South Koreans looking to improve their English skills are apparently looking in more places than just textbooks by using White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s briefings as material.
The English lessons come courtesy of an extremely popular YouTube channel that breaks down her press conferences into English tutorials. Thousands of followers have followed the channel and are fans of the steady rhythm she maintains when conveying President Trump's communications to television viewers, according to supporters.
"Her pronunciation is really clear. Her attitude is also the thing – she's very confident on what she is saying," said Yeonju Hong, per the New York Post. The New Hampshire-born Leavitt's accent "is very clear to non-native speakers," she said.
The channel, known as dotdotenglish, operates on TikTok and YouTube, and markets Leavitt's press conferences as providing "five English expressions to boost your speaking skills.”
A featured segment from a March briefing begins with Leavitt stating: "It's great to see all of you on this very newsy day, to say the least." The phrase gets repeated several times, enabling students to learn via repetition, while Korean subtitles and narration explain the meaning of "to say the least."
The press briefing-turned English lesson video accumulated 160,000 YouTube views, with Leavitt footage from March-April surpassing 500,000 views.
"The Korean people like her," said one US-based Korean reporter. "They say she's Trump's mouth."
Leavitt's connection with Korea started when she shared about "South Korea skincare finds" during the annual APEC summit with President Trump in Gyeongju in late October 2025. Her visit received lots of Korean media coverage.
A delayed entrance at the White House became an educational opportunity. "I apologize for my tardiness. It's quite the newsy day," she stated in another lesson-worthy clip from last year. This created an opening for vocabulary building: "Tardiness, the quality or habit of being late or delayed," according to the video tutorial.
Even the war with Iran has helped with the English lessons: "Turning to the ongoing military operations in Iran," Leavitt says in a video-lesson posted March 4. The video teaches the pronunciation and definition of the word "decimate.”
The English lessons come courtesy of an extremely popular YouTube channel that breaks down her press conferences into English tutorials. Thousands of followers have followed the channel and are fans of the steady rhythm she maintains when conveying President Trump's communications to television viewers, according to supporters.
"Her pronunciation is really clear. Her attitude is also the thing – she's very confident on what she is saying," said Yeonju Hong, per the New York Post. The New Hampshire-born Leavitt's accent "is very clear to non-native speakers," she said.
The channel, known as dotdotenglish, operates on TikTok and YouTube, and markets Leavitt's press conferences as providing "five English expressions to boost your speaking skills.”
A featured segment from a March briefing begins with Leavitt stating: "It's great to see all of you on this very newsy day, to say the least." The phrase gets repeated several times, enabling students to learn via repetition, while Korean subtitles and narration explain the meaning of "to say the least."
The press briefing-turned English lesson video accumulated 160,000 YouTube views, with Leavitt footage from March-April surpassing 500,000 views.
"The Korean people like her," said one US-based Korean reporter. "They say she's Trump's mouth."
Leavitt's connection with Korea started when she shared about "South Korea skincare finds" during the annual APEC summit with President Trump in Gyeongju in late October 2025. Her visit received lots of Korean media coverage.
A delayed entrance at the White House became an educational opportunity. "I apologize for my tardiness. It's quite the newsy day," she stated in another lesson-worthy clip from last year. This created an opening for vocabulary building: "Tardiness, the quality or habit of being late or delayed," according to the video tutorial.
Even the war with Iran has helped with the English lessons: "Turning to the ongoing military operations in Iran," Leavitt says in a video-lesson posted March 4. The video teaches the pronunciation and definition of the word "decimate.”
