The Drinking Culture in South Korea

          During my last visit to South Korea, I was shocked to see drunk people in public places such as a restaurant. I don't think I've ever seen a drunk person here in the United States, but in Korea, drunk people were much more prominent.

          Korea has a big drinking culture. Drinking has seeped into dinners with your co-workers and boss, as a beverage with your fried chicken, and of course, when you're partying. The pressure to drink in Korea is far greater than in America, and I've talked about how when an elderly person offers you a drink, it's rude to say no. It seems like just about everyone who is legally above the age (and some who drink underage, just like here in the U.S.) drinks. 

         Korea also manufactures a variety of alcohol - soju, maekju (Korean beer), makgeolli are the top most popular ones. A bottle of soju just about appears in every K-dramas, and it's presence in the daily lives of Koreans is accurately displayed in the dramas. You're in a difficult situation? Go out and get drunk. You're meeting up a with a new friend? Go and drink maekju together. Or you're becoming good friends with someone? Go out and drink together as a way of hanging out. 

        It's ridiculous how alcohol is like, everywhere in Korea. The examples in the previous paragraph are legitimate. Now, not all Koreans drink. But I mean it when I say almost everyone does. And something needs to change. Here in America, kids are well-educated about the dangers of drinking alcohol. Of course, that doesn't deter new generations of Americans from drinking 100%, but it's still something. Korean kids do know that drinking is unhealthy, but when their parents and their friends' parents drink all the time, they don't really see the seriousness of drinking. In addition, the above mentioned different kinds of alcohol make alcohol yummy. Well, I wouldn't know, but when I hear Koreans talk about their favorite alcohol, they almost sound like me talking about how Pepsi is delicious. 

         Why do young Korean kids have to grow up thinking that drinking is normal? They shouldn't. And something needs to be done about Korean kids being accustomed to seeing drunk people all around, being loud and obnoxious when they're out to eat meat with their family. If you have attended school in America, I hope and assume that you know what drunkenness can lead to. I'm not calling for prohibition laws to be passed in Korea, but the idea that drinking is essential to Korean social life needs to be brought down and there needs to be a change in this heavy drinking culture of South Korea.


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Korea needs to bring back Children's Drama Shows

          There's no doubt that K-dramas (Korean drama = T.V. show) are extremely popular, even outside of Korea. But what can't be denied is that all dramas are kind of the same, and a different type of dramas have been extinct for about 8 years: children's drama. Children's drama is just what it sounds like, it's a drama where all the main characters are children and because it's children's drama, they're appropriate yet very amusing because well, it's still dramatic.

          Children's dramas are my childhood. The only three that I have grown up watching, and those three happen to be the most remembered and popular children dramas, are 요정컴미 (Fairy Commi), 매직키드마수리 (Magic Kid Ma Su Ri), 마법전사미르가온 (Magic Warriors Mir and Gaon). As you may be able to tell from the titles, these are all fictional however, they were very realistic, I guess you can say like Twilight. Judging from the titles, you may think they're very childish, but hey, I still love them even at this age, they're my childhood!!

         So why did they stop making these Children's Dramas? The broadcasting company, KBS aired all three of the above mentioned most popular shows, and after 'Magic Warriors', they did air another children's drama but it wasn't popular, hence children's dramas declined since. I find it so unfortunate! Korean kids today are growing up with... well, I don't know how else to say it, but with corruption. They flip on the T.V. and they see "bed scenes" and people making out on dramas and the alternative is a music program where a lot of the performers there are wearing questionable clothing, dancing to questionable moves, and singing questionable lyrics. Of course, I'm not saying all Korean kids have their innocence stolen and it's not like they have absolutely no age-appropriate shows to watch, there's also cartoons, kids are still kids with their innocence. But we should all be concerned with the changes in the media, how sex appeal is used more and kids can't always be shielded from them.

          But, very recently, Korea is trying to restart the trend for children's dramas. Like I said, the "original" children's dramas in early 2000 were crazy popular - not only did the kids in the elementary schools gobbled them up but so did the teenagers, and the parents could also watch with them. Fairy Commi had broken the record for the highest rates of views. The merchandise of these children's dramas were in most houses with children. Do you understand that I'm not being biased by saying that these children's dramas were crazy popular? 

        In addition, I'm not the only old Korean student who remembers these dramas with nostalgia. There are a lot of blog posts by Koreans that talk about the "Children's Dramas of the Past" with affection and a hint of sadness. Think of it this way, Harry Potter fans were all emotional when the very last movie came out, ending the series on screen. Same thing with children's k-dramas. 

        Anyway, back to my point about how Korea's been trying to go back to the children's dramas. KBS, the producer of the "top three children's dramas", has taken one for the team by releasing their new children's drama series, 코파반장의 동화수사대. To roughly translate the title into English, it would be "Nose-picker Principal's Fairy tale Warrant." Let me be straightforward here: even the title sounds stupid. I read the summary, it's lame. Plus, a grownup is more of a main character than the children, which makes no sense because it's a children's drama! Also, it looked to me more like a Sesame Street-type little kids' show rather than a children's drama. Let me make that clear, children's dramas are not like a PBS program!! These are supposed to be real children playing the roles of real children with realistic lives!

