My Thoughts on Taeyeon and Baekhyun Dating

          Hi, everyone! It's been a while, huh? Although school is over and I'm no longer required to post here, I'm posting nonetheless because A) I have a lot to say, B) I have time right now and C) I like blogging! So what I'm going to talk about is Girls' Generation's Taeyeon and EXO's Baekhyun dating, which I understand that the news broke out a while ago but my opinions still remain, so here goes!

          First off, I would like for you to know that Taeyeon is my favorite member in Girls' Generation. So my opinions reflect this fact. Because she's my favorite, I want her to be happy. So no, I was not one of those fans who head-butted her comment feed on her Instagram posts criticizing their relationship. Heck, three other members have revealed that they're dating before Taeyeon did, so it'd be weird if I freaked out about Taeyeon dating. 

          But here's the thing, with the other members, I can at least see them getting married to their boyfriends. I take their relationships seriously. Baekhyun and Taeyeon? Not so much. First off, Baekhyun is younger than Taeyeon. Actually from the time the news of their relationship first broke out until now, my thoughts on the fact that the guy must be older in a relationship has changed a bit. Before you judge me, let me break it to you that it's a traditional Korean thought process - the guy should be older. But of course, times have changed so the girl being older is common. I've become more lenient about the guy being like a year younger, but not three years, as in the case of Taeyeon and Baekhyun. Although it's easy to think members of GG are old since they debuted at young ages, and their Korean name uses the word for a teenage girl, so they're supposed to have this young image, but they've shed a lot of that with the years passing. So we look at Taeyeon's Korean age, 26, and think she's old, especially since she's a girl group member. But that's actually not an old age. So that makes Baekhyun 23 years old in Korean. I just don't see their relationship as something serious. 

          There was that whole scandal about Taeyeon and Baekhyun sending secret love codes through Instagram, mocking their clueless fans. Some of their posts make me consider this possibility, but more with Baekhyun and not so much with Taeyeon. Taeyeon made an Instagram account way before Baekhyun did and her posts really were all for the fans. While I was starting to doubt her love for her fans with all this scandal, news broke out that she went around the airport crying and apologizing to fans. I was certain again that she does still care for her fans and honestly, I just mixed thoughts. Fans (mostly Korean fans) seem to be taking this all too seriously but at the same time, Taeyeon and Baekhyun shouldn't have posted some things (탱큥베리마치 typed as a caption for one of Taeyeon's posts is still suspicious...) on Instagram. So this all sucks and I hope to see Taeyeon on Instagram again. 

Gag Concert's 5th Week of Broadcast Cancellation

          Again, Gag Concert, has cancelled airing the long postponed episode this weekend. This is all in respects to the Sewol Ferry accident. But personally, I'm getting tired of the wait.

         It is true that many broadcasting companies have stopped airing their reality/variety shows that did not fit the mood of the nation with such a tragic accident over everyone's heads. After about a week, the shows started to come back on, tentatively. Now the airing of the weekly/daily shows have returned to normalcy, all but one, Gag Concert.

        Personally, I really miss Gag Concert. I looked up what other Koreans were saying about this, and they were in agreement with my own opinion. The Sewol Ferry incident is absolutely nothing to regard lightly, but how much more does the whole nation have to be forced to grieve? At this point, most people have been managing to move on with life, and this has been especially easier with all the other variety shows like Infinity Challenge, Running Man, and dramas have been airing according to their regular schedules. It's already been over a month since the accident, and frankly, Koreans need a show that is for the sole purpose of making its audience laugh.

        Korean netizens have been commenting that they've been depressed without the crucial presence of Gag Concert. It's true that shows like Infinity Challenge and Running Man are humorous and they're supposed to be for such entertainment, but Gag Concert provided the rich source of laughter. And it's continual cancellation of broadcasting has also been lagging the Koreans' recovery from the tragic accident. We just all miss Gag Concert.

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U-KISS and their New Member

          I know I just posted about KARA recruiting new members and now I'm about to talk about U-KISS and their new member, Joon, but bear with me, it's a different post, nonetheless!

         Although I became a fan of U-KISS with their hit song, "Man Man Ha Ni (만만하니)", so about a year after their debut, I would have to say, "we" go way back. They're just one of the groups that I really like and have a special place in my heart. I was devastated with other fans when Alexander and Kibum left the group and I was wary about the two new members, AJ and Hoon at first, but their debut song with U-KISS, "0330" was just too awesome that I couldn't not love them. What really dragged me down was Dongho's departure, and if you've been following my blog, you would know about this.

         But because U-KISS still has a substantial number of members even with one less member, I thought they'd be just fine promoting as the six. Not just because six is a strong number for a group, but because they've been around for a good amount of time now, and so they have that recognition piled up. So this sudden announcement of a new member was rather surprising for me. And I don't know how to feel about this exactly. Dongho was my favorite. I can't do anything about the fact that he's left the group and the entertainment industry for good. Plus with already three members that have left the group, and two replacement members in U-KISS' history, I'm not sure if I want to put up with another change.

         Like I said, I really like U-KISS, and it upsets me that they still have not gotten first place on music shows yet. But with this being the third time they've introduced a new member, I can't help but wonder if this may hurt any chance of them getting their long-awaited and desired win. What I mean is, what the Korean audience may view it as is, "They got a new member...again?" and that will be it, their interest in the group may fade. Of course, I'm not talking about their fans here, I'm just talking about the general Korean public, which is where U-KISS should be winning new fans from.

         So personally, I still haven't gotten over Dongho's departure yet, and so I'm not sure if I'm ready to accept this new member. I'm not against him, but I'm just wary. But AJ and Hoon could fit in with the group nicely with an awesome song, "0330", I have my hopes up pretty high about their comeback this summer.


