"He’s not going to be saved, take him to Lahore."
South Korean YouTuber Wonnie surprised viewers when he jokingly mocked Pakistanis in Punjabi.
Wonnie, whose real name is Daeyeon Won, frequently pays homage to Pakistani culture by posting reels, vlogs and videos in Urdu and Punjabi on social media.
On one Instagram Reel, Wonnie made fun of Pakistani citizens and said:
“In Pakistan, we don’t say take him to hospital.”
He then began speaking Punjabi:
“We say, ‘inhe nahi bachna, inhoo lore le ke jao’ (He’s not going to be saved, take him to Lahore).”
His ability to speak fluent Punjabi left viewers astounded.
One comment read: “Your accent is way better than many Desis.”
Another fondly called Wonnie a “Desi marshmallow”.
The comment section was filled with Pakistanis remarking on the accuracy of his accent, even thanking him for representing Pakistan with such kindness and honesty.
Korean culture has gained popularity around the globe, including K-Pop, K-drama and Korean food.
On the other hand, Wonnie is an example of the opposite. The young South Korean has been influenced by Pakistani culture.
So much so that in addition to his real name, his Urdu name is Tayyab Mohammed and it is proudly included in his YouTube bio.
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More than 90,000 people are subscribed to his channel.
He has become a local celebrity due to his ability to speak Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi with fluency and perfect pronunciation.
His ability to learn Urdu and Punjabi began when he was five years old and his parents separated.
The year after the separation, his mother married a Pakistani man. His family moved to Pakistan, and he and his mother both converted to Islam.
In one YouTube video, he described how his mother and he were confused and intimidated by their new environment.
When first adjusting to the culture change, he noted that they witnessed a large number of people napping on public lawns and said: “We believed they were corpses.”
Wonnie attributes his seeming natural understanding of Pakistani trends and references to the fact that he completed his education in Lahore.
In one of his videos, which received over 679,000 views, he can be seen asking residents in Seoul’s busy Hongdae neighbourhood about Pakistani artists.
Mahira Khan, Mehwish Hayat, Imran Abbas and Ahsan Khan were some of the names mentioned by the YouTuber.