Man spent a year secretly learning Korean to surprise his wife and her family during wedding speech

Just when you thought your surprise of bringing a McFlurry home was enough to prove your love, this man outdid you.

Towards the end of last year, Ben Carpenter went viral on TikTok after the sweet surprise he did for his wedding.

Yep, that lad who secretly spent a year learning Korean to surprise his wife and her family during his speech. You know the one, that one you were all crying over – there’s no shame in admitting it.

But he didn’t just learn how to say ‘I love you’ and ‘hi my name is Ben’. Oh no, the guy really did learn the language.

That puts all of us and our GCSE French to shame, who can even remember how to say what they like to do at the weekend and their favourite film genre anymore?

Remembering a whole lot more than that, Ben surprised everyone with his speech.

His speech started off pretty standardly before he shared how he and bride, Sohee, had joked ‘for months’ that it would be ‘cute’ if he learned a little Korean to ‘sprinkle’ into his speech.

TikTok/@bdccarpenter

But he then began speaking in the language to reveal that ‘as a show of respect’ he has been ‘secretly taking lessons’.

“When Sohee and I first started dating, she told me in Korean culture, dating a foreigner is frowned upon by many Korean people. I was very scared to meet you, because I felt like maybe I wouldn’t be accepted,” the groom said. “But I was wrong.”

“You welcomed me with a warm heart. Thanks to all of you, we’ve made it this far.

“I’m thankful you’ve accepted me as a new member of the family, and I promise to love and take care of Sohee forever.”

The camera frequently shows his wife’s parents who nod and smile along as Ben fluently delivers the heartwarming speech.

TikTok/@bdccarpenter

After the speech, Sohee’s parents hug Ben as his wife tears up.

In the TikTok caption, he revealed he had been sneaking off for half an hour at a time for video calls she didn’t know about and often pretended they were for work.

“In bed I would often put one headphone in so she couldn’t hear what I was doing, and turning my screen away so she couldn’t see either,” he wrote.

“I set myself a goal of learning just a teeny tiny bit of Korean as a show of respect to her and her family on our wedding day.”

Well, he’s absolutely smashed that and definitely put all our butchered ’favourite hobby' speeches to shame.