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My Thoughts on KARA Recruiting New Members

          I found out something new today - KARA is actually finding members to replace the two members that have left the group, and you can read more about this here. I don't know how KARA fans are feeling about this, but I have my own opinions to share.

           Just based off of a different girl group (starts with "T", ends with "-ara"), it makes me uneasy that they're replacing their members. When the two original members left, I was appalled and asked my sister, "So is it just going to be three of them now?" and she had answered yes, because that's how it was at the time. But looks like the agency's changing their minds. Like I said, I'm not sure if this is a wise move - why can't the three just be KARA by themselves? KARA is one of those "original" K-pop groups of the 21st century, they've been around for a while now. Will their fans, and the remaining members, be accepting of the new members? That's just weird. I think just the KARA members themselves would feel uncomfortable, having to adjust to dancing and singing with these newbies and even rooming with them. Plus there's also the memories of KARA as the original five - haven't they been around for too long to kind of remake those memories?

            But I wouldn't say replacing members in K-pop groups always lead to disaster. I mean, look at the Wonder Girls and U-KISS (U-KISS is a whole another topic that I may touch on later as a separate blog post) - both groups introduced new member(s) and they've been easily able to maintain their popularity. However, for the Wonder Girls, this was all within the two years of their debut. For U-KISS, as much as I love them, but the harsh truth is, they're not that popular, at least not as much in Korea as they are outside of Korea (no hate!). KARA is just the opposite of both groups - they've been around for 7 years now, to introduce new members and expect the loyal fans to love them like they're the original two members may be for asking too much. Plus, KARA is one of those mega-popular groups, which means a whole glob-ton of national and international recognition.

           Frankly, for KARA fans, the departure of the two members hurt in itself. But I feel like the wounds would be better attended to if the remaining three members just promoted by themselves, rather than hurry on with new recruits. I mean, come on, don't you agree? I guess I am a fan of KARA, but I'm not a Kamilia. So if this was another group that I am more of a fan of, then, oh yes, I would be fuming. I would be like, "How DARE they even consider replacing my unnie/oppa?!" So let me know how you feel about this situation, so I can find out if I'm alone in these opinions or not. :)


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May: "The Family Month" in South Korea

          May is called the month of the family in South Korea, and, reasonably so, since May 5th is Children's Day and May 8th is Parents' Day. In addition, May 15th is Teacher's Day. Teacher Appreciation Week in America falls in the same week as Teacher's Day in Korea, which I find cool. Parents' Day is similar to Mother's Day and Father's Day that we have in America. What's different is Children's Day.

          Oh, Children's Day. The one holiday that my siblings and I have all whined about because we didn't celebrate it, my parents' reasoning being that we live in America, so we don't celebrate it. What is Children's Day, you ask? It's a day where there is no school and museums and amusement parks are free. Yes, you read that last line right, amusement parks are free that day. Plus a day of no school?! Wow. Not only that, children also receive presents, so it's a whole another Christmas for them.

         I'm not some Korean cultural expert, I just go by my own experiences, knowledge, and research, so I'm not sure how Children's Day started. But this holiday seems fit for Korea as children can be under a lot of unforeseen stress. Yes, even children in elementary school. Studying is always emphasized, ever since the child graduates kindergarten and goes into primary school. And I mean emphasized hardcore. Breaks and vacations are not really what they are in Korea, because you still have homework and you go to a separate academy or just study on your own or with a tutor or with the study materials your parents force upon you. Yes, even children as young as third graders go through this.

         Because the Korean word used for Children's Day seem to imply younger children, like those in elementary school, it's kind of awkward for older students, in terms of whether they should receive presents too or not. But they still don't have school that day, and this is the right move, because if children - including students in middle and high schools - have ever been pressured about education, it's in secondary schooling. So these older students sure do deserve treats.

        But what about us American students? I don't want to necessarily ask for the no-school feature if Children's Day were ever to be introduced to the United States, because I feel like we have plenty of breaks, especially in comparison with Korean students. However, it wasn't ever fun being left out of the Children's Day excitement as a kid in America, so whoever makes holidays should consider this for the land of the free. :D


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Why I Wish to be a High School Student in Korea for a Day

         As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I've been obsessed with a webtoon in which the characters are first year high school students in Korea. This has been heightening my desire to be a high school student in Korea. But long before reading the webtoon, I've always wanted to experience being a high school student in South Korea.

          However, when I tell my friend in Korea, who is a high school student there, she asks me why and cannot understand me. Same with my younger sister, who just knows that the educational requirements of a high school student in Korea is high. I know, I know - in Korean high school, you have to stay at school until 9~10 PM and study, so it's a lot of stress.

           But I just want to wear those uniforms they wear! I want to be able to go eat somewhere or just buy food at a local convenience store after school with my friends. I want to be walking distance from home, from the local convenience store, the marts, etc. I want to have access to the Korean snacks and drinks I like. I know that the second half of the list doesn't necessary require being a high school student in Korea, as I can go to Korea at any age and be walking distance from places. So maybe you're sitting there thinking that I just want to live in Korea, which holds truth, and you wonder, so why do I demand being a high school student?