       On February 7th (which is today in America but it was yesterday in Korea), EBS, an educational broadcasting system, aired their first children's drama in forever, called 풀루토 비밀결사대 (Pluto Syndicate ?) and this one actually has children being the main characters! But my complaint here is that the children are all middle-schoolers. What in the world?! I mean children's dramas have always featured children in elementary school - and I like it that way because well, that's just the way it is and I've grown up watching children's dramas in elementary school. Plus I've been re-watching children's dramas (not ashamed!) lately and they do a great job of making me miss elementary school. But this new children's drama Pluto-Something has middle-school students? I don't miss middle school that much!

        Anyway, my point is, so Korea has been trying to bring back those children's dramas but if they want to re-experience and re-live the tremendous fame that Fairy Commi and Magic Kid had, then they better follow the basic rules: child actors actually in it and elementary children while you're at it!   


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Korea vs. Japan - End to the Rivalry

         I've chosen a touchy subject this time... It's about Korea and Japan and my thoughts on the rivalry between the two countries. I'm not an expert on the Japanese opinion on Koreans but I do know how most Koreans feel about Japan very well. Here's my view: I have no intentions on justifying the past acts of the Japanese toward Korea but we should leave what's in the past, in the past.

        To stoop down on a more personal level here, it's more heartbreaking to me to see Christian Koreans holding ugly grudges against the Japanese. Growing up in a Christian family (and now that I myself am a Christian), I've been told that Japan's actions to Korea is definitely something to have hard feelings about, but as Christians, we forgive and forget. So that's the first thing I was told as a young child regarding Japan and Korea, and it still influences my mindset today. I've seen very beastly and cruel emotions toward Japan from Koreans, Christian Koreans too, and it frustrates me. The Japanese are also human, you and I are also human, we're all imperfect. If we all held ugly grudges for the afflictions done on us, each of us would all hate each other.

       Now, don't jump to conclusions because I'm not done yet. I've seen pictures and films of how the Japanese treated the Koreans, I've teared up over them, I know how serious it all was. I have yet more to learn, but I've seen enough to understand on some level why the Koreans hate the Japanese so much. So no, I am not going against my own country (I'm a freakin' nationalist for Korea - take a look at my other blog posts!), but I don't see why I should go against Japan, either. Unless the whole country of Japan still has that mindset which drove them to brutally conquer Korea back then, then that would be problematic, but that's not the case. I've made beautiful friendships with some Japanese people, yes, this is possible between a Korean and a Japanese person!

        I said that I'm not an expert on the Japanese opinion for Koreans, but I've heard that they didn't exactly have good feelings toward Koreans either, but the Hallyu wave (Korean wave) has changed Japanese opinions on Korea positively. 

        So there's this feud going on between Korea and Japan and although I can't persuade the whole country of Korea, I just ask that the modern generation not be so deeply caught up with the hard sentiments. Hard sentiments do not lead to anything good. We need some more people to forgive and forget.


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Korean Convenience Stores = American Convenience Stores

         I live in the "country" in America, not a big city like New York City or Chicago. So, without a car, I'm pretty much stuck at home. All the more because my neighborhood is in the middle of nowhere. Before the house I live in, I used to live where I could easily walk to a plaza area with a drug store, coffee shop, pizza store, vet, and so on. Which I guess is a pretty big step up considering I don't live in a big city. But now that I no longer live close to such a plaza, I just find everything to be inconvenient. 

        But in Korea, even children as young as first graders can go to a convenience store or "snack food" place, and even school on foot. When I last visited Korea, I had a fun time just being outside, as long as I had money on me. There was a store next to my aunt's apartment building in Korea, and my siblings and I went there to buy ice cream all.the.time. It was awesome. Plus, I'm still a child at heart, so it's still fun buying things on my own, so it was fun just going out to buy milk because we were all out of milk. Oh the fun! Someone buy me a plane ticket to Korea.

        I understand that Korea is a much smaller country than America, so everything is all "clumped" together so Koreans can walk to almost anywhere. On the other hand, America is a much larger country where everything is all spread out. But here's the ridiculous thing here - you can walk almost anywhere in Korea yet they have a transportation system made. Taxis are available and more widely used, there are public buses. Why doesn't the government spend some money on developing public transportation here?? Why does it always have to be like New York City in order to have public transportation widely available?

      In my town, there is a public bus system, however, it's very limited. What I mean by that is, there aren't many bus stops so passengers cannot get to everywhere they need to conveniently, due to the fact that they'll have to walk more than necessary to reach their destination because the bus stops are far from them. In addition, if you're 18 and under, then you pretty much can't ride the bus without a parent or guardian. Like I said in the previous paragraph, children in Korea go anywhere without parents. Heck, I'm pretty sure children just go to amusement parks on their own with their friends. Okay, that was a bit of stretch, but I think I really may have heard something about that. There's not that kind of freedom for children here. I know that there is such thing as crime, so I'm not calling for rejection of parental supervision here, but think about it: teenagers are eager to start driving because they want to get to places without relying on their parents. Once teenagers get their drivers' license and their own car, they're almost never home, which is bad domestically, and it can lead to car accidents. But, if these teenagers had some leisure of getting to places on their own when they were younger, then they may not go so crazy for driving.

