The Life of a Korean-American

          I want to talk about something that doesn't require me to do any research because I have sufficient knowledge on it: the life of a Korean-American. To be more specific, I'm talking about those with Korean parents but were born in America.

          First off, over the years of my life, I've noticed that Koreans in Korea and Koreans in America look different. I've only lived in America but I've seen plenty of native-born Koreans both on TV and real life to know the difference. So if you put two Koreans in front of me, one native-born and the other American-born, I could probably tell you which is which. How? First off the clothes are different - Korean fashion always sets the trend for American fashion so there's going to be a difference there. Plus the skin color, for the most part, is going to be different: Korean-Americans are tanner. Actually that just goes for all Asian Americans. The last key difference is that the eyes are different, many of you are probably shocked, because you move your eyes more and put more stress to your eyes when you speak English so that shapes your eyes differently. I'm not kidding, this is a fact.

         So all of the main differences above tell you this: Korean-Americans are bi-cultural and it's not easy being bi-cultural; they are different from "Korean-Koreans" and from "American-Americans". Their Korean-American parents tell them one thing while their American friends at school tell them another. They're not quite 100% alike with their people in South Korea but they're far from being alike with American-Americans.

          I've seen some Korean-Americans who think they're completely American, and I've coined a term for this condition called "white-washed" (no stealing, I'm the one who made it up). Now in the previous paragraph, I'm not saying Korean-Americans are these aliens who don't belong anywhere. Oh no, that's not it at all. But what I'm trying to get across is that as a Korean-American myself, sometimes I face a kind of identity-crisis, and get a sense of loneliness. Based on my experience, you wouldn't know what I mean unless you're also bi-cultural (or perhaps even multi-cultural). 

          So my whole point of this excessively long blog post is that beyond all the splendor of being Korean-American, there's this sense of loneliness. Unless you're one of those lucky ones who live in a big city overflowing with Koreans. I personally know who I am and Who I belong to, but when enclosed in this world in my life, I look around and wonder how my life would be like if my parents had never come to America. Would I sit around wishing for an exciting life in a place like America or would my life be less complicated with only one culture surrounding my life? So there you have it, the more exclusive details of a life of a Korean-American, or any American-born ethnic minority.

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How Koreans View America and Vice Versa

          With this blog post, I would like to bring light to fellow Americans how highly praised they are by Koreans. The subject that is required for students to learn is English and that is what they study like crazy. America is the land that's wide and spacious and with so many wonders to see while Korea is the small, dense country.

          I guess a way for fellow Americans to see it is this - most of us would marvel when someone says they're going to study abroad in a place like, Paris or London, right? Well, America is there up on the list of Paris and London to Koreans. Also, I don't think not many Americans realize this, but, speaking English fluently is such a great privilege because it is an international language. So I just want to shake some Americans and shout at them, "Do you know how blessed you are to speak fluent English?!?!"

          Now how do Americans view Korea, as I see it? On a large scale, I think Americans immediately think of North Korea and aren't informed about how they might just have Korean products in their house. (Click here to learn more). But there is a minority group of Americans who enjoy K-pop and/or K-dramas or just the Korean culture itself and to them, Korea is the dreamland. Which is weird because I know how Koreans view America.

           I got my friend this cool, colored pencil set for her birthday and the others at her birthday party were asking if it was an Asian product and I'm thinking, "Uhh...No..." And I told my dad this and he said that back in the olden days in Korea, it was cool whenever someone had a product from America but now it's the other way around. Which I know it's very true since I have experience as evidence of it, even back in elementary school, my fellow classmates were amused by my Korean hanboks and explanation of food and what not. So this shift delights me since I love Korea and although it's not every American (yet), there are my friends who are interested in Korea and daydream about their future life in Korea and it makes me very proud to be Korean. I've even met people who freaked out on me because I was the first Korean they've ever met and they loved Koreans. So Koreans as a whole all view America greatly for the most part and Americans are slowly starting to do so for Korea as well.


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South Korean Gag -men and -women

          In my previous blog post, I talked about Korean comedy - "gag". I also talked about 'Gag Concert', but I did not tell you specific gag -men and -women.

          South Korea actually has a pretty long history of its gag -men and -women, who has always been popular. But 'Gag Concert' has definitely been popularly loved these days and the gag -men and -women of 'Gag Concert' can show off fame not too unlike that of K-pop idols.

