4 Fun Facts About Desy JKT48
Last week’s winner for the poll is the Team T member with the longest name, Maria Genoveva Natalia Desy Purnamasari Gunawan! (Yes, that is her real name!) In this post, I’ll introduce to you 4 fun facts about the girl that is simply known as Desy JKT48!
1. Desy stands a “Head” above the rest
Besides her long name, Desy also carries the title of being the Tallest member in JKT48 with a height of 172cm!
In the Tetsuna stage, she partners the 155cm Chika and 152cm Elaine in the unit song, Kono Mune No Barcode. It is a chance to witness the amazing height contrast in the group!
Chika, Desy and Stefi
At the JKT48 3rd Generation Trainee Event, Jiro-san came on stage and singled out Desy, to much of her surprise and shock.
He then began to say sorry…. and what was a fun concert suddenly turned into a tense and nervous moment.
But as it turns out, he announced that JOT have gotten Desy’s height wrong at their profile page and later went on to measure her 172cm height on the spot!
(Seems like even JOT knows how to troll fans!)
Desy also has an iconic (๑>◡<๑) smile and her eyes squint too, much like Ikha. However, her smile resembles Shanju the most and it is not surprising if you confuse the two of them.
2. Desy is a die-hard fan of JKT48
Desy continues the magical story of a girl who fell in love first as a JKT48 fan and who later transformed into a full fledged member.
Her oshi is Sonia, the cute and capable Wawa!
Strangely enough, Desy doesn’t really take a lot of photos together with Sonia. Despite this, she is a dedicated collector of Sonia’s photo packs and even admits that she never gets bored of collecting photos.
Desy once revealed that she tries to collect full photo sets of Sonia. but even if that doesn’t happen, she will still choose to keep any of the double (duplicate) photos she has. (A very common experience for a collector.)
Desy loves JKT48 and was very active in the fan community. She would bring photo packs of members to trade them in school and even did fun things like wotagei-ing with others.
She tried to audition for the 2nd gen but failed to make it through. Still, she continued to hone her skills by becoming part of a dance cover group, Tewofuru at the start of 2013.
Tewofuru performed at events and had also gained a small gathering of fans.
It is amazing to witness how far she continues to go in this amazing journey!
3. Ngapak or Medhok? Fans seems to be divided about what Desy’s Accent is
Members with an accent brings a very likeable personality to the group. It shows a very unique characteristic that people love and is also a representation of a common bond with Indonesians from different regions.
It doesn’t mean that members don’t get embarrassed though, or that fans don’t laugh or tease members about it. All of these do happen!
Desy is one of those with an accent in JKT48. She does feel embarrassed about it, and pretty much struggles to hide it whenever she can.
“Y u do tis to me…”
Fans have noted that Desy does a great job of losing her accent during her jikoshoukai or when she talks during a theater Kageana.
But it still comes up naturally during the MC, and she becomes very shy about it.
Once, her accent also slipped while on National TV…. to the amusement from the hosts (and her inner horror!).
“Medok” means a thick Javanese accent, and Andela as well as Shani are the most pronounced in it. Desy is also recognized bv fans and members as a girl with Medok too.
Shani and Desy… Medok girls?
However, it seems that other fans are also claiming that Desy does not have a Medok. Instead, because she is from Cilacap, she possesses the Banyumasan dialect, otherwise known as Basa Ngapak.
Currently, there are claims from both Medhok and Ngapak sides.
So, who really knows? And is it really important? Perhaps…. it’s still interesting though!
“Hmm…..”
4. Desy’s Presence and Leadership makes her a potential Team T Captain
5 Team T members were once asked by media about who is the most suitable person to be the Captain for Team T.
It was a tight match between Andela and Desy with 3 of the members acknowledging Desy’s leadership. They described her as being firm but capable of guiding members in a positive manner.
It also helps that she has a tall presence, and is older compared to the rest of the young members in the team. (Source: Harian Terbit)
Desy is also attentive to members. Former 3rd gen trainee Kezia Andinta also shared with us about Desy’s helpfulness in teaching dance steps to other members, in JKT48Stuff’s interview with Kei.
But it is not only the members, fans also acknowledge Desy as a potential Team T Captain. In a poll done by JKT48fans.com, over 1600 respondents voted for the most appropriate member to be Captain.
Desy ranked in the Top 3. She stands behind Elaine and Andela with 14% of the total votes.
It looks like a promising chance for Desy! So will she be Captain?
Unfortunately… only JOT knows!
So what do you think about Desy as a member? Do you like members who are tall? Or are you one of those who don’t find her accent cute?
If you are auditioning for JKT48, does it make you more confident knowing that Desy is a regular member now despite not passing the 2nd gen auditions? Tell us what you think in the comments section below!
P.S: If you would like to volunteer to translate this article to Bahasa Indonesia, do let us know via the contact form or tweet us at @jkt48stuff!
Photos courtesy of Pitra and Desy’s Twitter.
Japanese Translation by Wotaliano
People (javanese) wouldn’t know they have an accent or not until they start talking in Indonesian, because Indonesian is not their main language. that’s why Andela just discovered that her Sister is also has an accent during her visit in Jakarta.
oh that’s really interesting!
Here she is Risa Nasution (FTV (Indonesian television drama program) actress)
To be honest, this is a good chance for JKT48 to represent the diverse and beautiful girls from all over Indonesia.
As she comes from Java region, along with Andela and Shani, they can become the trio diva.
Personally, i like her to speak with accent, at least in theatre where the fans can laugh and enjoy it as her charm point.
Also it’s a bit heartwarming when she’s tried her best to become JKT48 full=fledged member
hey that is a great idea for the Java represent! i think it is far enough that producers should make a TV show featuring them already
andela’s accent and desy’s accent both can called as medhok. specifically andela’s accent called bandek, and desy’s accent called ngapak. one of the big difference is letter ‘a’. bandek (in many case) spell “a” as “o”. ngapak keep spell “a” as “a”. example “apa”, bandek will spell “opo”, ngapak will spell “apa”
and letter “k” in the end of word. bandek not spell it clearly, but ngapak spell it clearly. example “rujak cingur”, bandek spell it “ruja’ cingur”, ngapak spell it “rujak cingur”
thanks that is quite enlightening! it is quite technical to explain though so I can understand if the girls/members themselves and the many youths in the fandom don’t get it. But its a great explanation!
The common sentiment is that many love the medhok girls a lot, but it is a little of a wet blanket for others to keep pointing out that desy is ngapak only.
just let andela to be the centre and desy as the team T skipper.
she’s tall and helpful according to some of the article that I read.
tall person stands out in the crowd, so the other members notice her presence, this trait is an added bonus to the captain criteria.
haha i remember watching hkt48’s variety show, when they talk with heavy dialect, it’s sounds cute and funny too
i wonder how japanese fan thinks about javanese dialect
*obor2 congor disik la*
Well, I really like because of her lovable face that I noticed from twitter. I suddenly felt like “love in the first sight” in that time. And I finally decided her as my oshimen. FYI, before knew her, I just like the group as a whole (Hako-oshi).
And about her accent? I find it as her appeal and nothing to be ashamed because of it. I don’t really know why she feels like that but when she tries (very hard) to hide it, it sounds weird. Especially when she tries to talk with Jakarta accent (like use “gue” for I or “lo” for you). She just needs to be herself, I think. And, I’ll support her just the way her is.