behaving impolitely. We will make sure to be careful so that incidents like this will not happen again.”
Meanwhile, as the short clip of this incident is going viral over various South Korean online communities and websites such as Daum, Naver, Nate, and other individual blogs, netizens began criticizing the idol’s behavior and even dug up past rumors of Nam Taehyun’s alleged bullying during his youth. Other netizens have defended the idol saying he was merely teasing fans in a joking manner.