          These Gag -men and -women, just like your Korean artists, have all undergone audition processes to be accepted into an agency. Just like how Korean idols are referred to as "rookies" immediately after they debut, it's the same with these comedians.

          I talk about Korean Gag because it's a large part of Korean culture. The genius comedians come up with hit catchphrases or trendy items that they use on stage (such as Brownie). These catchphrases or the latest fad set by the Gag -men and -women shape the modern Korean society. But these do not just spring out of the comedians, they are formed through hours of brainstorming late into the night. I've heard of an instance when the rookie gagman of a certain corner would come up with all the jokes and ideas and then all the senior gagmen would be the ones relaying them on stage. So either way, the gag -men and -women all work hard to come up with the best performance to put on.

          I don't think I explained well enough how these corners are really like in my other blog post on Korean gag. Most of the time, they are like segments of just any regular show, and this is where the gagwomen could convey the clingy girlfriend to the gagmen who is playing the role of her boyfriend. And the other rare times, a couple of them stand and tell jokes, not like, knock-knock jokes, but they also do a little acting. For example, in a corner that has recently started on 'Gag Concert' is these two men who haven't had girlfriends in the past 20 years or so and one would ask the other, "Have you worn a couple ring before?" and the other would say the "punchline" by saying, "What's a couple ring?" 

          So obviously, these gag -men and -women need to be able to act. Very different from the comedians on your American comedy shows like 'Comedy Central', right? At least from my very little knowledge of it. Anyway, so because these gag -men and -women are also acting, they sometimes get to play the cameos of a funny character on K-dramas. For example, maybe there's an attractive girl walking along the street and all the boys are gaping over her and these boys would be played by gagmen since they can make the most hilarious facial expressions. 

          I also am a fan of a number of gag -men and -women and let me spazz - they are awesome. I have to say, I like them almost as much as I like  my Korean singers. These gag -men and -women have to sacrifice their image by doing silly, embarrassing things to bring laughter to Korea and I respect that. And because they do these things, they're so humble. So there you have it - how Korean gag -men and -women are. 


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Korean Comedy - "Gag"

          South Koreans love comedy. But the American comedy that you may be used to is way different from Korean comedy. First off, we Americans call comedians, well, comedians but Korean comedians are actually called Gag Man/Woman. 

         In America, there are comedy shows such as Comedy Central and there are similar shows like these in Korea as well, the most noticeable one called 'Gag Concert (개그 콘서트)'. (What does "gag" mean here? I'm assuming it's Konglish for "comedy".) Unlike Comedy Central, gag men and -women get into groups and form corners for 'Gag Concert' which is minimum 5 minutes long and they perform on stage with a live audience and it is broadcast each week on television. These corners have created numerous catchphrases and trends for Koreans to use in everyday life (of course, once the "season" of that corner is over, than the usage of whatever catchphrases that corner generated also goes away) and gag men and -women have a star status almost as much as that of K-pop stars.

         I'm a weekly viewer and a huge fan of 'Gag Concert', but it is actually a fact, and not an opinion, that 'Gag Concert' is the most popular gag show out there in South Korea. There has been times weekly charts of Korean television programs showed that 'Gag Concert' was the #1 most viewed program of the week, trampling over popular K-dramas and variety shows. So do you get that 'Gag Concert' is the most popular one out there? I've seen 'People Looking for Laughter (웃찾사)' and although some of their corners were humorous, even the most humorous ones didn't quite meet the humor level of the corners in 'Gag Concert'. Well, 'People Looking for Laughter' has altogether ended the show a couple of times due to the fact that they couldn't beat the popularity of 'Gag Concert'. And now it's back again! Which I'm happy about, even though I never really watch it anymore, just because I felt bad for them. So anyway, I personally prefer 'Gag Concert' to 'People Looking for Laughter'. 

        Another one of these comedy shows that I've seen once - and thank goodness just once - is called 'Comic Big League (코믹빅리그)'. Oh my goodness. It was horrible. It was just a rip off of 'Gag Concert'. Seriously, can't the gag -men/-women there come up with something of their own? Even if they did, they weren't that funny. Not only that, it was more... indecent. Like, there would be too much kissing and it's like, hello, I would've watched some romance movie if I wanted to see kissing. My opinion is that 'Gag Concert' is probably most popular because they (as in the comedians there and crew) know that stuff that makes you cringe ain't funny. If the director or boss or whoever is in charge of 'Gag Concert' did allow some scandalous new corner to be showcased (and it has before), then that risqué corner would be shot down immediately and would be never seen again. Very wise of them. But although I despise 'Comic Big League', it (for some reason) must still have considerable amount of viewers because last time I check, it still exists.