          Here's the thing, though. I'm getting old. Which I know it's not all that true, but, in Korean age, I'm in my last year of high school right now. I'm not in my last year of high school in America, but I am in Korea. So after this year, I won't ever be able to enter a Korean high school as a student. Not that I realistically think that I'll really have a chance to fly over there and shadow a high school student between now and the graduation of my class, but if I did have some kind of chance, I don't have much time left. As a Korean-American who's pretty darn Korean for someone living in the United States, I have a good measure of both cultures in me that is possible for me to have given that I've lived in the U.S. my whole life. But then there's experiences like attending high school in South Korea that I just have to miss out on. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my school and love my time there and the teachers and fellow classmates there. And I definitely do not feel any regret about leaving school everyday at least before dinner time as opposed to at around 9~10PM in Korea. But the little things - buying some dduk bokk ee (떡볶이) and banana milk and wearing a uniform - are the stuff I don't want to miss out on.


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The Return of g.o.d

          g.o.d is a Korean boy group that debuted in 1999 and you can read more about them here. They released a new album in 12 years and it has been super successful, and I personally like their song, Ugly Duckling, as well. What I want to focus on in this post is about the member Yoon Kye Sang, and his contribution to the making of this album as he had left the group back in 2004.

         K-pop is a crazy world. If you are into it, you may either know of this or you may not know it because you just look at the fun it offers. But behind all the glamour and fun-filled stages of K-pop artists is lots of untold secrets and stress, which Simon and Martina of Eatyourkimchi, Canadian vloggers in Korea, talk more about here. So within this crazy world of Korean pop music, there are the on-screen dramas that are shared with the public, such as a member leaving the group.

        It thrills me that Yoon Kye Sang had put in his voice into Ugly Duckling - it's a surprise, really. I watched an episode of a show where him and all the g.o.d members were on and they were talking about their misunderstandings and resentments they had held against each other. And really, Yoon Kye Sang did not have any intention of doing anything g.o.d-related, only because he wasn't sure he could with all the fans he had disappointed. But now, the group had just released a song as the full, original group just two days ago! I'm not a huge g.o.d fan, I hardly know their music, I've seen them on variety programs a lot when I was about 7 or 8 years old. But I was simply way too young to listen to their music back when they were coming out with hits. Nonetheless, their return excites me and I've got another reason for that.

        I would have to say the representative disbanded group today that fans are still divided over is TVXQ (DBSK). Now this is an area that I'm more familiar with. As one of the fans who have seen them debut, it's such unfortunate that they had to split. Many support the split, however, because of the mistreatment of JYJ when they were in the company as TVXQ. So this whole topic is pretty controversial. So there's people who like the split but then there's people who are still hoping for a reunion, and I happen to be one of them.

         While the remaining two members of TVXQ have said in the past that they were shocked by JYJ's departure and there's all of this tension, looking at g.o.d and how they could figure out the misunderstandings and reconcile with each other, I say there's still hope. It's unlikely that the original five members of TVXQ will gather and do something in the near future with the two members still being a part of SM Entertainment, but, who knows. That day could still come.


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The Frustrations of a Bilingual Komerican

           This time, I'm going to talk about my nearly-lifelong struggle: growing up in an English-speaking country and wanting to speak in Korean to the solely English-speakers. Don't get me wrong, I love the English language. (I'm Korean-American!) But I also love the Korean language.

           Aside from the obvious differences that these two languages have, another difference that stands out is that Korean can be such a strong and blunt language. I touched base on this in my post about hate comments in Korea. So in the case of un-watered down hate comments, the bluntness of the Korean language can be bad, even deadly. However, I don't mean to say that the Korean language is an ungodly language - like any languages, you can make it ungodly with your word choice.

         But even with good, appropriate diction, Korean phrases can just be more straightforward and harsher. For example, in the Korean singer Lee Hi's song, "1,2,3", there's a line that says "남 걱정하지 말고 너나 잘해" which can be translated into English as, "Don't worry about others, and just take care of yourself." Now, you who I'm going to assume cannot speak Korean, didn't that English translation sound...not so bad? Maybe almost sweet, even? This is the frustrating thing! UGH! It's not a sweet line at all!! There are no ways in English to directly translate the meaning of this line! Okay, okay, an alternative way to translate it into English would be, "Don't worry about others, and you do good". That's just awkward. But the Korean denotation and connotation of this line is more like (not to directly translate it), "Don't be so busy worrying about others when you should be worrying about yourself, you do your own thing"... It still does not match up the harshness even when I try to elaborate... I said it's both the denotation and connotation that displays the harshness of this line, and it's true, some denotations in Korean doesn't even seem to exist in Korea. For your information, I'm an experienced Korean-to-English transcriber and translator, so it's not like I'm deficient at translating. 

         So with the Korean language being able to be straightforward, but still appropriate (like, PG), I've wanted to use it on so many English speakers. You know, for good comebacks that will  make the other person speechless, for cunning-edge remarks, or to be direct. I'm not saying I want to speak rudely all the time, but sometimes, speaking Korean would allow me to stand up more and uh, other purposes that I won't name. Aside from the Korean language being all direct and potentially harsh-without-cursing, maybe because of it's ability to be all direct, it's also a language that allows you to be really close with whom you talk to, as long as you're talking informally, of course (the Korean language consists of formal and informal words/phrases). Like, I guess to try to explain this in British terms, you can call your close friend a bloke all you want. I feel like in America, even if it was your close friend you were talking to, this would be crossing the line. Now I know of some incomprehensible, still-need-to-grow-up teenagers who call their friends all sorts of names (which I won't name) and there are some Korean teenagers who do this too. But I'm not talking about calling names because you're supposedly best friends. I'm talking about, just this closeness that the Korean language can offer. Not distance, but just, a sense of closeness. Oh, just go learn the Korean language and culture and you'll see what I mean. 


