Another star couple has emerged in Korea and it's Kim Bum and Moon Geun-Young. I was surprised at this news, even more when I saw that Kim Bum is younger, but I'm also happy for them. I mean, it's their time to date, looking at their age. Plus it was pretty courageous of them to come out all public.
What do I mean? I heard that it's difficult especially for female Korean celebrities to date publicly because apparently, the number of fans go down. Male fans all have this fantasy of their favorite star possibly being their girlfriends and then all of a sudden their noona has a boyfriend, then to their shame, they disloyally leave them. Or something like that. Plus, it's imaginable that it's the same for male Korean stars. So you can see that it's not an easy decision to make whether you're going to go public about your dating life or not as a celebrity.
But this doesn't mean that celebrities all end up forcefully being forever alone. There are considerable numbers of married celebrities. However, it's harder for K-pop idols to date. Okay, instead of sounding all neutral I have to pitch in my own voice in this - I, too, cringe at the thought of one of my favorite boy group members dating someone. So it's not like I'm unsympathetic to K-poppers but at the same time, it's sad to me that their freedom is already virtually deprived from them but the fact that they can't freely have a love life without the consent of their agency is worse.
Unlike many SHINee fans, I was actually happy for Jonghyun when he was dating actress Shin Se Kyung, I thought they looked good together (and, I must admit, Jonghyun is not my favorite member sooooo yeah). Plus I'm happy for Wonder Girls' Sun, who is now married and very recently gave birth to her first child, for making such a big step as a K-pop idol and of course, we can't forget her agency that allowed this huge irrevocable thing. In fact, she's the first K-pop group idol to get married in this generation which brings light to what upsets me. We have older idols, for example, SHINHWA, who are all in their 30s and yet none of them are married yet. Maybe it's not their agency and status preventing them from having a love life, but that's what it seems like and it makes me feel bad for them.
Also, there are K-pop idols who've said they want to get married early. It's a common desire, I also want to get married early. But it's harder for K-pop idols to achieve this dream because, K-pop idols have the reputation of being young, so it's mighty difficult for them to be finding their significant other while busily holding concerts and promoting their next album. Plus think in the view of the fans, they want their oppas to be with them forever, not eventually quitting their job to make their own families.
So there have been gradual increase in celebrity couples or celebrities with boyfriends/girlfriends but not so much in the K-pop world. But sticking to my point, I like that more celebrities are breaking out of their shells and dating, and I'm torn when it comes to K-pop idols. It really always depends on who's dating who for me to decide how I feel about them.
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Saturday, November 2, 2013
Korean Innovations that Should Exist in America
Living as a Korean-American in America, I am met with frustrations at times because some systems will be a lot smoother for some cases. Woah. That was a vague statement. Okay, here's what I mean, there are some things in Korea that really need to be brought to America. I will talk about my personal opinions but you can also check out this video, since I agree with what they mention.
In addition to the table-bells, there's something else in Korean restaurants, where you have to go pick up the food, is this buzzer-thing that you hold on to and when it lights up and buzzes, that means you're food is ready and you should go pick it up. I have yet to see one of these in an American restaurant, I've only used these at Korean restaurants in America! *angry face* But then again to be fair, I don't know a lot of American food places where you would order and then stand around waiting for your food... Because well, the place I've been to is H-Mart, a Korean super-market in urban cities of America, where they have a food court. Wait, I've thought of an instance where these buzzer-things would come in handy!! At malls, there are food courts right? Well, you can order and pay and then sit down with your buzzer and get up when your food is ready. Hmm, but that wouldn't be efficient since food courts are full of fast food places... (Guys, I'm actually thinking of all of this as I go, sorry). I don't know, but anyway, I find these buzzer-things to be cool.
Another thing that I agree with that was mentioned in the video is the new ways of locking your doors! Seriously, when you go to Korea and see that metal keys are only used for cars, then you feel pretty outdated back at America. And it gets me wondering - how is it that Korea seems to be more technologically advanced at times?
The video mentions bank cards that can be used to pay any public transportation system, right? Here's the problem in America: public transportation itself is not widely available. Seriously, only the big cities like Chicago and New York City have taxis, buses, and subways (wait, does Chicago even have subways?), otherwise you must have a car to get to places. Maybe the dangers of teenage driving can be significantly eliminated if public transportation was brought! Okay, put down your tomatoes, I'm just saying and I know that I'm being unfair because our economy can't afford something like this and ya-di-ya-di-yadda.
(435)
In addition to the table-bells, there's something else in Korean restaurants, where you have to go pick up the food, is this buzzer-thing that you hold on to and when it lights up and buzzes, that means you're food is ready and you should go pick it up. I have yet to see one of these in an American restaurant, I've only used these at Korean restaurants in America! *angry face* But then again to be fair, I don't know a lot of American food places where you would order and then stand around waiting for your food... Because well, the place I've been to is H-Mart, a Korean super-market in urban cities of America, where they have a food court. Wait, I've thought of an instance where these buzzer-things would come in handy!! At malls, there are food courts right? Well, you can order and pay and then sit down with your buzzer and get up when your food is ready. Hmm, but that wouldn't be efficient since food courts are full of fast food places... (Guys, I'm actually thinking of all of this as I go, sorry). I don't know, but anyway, I find these buzzer-things to be cool.
Another thing that I agree with that was mentioned in the video is the new ways of locking your doors! Seriously, when you go to Korea and see that metal keys are only used for cars, then you feel pretty outdated back at America. And it gets me wondering - how is it that Korea seems to be more technologically advanced at times?
The video mentions bank cards that can be used to pay any public transportation system, right? Here's the problem in America: public transportation itself is not widely available. Seriously, only the big cities like Chicago and New York City have taxis, buses, and subways (wait, does Chicago even have subways?), otherwise you must have a car to get to places. Maybe the dangers of teenage driving can be significantly eliminated if public transportation was brought! Okay, put down your tomatoes, I'm just saying and I know that I'm being unfair because our economy can't afford something like this and ya-di-ya-di-yadda.
(435)
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