          Now, let's get on Korean humor: Until last year, it never dawned on me that Koreans are kind of mean when it comes to looks. A notable amount of the jokes on gag shows (plus variety shows) are fat jokes. It's not that Koreans actually make fun of fat people every time during their everyday life, but it's prominent on T.V. And honestly, we human beings have a tendency to make fun of stuff like that, so it's not just that the Koreans are cruel. But my white friend last year told me that she and her friends were watching a Korean show and they were miffed about all the jokes on appearances of this one particular gag woman that was on the show. I grew up watching this so it never bothered me, I guess, but when I heard that, my eyes were opened. Ugh, that makes me sound like it's as if I've been brain-washed to be insulting to others or something, but that's not the case! Let's not twist Grace's words, shall we?

          But it's not only fat jokes that are made on these gag shows, they (well, at least 'Gag Concert') also relate to the common people by sometimes poking fun on the government (which they still have to be careful about), silly trends that have taken place, how clingy girlfriends act to their boyfriends, and stuff like that. 

          Now, I've never really seen 'Comedy Central' or anything like that before, but when I watch the news in the mornings, sometimes they'll show little clips of them, right? So I get a gist about what they're like. One clear difference I've picked up between American comedy shows and Korean ones is that Koreans do not swear on their gag shows. Which I like. Plus Korean gag -men/-women do a good job of steering away from sexual innuendos, especially because there are so many young viewers, even more nowadays. I'm not 100% sure if American comedy shows make a bunch of sex jokes, but it's one thing about Korean comedy shows. 

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Korean Expressions (Figures of Speech and Proverbs)

          One of my goals for this blog is that I'll let the rest of the world know the cool things of the country I love. I'm not sure if I've been doing that well so for this blog post I want to talk about Korean expressions.

          Like most countries, Korea has it's own old sayings or proverbs. These proverbs are taught to Korean students as young as those in elementary school. Unlike just regular figures of speech, these it's hard to determine the meaning of most of these proverbs which is why they're taught in schools. For example, a worm wiggles even when it's stepped on (지렁이도 밟으면 꿈틀한다) means even a nice person can snap if you push their buttons too much. You wouldn't have been able to get that meaning out of just the proverb itself, could you?

          I'm not quite sure if this one is also a proverb or just an expression, I think it's the second one, but it's one of my favorite sayings - "you're pouring gasoline to a house on fire" (불난 집에 기름 붓는다) which means that you're making an angry person even angrier. I've used this saying in English and people laugh because the meaning of this one is more obvious, especially in context, even though it's not really said in English.

          In a previous blog post, I talked about how I don't like how grown ups and elderly people basically have absolute authority in Korea but I do have a soft spot for the old people who would still wear their Hanboks in modern day Korea and use these brilliant old sayings and so that all Koreans, regardless of age, use them as well. Okay, I don't have sources to really back this up but at least that's what I think. What I'm trying to say is that I respect those ancestors who've really set up Korean culture and society. I want to talk more about Korean culture by also incorporating its history and just gush about the country that I love in future blog posts.

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DMNT Daniel's Sentence for Marijuana Case - Is this Fair?

          Okay, so I know that I've been posting a lot on K-pop related stuff lately but I want to talk about this. I'm a fan of Daniel but I gotta admit, I was and still am pretty disappointed with his poor decisions. But I'm not dedicating this blog post to only criticize Daniel but also the court's decision. 

          I don't understand why they're going all easy on this Cha No Ah person, who has smoked marijuana 2-3 times. And the articles says it seems the reason for this lighter punishment is because his offense wasn't as harsh - WHAT?! I'm not the one to judge who committed more crime than the other but I think they both deserve to be punished equally to each other at least. 

          It seemed to me that Daniel's fans are upset and have been stating their opinions on the comments about how they're meaner to Daniel because he's from America and how it's as if smoking marijuana isn't wrong 'cause they let Cha No Ah off easily, and etc... But I want to remind everyone that unfortunately, Daniel has been tested for smoking marijuana and the result was positive. Plus about the part about discriminating him because he's American does not have enough support. 

