Hmm, how would you rewrite this scene to still keep a korean accent? I'm genuinely curious because with english being my second language the only thing I could write with accent is either eastern european or just some badly structured sentences which would make no sense to anyone in a culture swap story.
Regardless of the intentions of how this discussion got kicked off, I do think there's value in learning about different perspectives and different ways of presenting things. To be constructive, I do want to dissect and discuss this a bit.
1) In general when you're writing accents, tone it the fuck down! It's a pain in the ass to read, and you really risk losing your non-native English speakers (if a person fluent in English has a hard time deciphering the accent, how the hell is a non-English speaker supposed to figure it out?). Now stories can differ than comics. In a story, you can write the text out properly, and then describe in text that there's an accent. In a comic, that doesn't have narration, you can imply the accent by choosing to apply it selectively. For example, rather than writing every single word with an accent, just apply the accent to the most difficult to pronounce words in that language.
I'll note, an accent is different from unfamiliarity with the language. If, for example, you have a Chinese accent but also are showing unfamiliarity with the language, the occasional (well researched) grammar mistake is perfectly acceptable and reasonable. For instance, making the mistake of switching -ing and -ed.
2) If you're gonna write out the accent, then be accurate and consistent about it. I'll note that a personal gripe about the accent shown here is that there's some inconsistencies/inaccuracies. 577 is a good example. So the T in don't is dropped, but the same sound at the end of THAT isn't dropped. Koreans do struggle with the 'th' sound, but rather than coming out as an 'f', it's more of an 's', since 'f' sounds are also something that Koreans can struggle with.
As a counterpoint, I'll note that this story is weird in that there's meant to be a "realistic" reason why our MC has a speech impediment. I'm not sure if the accent is actually supposed to be accurate, or just that there is an accent that the ignorant Americans are just gonna eat up. Not to mention, I don't think we really know if this is gonna effect their ability to speak Korean (or sing for that matter) so this plot point is weird regardless of whether you find the portrayal offensive.
3) Frankly speaking, most transformation erotica is offensive by nature. Most feminization stories are offensive to trans people, feminists find bimbofication stories sexist, and most race change stories are written by people that have minimal knowledge about the cultures they're writing about and are just fetishizing it. Ultimately intent does matter. If you're writing a story where part of the degradation is the character becoming a stereotypical WHATEVER, then just take ownership that "yes, as an author I am writing a cariculture of a group of people". People who take offense to that are likely not your target audience and also aren't understanding that the cariculture is part of the degradation.
On the flip side, if you start writing where the cultural change
itself is the degradation... I mean, you're probably a racist let's be frank
. Especially if 1) all your work has those same themes, and/or 2) the story treats every other member of that group as also inferior.
Basically, I think a general lesson to remember is that you should be aware of what you're doing. If you write a cultural change and don't do any research on portraying that culture accurately, and are only using depictions you feel like you recall from XYZ show/movie/etc... then it's probably going to be a stereotypical cariculture. If that's all you need, then accept that it's a shallow and potentially offensive to some depiction and move on. But, if you're really trying to show a change and treat it as an authentic change, then do the research. And for the love of god, please don't write the story pointing out basic things as if they're a huge revelation just because they were something new you learned. I nearly died from second hand cringe from all the mistakes and "hey! I'm going to point out this thing I learned when I researched Japan and yet somehow still got the details wrong!" from Cheryl Lynn's Tokyo Bound (mispelled Tokoyo Bound on fictionmania, as a cherry on top
).
You'll never please everyone, but at a minimum, there's ways to do it with integrity.
This story (Kpop) is weird for me because the transformation is rooted so many "realistic" mechanisms. But then kinda contradicts itself (or rather sets itself up for scrutiny that doesn't really hold). For example, right at the start of this part, Nabi is introduced as "barely speaks English". But... the procedure didn't hypnotize Nabi to forget the grammar or have difficulties comprehending English. Really, Nabi just has a speech impediment. And so the story plays up the mispronounciation since that's the only tool this transformation had to sell this "barely speaks English" plot... but she still comprehends it perfectly. So... where's the payoff to this?
To be honest, Mirror did this better where Elena is struggling with English and it's showing how Andrew's lost a bit more of himself. For me personally, I wish that was reflected on more.