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Korean Webtoons

           Something that Korea has but America doesn't - webtoons, or comic on the website, hence the same. So it's like manga that's available online 

          As I live in America, I know the prejudices that the majority of American students have against manga. Unless you read manga, they're just looked down upon as some comic book that too-old students read. But actually, these are not mere comic books, as the content is not always suit for some little kids. Not only that, it's not accurate to say manga isn't a good read because you assume that the difficulty level is low. So I just wanted to shed light on this fact for those of you who may have these kinds of prejudice.

        Anyway, manga is actually a Japanese term and they are Japanese. But manhwa (만화) is completely Korean, and although they're not as popular worldwide as mangas, they still exist. 

        I'm bringing up manhwa because our 21st century has allowed for a new way of viewing manhwas, and it's through the Internet. Webtoons. Unlike manga-readers in America, manhwa/webtoons are not just read by certain cliques in Korea, it's pretty safe to say everyone has read at least one volume of manhwa before. Of course, people who don't read it, just don't read it, but unlike America, it's not necessarily a set group of people that read it only. (Unless of course we're talking about rated-R manhwas here, then yes, a set group of people read it.........)

        Webtoons have been revolutionary. I did my research, and although other popular Korean portal sites like Daum and Nate do offer webtoons, Naver has the most popular ones so far. This may also be because out of the three, Naver seems to be used more, it's the Google of Korea, and I personally am a Naver user. The webtoons are drawn and posted by normal Koreans who can draw and it's tremendous how these ordinary Korean citizens debut through Naver and become so successful. Naver webtoons are revolutionary because some have been so widely read that they've even been considered turning into a drama, such as Fashion King. Fashing King the drama is not the same as the webtoon, but I heard a drama titled "Gangnam Style" will be same as the webtoon. 

         I tried reading Fashion King, and I read a few episodes and then stopped because it didn't meet my own style and the plot line was getting a little weird, and based on the comments, I wasn't the only one weird-ed out. Nonetheless, Fashion King remains as one of the most popular webtoons. Two that I read that I still have special spots for in my heart are "My Young Cat and Old Dog" (내 어린고양이와 늙은개) and "Bittersweet Life" (달콤한 인생). The first one consisted of episodes of the author's pet dog and cat and it was both touching and humorous. "Bittersweet Life" was just a comical and relateable set of episodes of singles and couples. I wish they were transcribed into English, because they were well worth the read. Then after finishing these two (with a lot of sadness), I started another one, but that one was only like a preview in webtoon form for the book. I was really frustrated when I was left with a mega-cliff hanger and left with the option of paying money for the book or just finishing it so I picked the latter choice (shipping globally is also expensive and my parents wouldn't have allowed it anyway). 

          Then after not reading any webtoons for awhile, I got bored after finishing my homework just three days ago, and I was looking at the the list of popular webtoons on Naver and I came across "Dating Revolution" (연애혁명). I actually didn't know what the title meant until I looked it up on the dictionary just  now for this blog post and wow. The title, epecially in English, does not give a sufficiently good outlook on the webtoon as a whole. So far only 35 episodes are out, an episode comes out every Thursdays (Korean time), and on that day, I read 33 out of the 35 episodes. Then I read the remaining 2 episodes the next day. I am terribly obsessed with this webtoon and the wait for the next episode is nearly killing me. This webtoon, I found out, is popular for a reason, it's just so good. There has been news articles related to this webtoon. So yes, webtoons are a big deal in modern-day Korean culture.


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South Korea Subway Trains Collide

          I was surprised to see that the popular search items underneath the search bar on Naver, had some other news topic that wasn't related to the Sewol ferry accident. Less than a day ago from today, there was another public accident in South Korea, which you can read more about here. 

         First off, I am super thankful that it was an infinitely minor accident in comparison with the ferry incident, where the search for remaining passengers is still ongoing. The article above says that about 150 passengers of the subway were injured, but according to @Reuters more like 170 people were injured. But nothing severe, which is absolutely something to rejoice over.

         The article I linked above doesn't forget to mention the Sewol incident which still rings in the minds of Koreans. It shocks me that another public accident occurred not too long after the Sewol incident. I don't know, Korea has been quiet in terms of world news, some political blah-blahs here and there that I can't even understand, and then boom! I wish everything were quiet. Lim, who was interviewed, seemed to have represented the rest of the passenger well, at least in my own opinion. It's not hard to imagine how panic one would be when evacuation orders are not given right away, when you know what delayed orders in an emergency situation led to and the toll it took on the hearts of the nation. 

         My prayer is that things will die down. I know we don't live in a perfect world. But even though this subway accident is super minor, it's still a blow to the stomach, after the tragic ferry accident. From my viewpoint, it looks like Korea is recovering very slowly from the shock of Sewol, of course not at the same pace as the affected family members and friends. Yellow ribbons can still be seen. I was surprised when artists started releasing their postponed albums and thought they were brave. All of Korea have been excessively sensitive, so even laughing in public would have gotten cold stares and some curses in such a national tragedy. So it was brave for the few artists that have boldly made the effort to start things back again. I don't know if that would be the same for the television programs, whether the popular weekend shows will be broadcast again starting this weekend, but we'll see. I won't forget this accident, along with other Koreans as evident since many have shown their promise that they won't forget either. So by things dying down, I'm not saying, hey let's forget about it and be merciless, heartless people, but we shouldn't be an eternally depressed nation on earth forever, either. 


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Korean "Netizens" - Will the Hate Comments End?

          You don't have to be a certain race to be able to post a hate comment. But in fact, Koreans are the best at neglecting their mental filters and it has resulted in irrevocable consequences.