          I've read some comments saying how marijuana doesn't kill you and that cigarettes are more hazardous and blah blah but it's still illegal. Shouldn't that mean anything to anyone? Yes, I get that your oppa has made some mistakes but those mistakes have to be met with consequences. Although I think the court's decision isn't quite fair, the fact that those involved are facing consequences is fair itself. Plus the Daniel's defense about how he's from America so he's not accustomed to marijuana being illegal or something doesn't make much sense to me. That just might get the judge to be harsher to Daniel for being "American". Who knows.

          I agree with those who are voicing their opinions that Daniel has not only made his own days -to-come tough but also those of his fellow group members. I'm honestly curious about how his group members are coping. But I'm not (and don't want to be) one of those overly critical Korean "netizens" so I want to make it clear that my support goes out to Daniel and the rest of the DMNT members.



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I heard something about how Korea's strict about defamation so I hope stating my personal opinions about this here won't get me in any trouble! Just doing my school assignment and freedom rings in America :)







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The Future of K-pop Groups

          K-pop fans both in Korea and all over the world are buzzing about Dongho's departure from the boy group, U-KISS, which you can read more about in here. Fans' (at least the Kissmes in Korea) reaction is that they've kind of seen it coming, rather than downright freaked out.

          I've noticed a change in Dongho as well, but I didn't think it would all come down to this. I numbly went to the Korean portal site, Naver, upon hearing the shocking news (Dongho was -oh the past tense...- my favorite member in U-KISS!) and came across an interesting article. All other related articles were pretty much the same, announcing his departure and why, but this one was different in that it went beyond just Dongho's departure. Unless you speak Korean, this article won't give you any clue about it's content so I'll briefly summarize it.

         Kara fans were devastated with the recent news of member Nicole's departure and when you list all of the other former group members of K-pop history, there's quite a lot of them. Dongho is not the only K-pop idol to be overwhelmed with the life of a celebrity.

          We are still in the midst of a “K-pop boom” but the aforementioned article talks about how more and more idols will quit. In fact, there has been a lot of unnoticed departures in unrecognized groups for various reasons such as they couldn't gain any more popularity, they've realized their true dreams, etc. So we're in a K-pop boom but this may all just crash.

          My say in this is that its' about time! K-pop fans – wave away the impulse to inflict harm on me and listen to what I have to say: for those of you who are “veterans” to the K-pop world, you have to agree that you've been annoyed with the K-pop boom as well, right? I'm not saying all rookie groups have no talent and that they shouldn't be recognized for their hard work. But you have to wonder – where is this K-pop boom headed? The competition in the music industry has gotten to be so tough that it's impossible for you to compete unless you're from the “Big 4” agencies: SM, JYP, YG, or Cube Entertainments.

          So the article also talks about whether this will be just an “organizational end” to K-pop groups or a “collapse”? And then it concludes by saying that looking at how 50 idol groups were promoting in one year, it's closer to a “collapse” to K-pop idol groups. It's easy to say that the article is jumping to conclusions because it's just Dongho they're talking about, but like I said, there has been considerable amount of departures. Plus Dongho has been pretty popular so the fact that he not only left the group U-KISS but quit his career altogether seems to be a “signal” (as the article is titled) that this could be the collapse of idol groups. The life of a K-pop idol group is tough, really tough, so we'll see where the K-pop industry will go to.

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Child Actors: The Popular Wave in Modern Day Korea

            I want to talk about another fun subject! Korean child actors (아역배우)! Korean is well-known for its dramas (TV shows) and a lot of Korean dramas start off with the childhood days of the main characters – which calls for child actors! Not only that, there were children’s dramas – TV shows for children, which called for all the main characters to be acted by child actors. Don’t get me started about children’s dramas, the super popular ones are my childhood! They stopped making children’s dramas a long time ago, but now they’re starting up another one after many years again but I may post my personal opinions on this new children’s drama on a separate blog post in the near future.

            Anyway, of course, child actors have always existed in Korea but nowadays, they receive as much love as grown up actors. I guess there are more acting academies now and they teach well or something, because there are many talented child actors out there. Not that child actors in the olden days were bad at acting, in fact, many of them have grown up to be active as grown up actors, but there were less child actors then. Child actors these days are also good-looking, and there the more popular ones.

