YouTube sensation Korean Billy makes "surreal" visit to Preston

A YouTube sensation known worldwide for his take on UK accents, has had a “surreal” visit to Preston.

Korean Billy, real name Seong-Jae Kong, announced on his socia media channels, that he’d made a return to the city where he spent time as an exchange student.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he said: “Good to be back in Preston, Lancashire, love! It's the town where I spent my exchange student life at UCLan 9 years ago and I'm visiting here again as a guest panel for the Asia Pacific Film Festival. Feels surreal! @UCLan

It was while living in Preston for six months that Billy first became interested in British dialects, and took to the internet to try out copying them. He now has 122,000 subcribers to his YouTube channel, with videos racking up hundreds of thousands of views.

In them he mimicks accents and dialects, as well as explaining the difference in spellings between UK and US English. In a video looking at the Lancashire accent, he covered words like ‘oreet’, ‘gradely’, ‘jiggered’, ‘baggin’, ‘cracking flags’ and ‘corporation pop’

The Asia Pacific Film Festival

This is an annual event at UCLan, screening films from Asia Pacific countries, often for the first time in the UK. The 2024 festival will be dedicated to topics relevant and impactful for the contemporary world, and aims to invite reflection and public conversations on these topics.

The festival is free and open to all. The films will be accompanied by talks and Q&A sessions by UCLan students, lecturers and invited guests.

For a list of what’s on, click here