            South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the world. There are numerous causes, of course, but it's true that one of them is unfortunately, the hate comments that are posted on blogs and cafe (just a Korean website, basically) posts. It's not that if you have a blog on a Korean site, you will receive hate comments no matter what, but they're so common. They're common because on these blogs and cafes, you have the option of posting anonymously, which you may find weird, because, that option is available on some American websites as well. But, at least in my opinion, Koreans tend to be very expressive of their opinions and by that, I mean they can extremely blunt. They say what they want to say, and it's done. No fluffing it up or using soft diction. 

         Many of these face-less, name-less bullies online have been one of the causes to suicide. The funny thing is, of course celebrities are targeted more, but just everyday people are targeted just as much. It's incredible how far they can go. Naver has created a page where you can comment your condolences to the victims and families of the victims of the Sewol Ferry incident, but instead of condolences, some were commenting their criticisms about the government. Seriously? Why?? Go do that on your own blog or something, tweet about it on your own twitter, use that freedom of speech right, but not on a place specifically for giving your condolences. There are other ways to express your opinions and feelings.

        Wait, let me back up, so I said to exercise your freedom of speech, but not at the expense of other peoples' right to feel secure. If you're thinking these Korean "netizens" (Korean net citizens, so people who are active on the Internet) post death threats, you are wrong. That's just children's games. Many, but not all, Koreans go to the extent of unleashing such horrific profanity that if they were to be translated into English, it wouldn't be possible, because no English word is as harsh as the Korean profanity word is. 

        Koreans have been aware of this craze with the hate comments being posted, and the result of too many victims. But honestly, I've seen a bunch of campaigns to pledge to only post nice comments, however, there has been no apparent change. Maybe anonymous comment posting should be outlawed altogether. But I feel like expressive netizens would post on, with their identities revealed, anyway.  



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The Extremity of Korean Dramas - When Does it Become Too Much Drama?

           I came across this interesting article that addresses how Korean drama (soap opera) producers have been writing nonsensical scripts to attract more viewers.

           My mom and I used to be hard core K-drama watchers. Now we don't watch them anymore, although I do watch the children's drama, which is basically a whole another genre in itself. Yes, I would have to say K-dramas have now turned into something more of a genre in itself. Which means they're all the same, so the plot is pretty predictable. 

         So what do I have to offer, as someone who hasn't watched a Korean drama for some time? Well, it is true that I don't have first-hand, personal experience of watching today's Korean dramas, but what I do watch is "Gag Concert". One of the corners today is called "The King of Viewer Ratings", and basically, the director sits in his chair and directs the actors and actresses in the drama according to the graph that shows the number of viewers next to him. So if the number of viewers is going down and he feels that the drama is boring, he'll throw in something random and/or outrageous and then the graph will show that the number of viewers will go up. This director does a lot of parodies of the actual Korean dramas and what he parodies is so crazy that sometimes I am deceived that the comedian exaggerated or just made it up, but the shocking thing is, he gets those crazy plot twists straight from actual dramas, with no exaggeration. So basically he pokes fun of it all along the way. Based on all of this, I'm actually relieved I don't watch Korean dramas anymore.

        The article lists some specifics in Korean dramas these days, and they're all just so illegal, right? Just like the article title says, it's all trash. A married man marrying some other woman while his wife is on a trip? What is this?! Who watches this?! The frustrating thing about Korean dramas is that the cliff-hangers are intense - you have to watch the next episode, and the next episode. You get hooked to the drama. Before my family just altogether quit watching Korean dramas, I've encountered a couple of Koreans who wouldn't even watch one episode of a drama with us, saying that, once they watch a drama once, they have to keep watching it. I didn't understand them at the time, but now that I'm older and wiser, I agree with them 100%. 

        Even before Korean dramas started to become hyper actively irrational and just plain ridiculous, they were already pretty predictable. The same line of plot was and still is: rich guy likes poor girl, rich guy's mother hates poor girl, and someone dies. But murder was rarely the cause of the deaths. Of course, back in those good ol' days, even if you could say that all dramas are the same, there was so much more originality then. I don't know if script writers are running out of ideas, but the article says it's more because of the competition. But before the producers put their needs first, which is making money for themselves, they should think about what kind of society they are potentially forming with their projects. Like Jackie Chan said, the directors are responsible for what society becomes.



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The Yellow Ribbon Campaign - Symbol of Hope for the Sewol Accident

          

          The hottest trend in South Korea right now is the binding of yellow ribbons and/or posting a picture of it on social media, whether as a post or as your profile picture. You can read more about the Yellow Ribbon Campaign here.

          This tragic accident had made me feel and think a lot of things. One of the things I realized is how small of a country Korea is. I mean that they're physically small, but the hearts of these people are not. One thing that struck me as a reminder of how physically small the country is was when I got on the Korean portal site, Naver. Right underneath the search bar are your popular search items, what's trending. Three of these are shown at a time and you can scroll through them and there's about 3 or 4 scrolls. However ever since the Sewol ferry accident, all that's been trending were "The Rescue Situation for Sewol" "Live Updates" and now with the Yellow Ribbon Campaign underway, "Yellow Ribbon Campaign". Those are the only three items that are offered underneath the Naver search bar and you couldn't even click the next line of trends. The entire country was on their phones and computers about this, and reasonably so. Not only that, the variety programs that are widely viewed in South Korea have all been cancelled for last weekend. All that's been on television is the news. On top of that, much of artists' concerts have been cancelled.

       In comparison to a much bigger country in its physically size, the United States, does not all collectively react like this. Sure, in the instance of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting accident, the whole nation was mourning, there's no doubt about that. But paying condolences was limited to the Newtown community, not necessarily other cities in other states. Does that make sense? Sure all the Americans were bashing the shooter, they were mourning with the families affected, but that was it, not to degrade that or anything, but that simply was all. As for South Korea, it's about a third of the state of Texas, so it's a much smaller country compared to the United States, so it's much easier for all parts of the country to actively do something about it. Not that America's vast size would have prevented the people from doing such a campaign as the Yellow Ribbon Campaign. 