            I’ve always had interest in Korean child actors, probably because I was about the age of most child actors growing up watching K-dramas and I took interest in them. So the fact that now Koreans are obsessing over them is an old thing for me, you know?

            Let’s look into specific child actors, picked out by yours truly, starting with the ones who’ve grown up to shed the label “child actor/actress”. (Before we start, the last name goes first in Korea but that doesn’t mean you call them by their last name).

Yoo Seung Ho <First name is Seung Ho> (유승호)

Birth date: 1993.08.17

Click here for second picture source

Oh, Yoo Seung Ho. One of my absolute favorites.

I saw him first in a movie called "The Way Home" (2002) when I was 7-ish years old.

He is super popular - in fact, he was in most of the dramas I've seen.

He's dubbed as Korea's Child Actor but now he's been stepping out of acting for the younger version of a character.

He's doing his service in the army right now, way to go!

Lee Se Young (이세영)

Birth date: 1992.12.20

First Picture Source / Second Picture Source

Lee Se Young was also has a nice filmography and she was in a lot of the dramas and movies I've watched.

Lee Minho (이민호)

Birth date: 1993.06.28

Second picture source

No, this is not the other actor named Lee Minho. It's the used to be child actor, Lee Minho!

This guy is also a big part of my childhood, he was in a kids' show equivalent to Sesame Street that I watched, in a popular sitcom back in the late 90s and in the children drama with Yoo Seung Ho (first picture)! 

He's been really popular as well, especially because he was in the hit drama, "The Moon Embracing the Sun" <해를 품은 달>

Although he's in his 20s now, he still plays roles of the younger version of main characters.

Popular Child Actors Today...

Yeo Jin Gu (여진구)

Birth date: 1997.08.13

First Picture Source / Second Picture Source

Yeo Jin Gu, Yeo Jin Gu... Before the world noticed him, I did (haha;;).

He is now a first year high school student, but he's got plenty of nuna fans.
Maybe it's weird to the American perspective that he is considered a child actor, but in Korea, that's how it is.

Kim Yoo Jung (김유정)

Birth date: 1999.09.22

Picture source

To be very honest, I'm not too familiar with Kim Yoo Jung - I mean, I know who she is because she's that popular now but I haven't seen her in any flicks or shows, well, I don't know of any that I've watched.

I'm reminded about another point about the modern child actors in Korea - even though they're young and they take up younger versions of the main character in dramas, they still do "mature" acting, in which they get lovey dovey or rebellious. I guess it goes along with the rest of the world today...?

And this is a personal opinion, but a lot of child actors today look older than their actual age. It wasn't like that in the olden days, so the "senior" child actors (a few of them introduced above) constantly reminds us of their childhood appearance because it's stuck in our minds.

Kim So Hyun (김소현)

Birth date: 1999.06.04

Picture Source

Again, not too familiar with this chica, but she has been rising in popularity as well.

I know she played the younger version of actress Yoon Eun Hye's character in the drama "I Miss You", and I think this was a wise choice by the director since they do look alike.

(759, not counting names and birth dates)

The (Crazy) School System in Korea

Korean students are expected to choose their major right before entering high school. You think there’s too much pressure in America with all the “What are you majoring in?” questions? Well, in Korea, you need to decide by the time you’re finished with middle school.

            Why do Korean students have to choose so early? Well because high schools are divided into two main departments: natural sciences (이과) and liberal arts (문과). So even if you are not clear on which major you’ll choose by high school, you should at least know which side you’re better in. I would say that it’s easy to tell by the time you graduate middle school.

          What else is different about schools in Korea and schools in America? For one, instead of the students moving from class to class, the teachers do. But there is still passing time – I guess it’s “passing time” for the teachers who are moving – and this is actually called break time and it’s 10 minutes. The students can go to the restroom, chat with their friends, and rest their minds after studying. Now in America, the students move from class to class, hence we need that passing time and at least for my school, we only get 5 minutes. Not that it’s not enough time, but 10 minutes would be better. I mean 5 minutes to shuffle to your next class is hardly break time, your brain can’t settle down during that short amount of time.

