Last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that the city was giving away 2,000 free Broadway tickets to high school students. What was remarkable was that he recorded the video messages in Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish and Bengali. He does not speak these languages. This reminded me so much of K-pop idols delivering messages to their fans, often in languages that they do not speak. Both examples demonstrate the special effect on listeners when individuals try to communicate in a langu