        I've already mentioned this before, but in South Korea, such high tragedies do not happen much. America is a much bigger country, like I said already, and so there's more this sense of each state doing its own thing, everyone plays separately. But as South Korea is already a small country in itself and tragedies like the Sewol incident does that happen anywhere in Korea, it's just a huge shock and trauma for all Koreans, regardless of which region they live in.

         The Yellow Ribbon Campaign is beautiful. To see pictures of Koreans binding their yellow ribbons or change their profile pictures to like that of the one above, shows a great sense of unity. Despite all the accusations to each other, we Koreans are all in this together. In one other article I read about this campaign, there was a rather rude comment posted about how a bunch of yellow ribbons do not really create a sense of hope. What a thoughtless thing to say. And a very narrow-minded comment, too. This hope we're talking of here goes beyond hoping for survivors, it's the hope that in the midst of the chaos, even if we're still looked down on as a small country, as long as there's unity, there is hope.

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The Korean-American Dilemma

          You're Korean-American. Your parents are Korean and you live in the land called America in your Korean-ness. Not in a metropolitan part of the U.S., you're surrounded by more whites than other Asians, let alone other Koreans. And your parents would like you to marry a Korean in the future.

        So you ponder about this. A Korean partner would be nice in so many ways, you share the same culture, same language, and just within these two things, come about more specifics: you can understand Korean jokes together, enjoy the same food, and talk about Korean news.

      Then you think deeper. "Do I want a Korean-Korean or a Korean-American like me?" Does this matter? Kind of. Both are Korean but their degrees of "Korean-ness" may be different. The Korean-Korean would not understand the American culture that you've grown up in. When you're speaking Korean to your Korean-Korean partner, you have a brain fart and cannot remember a word in Korean but you know it in English. Well your Korean-Korean partner does not know that English word. Or what about the food? American food is generally nothing too foreign for Korean-Koreans to encounter. But there's the greasiness that Korean-Koreans find frightening. Or the sweetness in the snacks and desserts that are too much. While you're inhaling these American food, will you leave your Korean-Korean to push around their fork/spoon and yearn for some kimchi?

       So Korean-American, it is? Well, here's the thing: you find Korean-Koreans more attractive than Korean-Americans somehow. The environment that one grows up in must have some kind of factor into this. Not only that, most Korean-Americans are not very Korean. Some, and by that I mean a vast majority of them, are in fact, white-washed. But you have the Korean and American cultures balanced out in you. So if you do go with a Korean-American, what if he can't even properly introduce himself in the most simple way in Korean? Wouldn't it be horribly humiliating when you introduce him/her to your very Korean parents?

       Okay, but let's go back to the fact that you are actually surrounded by white Americans. Where do you find a Korean-American your age, let alone a Korean-Korean, near you? Oh, maybe you'll meet him/her in South Korea, for whatever occasion you may be in. Wait, then how does that Korean-Korean meets Korean-American from the U.S.A work - do you bring him/her with you back to the States or do you stay with them? Okay, well, you're not exactly living under a rock, maybe going to college or moving to a bigger city will let you encounter many more Koreans! Wait. Korean-Americans, that is.

      Oh look, there goes another attractive white American. Parents still want you to marry a Korean. You don't object. But hey, there's another attractive white American.


----


      Disclaimer: This is surely not every Korean-American's dilemma, despite the title, it's more personal. But hey, it can be some other Korean-American's problem too - hi there!



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The Sinking of the South Korean Ferry, Sewol

          Over 200 students are missing from the Ferry accident which you can read more about here. So I've only heard what's happened briefly, and so I did further research, spending nearly 30 minutes of my class time to read articles after articles, both American and Korean ones.

          I can't believe this has happened. According to the article I linked, the last time this happened was in 1993. I don't know, I know the world hasn't gotten better, but I thought maybe the technology would be better now. I'm not educated much in this. It's rare for such tragic events like this to happen in South Korea, at least during the time that I've been alive. There are no school shootings or terrorist attacks in Korea. I thought all was well.

          Plus the article says that the text messages that the passengers sent are fake. Maybe some of them are, but I took a look at the screen captures of the actual messages, and they seemed real. Another source said that it's hard to determine the authenticity of the messages for now, but one of the survivors had texted his mothers while waiting to be rescued. So texting during such a situation is not entirely impossible, in my opinion.

         Along with the rest of the Koreans, tears come to my eyes the more I look into the pictures, the videos, these "artifacts" of text messages. If you've been reading my blog, you should know how crazy in love I am with Korea. Plus, the news have been playing during breakfast, and although the English dubber covers the answers to the interviews by a Korean, the first part at least isn't concealed and the cries I hear from desperate parents, I can understand them all. The various articles got me imagining the situation, how the students must have felt, trapped. About a year ago, there was the Sandy-Hook incident and now this. I'm just emotionally disoriented. These students were all around my age. I have a close friend in Korea who's their age. What if she had been on that ferry at the time? I don't have any direct, personal experience of the Korean High School life, but my friend had given me a glimpse of the actual interior of her school building. To imagine a school building like that empty of its former students... How is the school going to go on with this?

         Last night, before I looked more in-depth about this and before more news came out, all I had were criticisms for the captain. I had heard that he survived, along with the rest of the crew members. What in the world were they doing?! But then when more news was released, and I saw the captain hiding his face from the public, just apologizing, I think my mind changed a little. Of course other measures should have been taken, but he's getting enough crap from the rest of the people. I think everyone's just going through a lot of crap.