          Another difference is that in Korean high schools, there is work make-up time (보충시간). It may vary from school to school, but at least for the school of my friend in Korea, students are to be at the school by 8 AM and from that time until 8:30 is the make-up time. 8:30 is when classes actually start. However, students are still to be there at 8 o’clock sharp, otherwise, it’s a tardy. I think this make-up time is a great idea and it would be nice to have American schools to have this because in middle school and high school, lots of students have make-up work to do and it’s stressful to only have before and after school as your options. But the one thing that I find weird is that all students are required to come at 8, even when they don’t have any make-up work to do and all the students do is talk with their friends.

          Of course, the key difference between Korean schools and American schools is that the students are required for independent study time at night (야간자습 – ya gahn ja seup or 야자 ya ja for short). It’s just as it sounds, students stay at school until 9~11 o’clock PM (depending on which school you go to) and during that “ya ja” time, you study on your own. I thought it was only the high schools that do ya ja but I recently heard from another Korean that she did ya ja in middle school! The thing about ya ja that I can’t nit pick about is that even without this ya ja time, students will still stay up late on their own to study anyway. This is not because of the stereotype that Asians are smart but because of the high competitions, expectations, and pressure in South Korea. So I can’t criticize anyone for the fact that Korean schools serve ya ja but I can rant about the insanity of it all. The majority of the Korean students do not end with ya ja, but go on to another academy. So by the time they’re released from ya ja, usually around 10 PM, they go straight to an academy and so they get home around midnight or later. Then they have to wake up early the next day for school again.

          But on the plus side, Korean students do not get a lot of homework. We American students get to have the fun of that. I guess it’s fair though, since they get homework during break. Oh man, I remember growing up and it would be summer vacation and the fellow Korean ah-jummas (아줌마s – old ladies) would tell me how they always had homework during break when they were in school. Still, overall, they get way less homework than us. But it evens out again because Korean students’ freedom is taken away by ya ja and we American students have our freedom taken away by homework, yay! Like I always tell my friend in Korea, if Korea has ya ja, America has homework.

          We American students have our own heavy load of stress, but it’s a difficult academic road for the Koreans for sure. It’s necessary that Korea pushes their students academically for the purpose of establishing great future leaders of the country, but every time I think of their school life, I am ever so grateful for living in America (for the most part).

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Korean Writing - Hangul

Koreans recently celebrated 한글날 – Hangul/Hangeul Day on October 9^th. Hangeul is the Korean writing which was made by King Sejong the Great (세종대왕). Also the guy on the 10000 won bill (만원), which is roughly equivalent to 10 dollars.

So what’s so great about Hangul that there’s a holiday for it? (By the way, yes there’s no school on this day). Well, before Hangul, everyone in Korea used Chinese characters. In fact, Chinese characters are still in use today in Korea, but for more formal matters and Chinese characters are taught in schools. To know someone’s meaning of their Korean name, you must know which Chinese character is used for their name, because “Chan” means multiple things but the Chinese character specifies which meaning it is. But, back in ancient Korea, Chinese was used all the time, obviously because there was no other writing before Hangul.

King Sejong the Great felt the need to make a whole new writing system because Chinese is too difficult and he saw his people struggling. When you compare Korean writing and Chinese writing, anyone can see that Chinese writing is more complex. So King Sejong invented Hangul!

You have no idea how grateful I am to King Sejong. Because I’m teaching myself Japanese and they use some Chinese characters still (Kanji) and boy, it is difficult. As a Korean-American, I never learned any basic Chinese characters whatsoever so Kanji is a kick in the head for me. But even for the Korean children in Korea who learn Chinese characters, it’s still difficult to them. (And also difficult for Chinese people). So I’m not the only one who is grateful for the invention of Hangul, the rest of Korea is also, hence Hangul Day!

How Hangul works is pretty simple, I think of it as basic math. Keyword is basic! It’s just addition. You first write the necessary consonant, and a consonant always needs a vowel, otherwise it can’t be read, so you add the necessary vowel.

Consonant	Vowel	Result
ㄱ (g)	ㅏ (ah)	가 (gah)

It’s really simple, right? It’s not wrong to say that learning how to read and write in Korean is easier than learning to speak it. If I want to make it a step further and add another consonant to my result it would be like this:

Consonant	Vowel	Consonant	Result
ㄱ (g)	ㅏ (ah)	ㅁ (m)	감 (gahm)

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The Unfortunate Shift in the K-pop World

          Let's talk about a fun topic: K-pop, or Korean pop music! But I want to narrow it down and focus on one thing that may not be so fun to discuss - how K-pop is changing today.