        In addition, why can't there be little stores, convenience stores, here like in Korea? I'm not talking about gas stations, which, they're close to convenience stores in the stuff they sell minus the gas, but everything is so much more expensive in gas stations. The one place I can walk to from my house is gas station but that's kind of weird, "I'm going to walk to the gas station to buy some ice cream." And buying ice cream at the gas station is stressful, since one square of Kondike bar is $2.99. In America, the scale is like Wal-Mart/Target to like gas stations, and the in-between are the drug stores but they're so limited in number here also. I also noticed that drug store prices are also a bit on the pricey side. The struggle!! So having convenience stores would be nice, very nice.

        Public transportation system and convenience stores, that's what I'm calling for in America.


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Korean-Chinese Food

Click here for picture source

           If there's Chinese-American food (yes, orange chicken and fried rice are not authentic Chinese food), there's also Chinese-Korean food. I'm not sure how Chinese-American food came to be, but Chinese-Korean food was invented when a Chinese chef in Korea made Jjajangmyun (pictured above), and voila! Just like you can't find the American version of Chinese food in China, you can't find Korean-Chinese food in China, either. Well, maybe they do have it in some places now, both America's and Korea's version of Chinese food. 

         It's interesting how in America, we call the American version of Chinese food just "Chinese food" when it really isn't, yet that's what we take it as. It's the same in Korea. You say, "I'm eating Chinese food" and it's not referring to the authentic Chinese food.

Jjam-bbong
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           There are interesting customs that have come from these Korean-Chinese food. Jjajangmyun is noodles with black bean paste sauce and since the color is dark, April 14th is a day for singles called Black Day, black to represent sadness. Depressing, yes, but it has become a fun thing. Ironically enough, jjajangmyun is food that is popular among children, so it's considered children's food while the spicy noodle, jjam-bbong (pictured above) is considered a grown-up's food. 

Tang-su-yook
Click here for picture source

          Another tradition that has come out of Korean-Chinese food is eating it when Koreans move. Korean-Chinese is typically ordered by phone and delivered to your home, so it's another type of fast food, so when Koreans move, they can't settle to cook for a regular lunch, especially since by then they had packed away their table and chairs. So what they do is order "Chinese" food, spread some newspapers on the floor and eat. You may be wondering why this is such a notable tradition, well, it's really because it's been so commonly practiced to the point that it's become representative of what Koreans do when they move. 

        In contrast to American Chinese food, Korean-Chinese food is deep rooted into Korean culture. It has become a large part of Korean life, so that although it's called Chinese food, it's no different from just being Korean food.

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Bad English in K-pop Songs

       I talked about the Korea's poor job at teaching English in a previous blog post, and now, I want to bring to focus the bad English that is used in K-pop songs. They're not only random, but it's just plain difficult to make sense of what's being said in the English line due to the horrible grammar. If you're unfamiliar with "Engrish", then check out this fun video of non-Kpoppers trying to decipher the English lines in the song! (Note: mild language used in video but censored).

        Here's a disclaimer: I actually find it cool that Korean songs have English lines in them, and that's the intention of putting in English because it's cool. It just sounds cool. But, if it's completely random and out of the context of the song, then it's not that cool. It's even worse when the grammar is so horrendous or the pronunciation of the English words make you want to cringe.

         A lot of people put up the defense that it doesn't matter if the English is wrong because it's for a Korean audience, so it's not like they know any difference. But that's an invalid defense because Korean students are not educated with English well enough in their schools, so having them listen and sing along to a bunch of incorrect English lines is further degrading their knowledge. I'm not asking for super-strict grammar to be enforced, such as always using "want to" instead of "wanna", in fact, using such commonly used terms like "wanna" is beneficial and educational for Korean students. But when we have lines like, "Kiss me baby I'm must be stay here day by day", that's when the sirens go off and it's not only harmful to Korean listeners but also to English-speakers who know better. Simon and Martina, the two Canadians who live in Korea in the video linked above, also say that Engrish is such a turn off to actually good songs. They'll try to get their English-speaking friend to get into K-pop, but once they hear the poor English, they just dismiss it before they can even fully enjoy the song itself. I mean, it's an incredible thing that foreigners take part in Korean culture, but that becomes a lost cause when some will only laugh at the few Engrish lyrics and not actually appreciate the songs themselves.

          There are some Korean songs with correct English with accurate pronunciations! Why can't all Korean songs involve English like that? I want to listen to some songs with my American friends but I don't really want to at the same time because it's embarrassing to have my friends hear how bad Koreans are at English. Not that Korean songs represent Koreans' English skills, but it can easily come off like that. Simon and Martina are willing to edit the English lines in songs before they're recorded and released, so why not take advantage of that, Korea? So there are a lot of cons to having poor English lines in Korean songs. They teach wrong grammar to Korean students (as if they don't struggle to learn English already), the meaning or quality of the song gets lost, and it prevents English-speakers from taking interest in Korean music. 

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