        I don't know, maybe I'm too much of a thinker but I wonder how this may revolutionize the class trips that all Korean schools take - will there be any  more use of the ferries? Or will the design of the ferry be completely altered, enforced by some legislation?

        All I can say is - my prayers go out to everyone who is affected.


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Review of "Pluto Secret Squad" - Part 2

Click here for Part 1 of my review of "Pluto Secret Squad"          

The main characters of 'Pluto' pose for a picture / Click here for picture source

          I have to say, I'm not particularly fond of the scenes that the director has been including and excluding. I feel like a lot of the bonding within the family that all of the previous children's dramas have shown are emitted in Pluto. I'm talking about meal scenes, where the whole family will just eat and chat about how their day was, what's been going on in their lives and also dessert scenes, where the whole family just eat a plate full of fruits (we Koreans love fruit) and again, talk together. Both of these meal scenes and dessert scenes have always been a part of children's dramas, and just regular dramas too, but in Pluto, there has only been two super brief meal scenes with absolutely no dessert scenes. Of course, it's hard to pack all of those details in the 30-minute time frame that makes up one episode, especially when the kids are busy solving some huge crime that has gone on in the neighborhood. But if this drama is supposed to be a "developing children's drama", where's the crucial scenes of family bonding times? I feel like the parents of two main characters, who are also brothers on the show, are just there because the presence of parents are needed. Other than that, they don't do much of anything else.

         In addition, what I've been thinking while watching Pluto is that either I'm really old-fashioned or the world has just changed... a lot. I feel like in the older children's dramas, the children were more...child-like. The purity of their innocence was portrayed better, hence, this paved way for more amusing episodes. But nowadays, kids are just growing up too fast. I just look at the main characters in Pluto and the other "extra" actors and actresses, and they just dress more maturely, their hairstyles look like what K-pop idols would sport, and oh yeah, they all have smartphones. Not only do kids seem to be growing up so fast in their appearances, but also the way they talk. This is another reason why I'm complaining about the lines given to the child actors. They just talk so maturely. No child-like innocence at all. But this may just be representing not only Korea's children in real life, but also children in America. I go to the mall here in America, and I see the clothes for little girls and the styles are all the same as what teenagers/young adults wear. It's kind of a problem when I start to see clothes made for little girls to be what I'd like to wear.

         So I wrote about how Korea has been trying to create a better environment for kids to grow up in (click here), but I don't know if they're doing enough. I don't know if Korean kids nowadays would buy the style of the older children's dramas. Don't get me wrong, I've been re-watching one children's drama from earlier this century (also one I've watched as a little kid), and it's not "lame". Those original children's dramas were not some Sesame-street type thing, they were of high quality. But it's true that kids these day grow up much more faster. It was on middle ground - it was definitely not like Barney but it wasn't a late-night, rated PG13 drama; both children and even adults could enjoy it. But nowadays, it seems like producers are struggling to keep it middle ground, and this isn't entirely their fault, did I mention that kids are growing up too fast these days? But KBS, the producer of those mega-hit children's dramas back in the day, made a fatal mistake, at least in my opinion, in making "Nose-picker Principal's Fairy tale Warrant". I've never watched it, but I recently watched a trailer for it since my favorite boy group had endorsed it in the trailer, and oh my goodness. It was just some little kids' show, like Sesame Street. Like I said, no middle ground.

           In conclusion, I love Pluto. I really do, and it excites me that a children's drama exists today, after it's been extinct for too long. Sure, that middle ground has been dwindling, but Pluto is still keeping it's place. Also, it's been pretty popular, so I'm glad that the revival of children's drama has come and has been successful. Like I elaborated enough, they could do better, in comparison to the highly successful children's dramas back in the day, but it's a great re-start. Now to wait for EBS to upload the next episode on YouTube...


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Review of "Pluto Secret Squad" - Part 1

Click here for picture source 

          While discussing Korean children's dramas in a previous blog post, I mentioned a new one that EBS was starting, called Pluto Secret Squad. I've taken interest in this modern Korean children's drama and I have been watching it and I have both praises and criticisms to share. Pluto Secret Squad is a Sherlock-Holmes-type drama where the children are the detectives and actually, there's a book called Pluto Secret Squad, which is where this drama came from.

        First off, I would like to point out that I love this drama. I just like to see kids act and to watch a drama that's free of questionable topics but still keeps you coming back for more is really refreshing. The story line has been great, they do a great job of creating needed suspension and although I hate them, cliff hangers. In addition, the humor in the drama is also great. I can tell that the producers have been investing a lot for this drama, as a handful of celebrities, largely well-known actors, have made cameos. These cameos are a good idea as EBS is not your go-to channel, it is actually just an educational channel for children, it's a Korean PBS. Nonetheless, they have made these children's dramas in the past but 'Pluto' is their first one in two years. So to keep up the viewer ratings and add pizzazz, they've been having these more popular celebrities make cameos. 

          Another praiseworthy thing is that like any children's drama should be, 'Pluto' has been doing a good job of keeping up to the producers' goal of making a "developing children's drama (성장드라마)", pretty much meaning, it's for kids who learn life as they grow up, so it has good morals, kind of like your Disney channel shows, don't they always have some kind of lesson in each episode? That's what the children's dramas do, but it's different from your Disney channel shows in that the characters do not necessarily make a catastrophic incident and then learn something from it. So 'Pluto' has been a good hearty drama, where you can be kept on your toes for all the suspense from the mysteries that the characters are trying to solve and that it gives you laughs as well.