          When I was 7 to 8 years old, we had a TV satellite which let us have Korean channels and we paid for it monthly or something like that and so I could always watch my Korean shows. This included music shows, such as KBS Music Bank, MBC Show! Music Core, and SBS Inkigayo. (Why aren't there any of these music shows here in America, where music artists can promote their new albums by performing their single on TV?) That's when I started liking K-pop. Then we moved and we no longer had Korean TV but we still watched our dramas and shows online, but I didn't really watch music shows then.

          Then around 2009, I started getting into Girls' Generation (소녀시대) and I went to Korea that year for the second time in my life. Being in Korea increased my interest in Girls' Generation as they were advertised everywhere and I could watch music shows again in Korea and so I was all about Girls' Generation then. That was the good ol' days, right before the "baby boom" of K-pop. Now there are too many girl groups and boy groups to count and frankly, they're all the same now. Anyway, so I was all about Girls' Generation, I didn't really have interest in other groups but then that slowly changed too.

          As I got back in to K-pop, I stopped listening to American music, and I thought K-pop was so much more better because American music was either about sex or drugs which I don't want to listen to about. On the other hand, K-pop had none of those things, it was just mostly about cute love. Since then, I don't listen to Pop music really anymore. 

          But as the K-pop industry got big, and I mean in terms of both popularity and the number of debuts of new groups, sex appeal also became increasingly popular. Sex appeal has always been there but now, it's just more widely used, to my dismay. Most other "K-poppers" say they've gotten into K-pop because of it's clean music, but now they're disappointed with K-pop's evolution. New girl group Wassup ("wassup" with their name??) made headlines as they were going to introduce twerking to the K-pop world, which many K-poppers didn't like.

          K-pop may be the popular music genre in Korea, but that's not the only music genre. There's also the usual trot, ballad, R&B, hip hop and etc., and K-pop is supposed to have this clean image. So yes, explicit music has existed somewhere in the Korean music industry, but the fact that K-pop songs are hinting on sexual concepts just upsets me. Plus the majority of the clothes that K-pop stars wear usually expose too much skin, and honestly, a lot of K-pop idols have very young fans, like kids in elementary school, and the clothes they wear and the songs and dances are not so healthy for these young friends to watch and listen to. Arrgggh, frustration!!

          Honestly, I haven't been catching up on K-pop - it's a busy world and I'm also a busy person. And the crazy influx of rookie groups is too much and like I already said, they're all the same now. The last rookie groups I took interest in were B.A.P and B2B (both debuted 2012).

         Anyway, back to the main point of this blog post - I find the whole shift in K-pop to be extremely unfortunate. I get that competition is high now and to be put in headlines, you gotta do crazy things like twerking (....I guess), but honestly there needs to be some change.
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Birthday Celebrations in Korea

          Koreans all go by their Korean age. What does this mean? You're considered to be a year old when you're born. So each lunar new year (which differs each year since the lunar year falls on a different day each year), all Koreans turn a year older, so it's like sharing a birthday. Of course, they do each celebrate their actual birthdays.
          Koreans eat what can be called "Birthday Soup" in English, but with this name, you'll never know what kind of soup this actually is. It's actually a seaweed soup (미역국) and if you're a typical non-Korean, you may just have cringed with disgust. But before you make that poor judgment on seaweed soup and exit out of my blog, let me explain: seaweed soup is actually really, really good. In fact, it's one of my favorite Korean soups! It's sweet and just really yummy. I had a birthday party last year on my birthday and invited my friends, who all but one were non-Korean and because seaweed soup is what I've grown up eating and so I'm used to it, it never occurred to me that it may seem foreign to a foreigner. But actually, all of my friends that came have a lot of interest in Korea and they were all eager to try Korean food. However, I asked one of my friends how the birthday soup was and she said that it's good, it's just that the texture was weird to her. That possibility had never dawned on me before but when I thought about it, yeah, seaweed is slimy and if you're not used to it, then well, it may just be a weird texture.          

