hi anon!! thank you for your kind words about the scenery pics; i love having postcard-like shots and try my best 🥹 i spent about a week+ recovering from a particularly bad bout of laryngitis (it's pretty hazy where i live rn!) but other than that i've felt really healed from touching grass and i've also been catching up on infinite 10 days hehe. i hope you've been keeping well too, and that every day brings with it little joys that keep you going ♥️

I FULLY DID A [RUBS HANDS TOGETHER] READING THIS ASK. the question 100% makes sense, and i totally agree with you that personality can really shine through in the way someone speaks. i've never thought about it before in the context of yz so it was fun to kind of sit down and really think through some speaking samples.

(mandatory intermission to say that i only speak and understand intermediate mandarin at best, so any analysis from me will be an amateur one and i've probably missed details that a native or fluent speaker could probably pick up easily!)

for what it's worth, i feel fandom translators do a pretty good job of conveying the way they speak, especially in longer-form interviews (editorial, sit-downs) or documentaries like ETU. so i wouldn't worry about missing very much!

the way they speak publicly aligns pretty closely with — or, i guess, has given shape to — the usual and/or general understanding of their personalities: yb is short and snappy, honest, absolutely no beating around the bush. he'll use as few words as he possibly can LOL and tends to speak about things through the way it relates to him (e.g. what he felt, how a product or procedure or process has worked for him, lived experience, etc). there is a reticence to the way he speaks? i think this started more as something he did unconsciously or reactively, because of a) his kpop training, where idols are generally taught not to say very much; and b) his generally tumultuous relationship with the media/public/industry, who were incredibly invasive when he was a rising traffic star. but i feel like over the years, the same reticence has morphed into a deliberate reflection of how he approaches life: simply, head-on, and walking the talk without fluff or fanfare. why talk when he can just do, and do it well? i like to say he talks like little bursts of fire — not just because he says things in little bursts, but also because he feels quite untouchable and very private i.e. you will burn flying too close to the sun :')

xz, on the other hand, like many other things he does in life, talks like water... mandarin is big on phrases and metaphors, and xz uses them generously along with a lot of descriptive language. but not to the point of sounding like purple prose? i think he's just a very visual person and the descriptives not only help him picture the depth/breadth of the response he's giving or the product he's promoting, but also helps him be more specific because it's like sketching a picture for the audience to receive it more effectively instead of just describing it in text form. he sounds earnest, well-read, super put together. he has great flow and connects his points very cleanly (i have on more than one occasion thought he would be a wonderful debater), and frequently quotes or draws on other media (usually classical) to supplement his thoughts, like movies or books or songs.

THE INTERESTING THING IS xz, in certain instances, can also be quite deliberately reticent? it does depend on the media outlet or what he's talking about, but on these occasions, he has somehow mastered the art of word choices that somehow give you everything (i.e. truly satisfactorily answers a tricky question) but also nothing at the same time (i.e. nothing genuinely scoop-worthy or has no hook/point to report on). like he slips through your fingers just like water. as someone who works in PR, this is so fascinating to me lmao this is a skill many public figures would die to have

i realise this is turning into a rather unbalanced answer, and for that i am sorry 😭 i've consumed more xz interviews than yb so i have more notes on him, but also yb — by virtue of being someone who doesn't say much and hasn't given many interviews over the past few years/has mostly unvoiced vlogs from his studio — doesn't have a lot for me to go off of hshshsh i hope this doesn't make me seem like i'm deliberately studying one harder than the other!!!

other random observations i have about xz is that he has impeccable standard mandarin enunciation when he's doing serious interviews, but in more casual interviews or situations, he switches into a more slurred and condensed enunciation (v common for native speakers in all languages). this more casual variation includes 儿化 (erhua) or the beijing r sound, a language quirk where you add the -r sound to random words HAHA. there is no rhyme or rhythm to it! but i thought this was really interesting because xz is from the literal other end of china + yb and xz have spent about as much time in beijing (10-ish years) as each other, but yb doesn't really do this nearly as much as xz does.

vlog-wise, i think it's hard to give an opinion that isn't dated! ybo doesn't do very many voiced vlogs, and xzs hasn't done many with studio staff in recent years (there were quite a few in 2021-2023). xz speaks quite casually to his staff though, and in the vlogs where they play games it just feels like a bunch of grad students goofing around!!! i suppose because it's a hella small ship and technically his staff are also his friends and are probably around the same age-ish as he is. there is a bit of natural cuteness that slips through the cracks when he's speaking to people he's familiar with, especially if they're older than him. see: na-jie

lastly, because i have yapped long enough: i wouldn't call it stiff, but they are 1823% more put together in brand events than anywhere else LOL especially xz! yb gives a lot of straight, not-cookie-cutter answers, but xz has product placement answers that he softens with his usual disarming pleasantness and little anecdotes that make the responses sound more personal than they are. not said in a bad way! just a "i remain fascinated by this man and his mastery of public speech" way shjfhjsfhs