미역국 - Seaweed soup with sea mussel
Source is on the picture

          What else goes in seaweed soup besides seaweed? It depends on the cook, some put beef, some put clams, some put sea mussel as pictured above, or some don't add anything else. I prefer that either beef or clams be put in my seaweed soup. Yes, you only put one other thing, I've never seen or heard of seaweed soup with both beef and clams in it. Seaweed soup can be eaten with rice or you can put rice in the soup and eat it that way, as Koreans eat other soups like this often.          Now, eating seaweed soup on your birthday is still a "must" in Korea, there's another birthday tradition that isn't so common anymore. It's eating rice cakes, or 떡. This isn't a "must" on a birthday anymore, but Koreans still eat rice cakes on their birthday. Just like in America, Koreans do also eat a birthday cake with candles and everything. Most Korean mothers make lots of their child's favorite foods for dinner. (447)

Click here for picture source

       

          

       

Looks and Plastic Surgery in South Korea

            Alright, let’s talk about a touchy subject – plastic surgery in South Korea. To give you the background information on this, first, South Korea is #1 with their plastic surgery technology in the world. Like, even people in Hollywood go to Korea for their cosmetic surgery. I say this is a touchy subject but unfortunately, it can’t be ignored when it comes to Korea.

            There’s one thing I want to make very clear – just because plastic surgery is done well (but still looks unnatural, naturally. Ha!) and is popular in Korea does not mean that Korean people are ugly. Does not mean that Korean people are ugly. DOES NOT MEAN THAT KOREAN PEOPLE ARE UGLY. DOES NOT MEAN THAT KOREAN PEOPLE ARE UGLY.

            Are we clear? Good. It drives me insane when people conclude that every Korean must be ugly just because plastic surgery is prominent among the Korean people, because this is not true. Personally, I believe there’s no such thing as an ugly person. Anyway, the reason why so many Koreans nit-pick about looks and are crazy for plastic surgery is because of the corrupted society. Okay, that last part was a bit opinionated but it’s true. This fact also drives me insane.

            So we already established that it’s not because Koreans are ugly that they’re blood-thirsty for plastic surgery, rather, it’s because of the society. Let me elaborate. I think most of us who live in a developed country (or maybe it’s the same in a developing country) can agree that there’s a pressure to look good. Okay, that’s a given, it’s a natural thing, and it’s human nature to desire for beauty (whatever level and whatever style that beauty may come in). But in Korea, it's as if looks are everything. How bad is it? Some companies won't hire people who aren't the best looking. How sad is that? So I've heard that there are people who resort to plastic surgery because they want to get in a company.

            Now this isn't the biggest reason for plastic surgery though. Just the whole idea that you need to look good is strong in Korea. There are like these characteristics that determine whether you are good looking – double eyelids, tall/high nose, v-line face. For girls, your skin should also be pale and your eyes should be big if they're going to have double eyelids. Who in the world even came up with all of this? Yeah, yeah, whatever, there will always be “standards”, but this is highly pursued by many people, particularly women. Of course, the standard of beauty depends on each person as well but because these standards are what the general public wants, this is what all the women go after. As a result, a lot of them look the same. It's scary how unnaturally big one's eyes are after surgery.

            Let me make another disclaimer – I said that many people get plastic surgery, not everyone gets plastic surgery in Korea. NOT EVERYONE GETS PLASTIC SURGERY IN KOREA. (I thought the last time, I repeated it a little too much so I cut it short this time). So it's not like every person you see on the streets of Korea have been under the knife. Let's put it this way, if you live in America, you don't actually know someone who's gone through plastic surgery before, do you? But in Korea, you are more likely to know at least one person who has gotten cosmetic surgery.

             It just makes me sad that looks are so much of a big deal in Korea. Not that I don't ever care about looks, but Koreans just overly care. To the point where a Korean introduces their family member to you, instead of the usual introduction like “This is my brother, he's smart” or maybe even, “This is my brother and he's so annoying”, they will say, “This is my brother and he's ugly”. But not everyone in Korea is like this. This has happened to me before, where someone introduced someone to me in this manner. Plus I've heard of other people who has had this experience, so I know I'm not the only one. And I'm like, “...Okay? I don't care if he's supposedly ugly? Maybe something else about him that's more important??”

             Plus it also makes me sad and annoyed at the same time when plastic surgery actually ruins people's appearance, rather than makes it better. I don't think you have to necessarily be familiar with Koreans and their craze with plastic surgery to know what I mean – can't you think of at least one non-Korean celebrity who looked better before plastic surgery? But because plastic surgery is so widely used in Korea, I can name numerous celebrities like that. What a waste of money and an insult to the creator God.(806)