        But as a Korean who has grown up watching few of the original and most popular children's dramas, I have some criticisms that derive in comparison. First off, in the blog post that I've linked, I mentioned how the characters are middle-school students, totally different from any children's dramas before. But when I actually started watching 'Pluto', turns out that I was wrong, 4 out of these young actors and actresses who play the main character roles are in middle school (two are in their second year and the other two are in their first year in middle school) but the characters that they play are still elementary students. So although 'Pluto' didn't disgrace me by breaking the uniform of having the children be elementary students, but I'm still not satisfied with the fact that they're still middle school students in real life. Because boy, the two oldest actor and actress, 2nd year middle school students, look way to overgrown to be in the last year of elementary school.

          

         Maybe it's because Korea has been so deprived of once prominent children's drama for a long time, I just feel like the producers in the broadcasting networks have lost their flow. They're ability to come up with super creative stories are still a little rusty. I'm not necessarily talking about the plot here, because I just praised 'Pluto' for that, but one of the things that make up a drama (or any film) are the lines that the characters say. Now, Korean dramas are known to be, well, dramatic, so the lines that the characters say will always be cheesy, but I feel like the cheesy level has stepped up a lot since the last time children's dramas were on the high rise. I've been kind of cringing a lot at the lines of these Pluto characters. 

          I've been typing and typing, and the result was a gigantic, 1420-word post. So I'll post the next half-ish part as the next blog post, so come back next week for part 2 of my review of 'Pluto'. :) 

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Korean Rhythmic Gymnast Son Yeon Jae - The Next Kim Yuna?

Son Yeon Jae with her 4 Gold Metals / Click here for picture source

           I have exciting news everyone! Son Yeon Jae, a South Korean rhythmic gymnast made history as she won four gold metals at the Lisbon World Cup and you can find out more here. This is especially exciting for me and I'm sure for other Koreans as well, since this is the first gold metal that South Korea has gotten for rhythmic gymnastics! While we Koreans have been trying to patch up our wounds from the unjust loss of Yuna Kim's gold metal, here we can pump our fists triumphantly!

          Son Yeon Jae (or Yeon Jae Son, in the English name order, so "Son" is her last name) has been garnering a lot of attention in Korea because well, she has a pretty face (I've talked about what outer appearances mean to Koreans). Not only that, she's good at what she does. I first heard about her a couple of years ago, but I've never watched any of her performances or anything, because frankly, I was never interested. On top of that, I've heard of gymnastics, but never rhythmic gymnastics, so I wasn't eager to look into this foreign sports. However, with this superb accomplishment of the 19-year-old gymnast, I just had to look her up on YouTube, which I did, and I was just amazed. I didn't know such performances were humanly possible! You can watch a couple of her performances at the Lisbon World Cup by clicking on the following links: Ball ; Ribbon. These two are my favorite performances of rhythmic gymnastics, there's also the hoop and cudgel. I first watched these without any idea what rhythmic gymnastics is like, hence I didn't have the interest in it at first, but these are stunning performances and so even if you're not into this sport, go on and watch the videos linked!

Picture Source: Son Yeon Jae's twitter

          On a side note, I want to have a moment of spazzing out about one of the things I love about Korea. Fair warning, you may find it really weird - I just love how girl Korean athletes look with their hair up, so on that picture above, there's Yeon Jae and it looks like two other Korean gymnasts and their looks are just so Korean. I love it! Sorry, had to get that out of my Korean-loving system. :)

        Anyway, like I said, this breakthrough is so exciting for us Koreans! Does the Olympics have a category for rhythmic gymnastics? I know they just have gymnastics, and I wonder if Son Yeon Jae can do regular gymnastics, after all, her profile on the Korean portal site Naver just says that she's a gymnast. It makes me, a Korean-American living in rural America, really elated and full of Korean pride. Because the truth is that although Korea is grabbing more of the world's interest these days, it's still virtually an unknown country in this town I live in. Plus I wonder if it helps that Yeon Jae Son is a rhythmic gymnast, which isn't really a popular sport to begin with. However, it still makes me proud to go on bragging about Son Yeon Jae's gold metals. For a minority living in the U.S., it's exciting when the other country you belong to have some exciting news for you to share. 

       So is Son Yeon Jae the next Yuna Kim? Well the fact is, this question has been further raised with Son Yeon Jae's quadruple win, but that's the thing, it has been further raised. Son Yeon Jae has long been on the watch list to be the nation's next "sweetheart" athlete but this accomplishment of hers definitely has a significant impact on the hearts of the nation. I don't think Son Yeon Jae has started to endorse various products like Yuna Kim has and gone on doing what other mega-celebrities do, but I would have to say, she should be coming close to that stage.

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Koreans' Response to Mao Asada Beating Yuna Kim

          Mao Asada won the World Championship, with a score that was higher than that of Yuna Kim's score at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. In addition, she has pushed off retiring, and the decision for retirement will be made in May. 

          With this recent accomplishment of Mao Asada, the Koreans' response were not all that welcoming. So then Japan responded by asking Korea to respect Mao Asada. But upon further research, I found out that Koreans do indeed respect Mao Asada and here's why.

          First off, Koreans respect Mao Asada because she reminds them of Yuna Kim, naturally because they're rivals but also because they share the similarity in that they both are hard-working to the end. It can't be denied that Koreans were miffed at the fact that Mao Asada came out with a higher score than what Yuna Kim had at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. But hey, Koreans had to suffer the loss of Yuna Kim's deserved gold and the fact that Mao Asada came out like this is like rubbing salt on the wound.

         In addition, Koreans are busy criticizing Sotnikova, rather than Mao Asada. Let me state a disclaimer here though, that does not necessarily mean Sotnikova has a whole country of haters, because I have seen blogs posted by Koreans admiring her. But a "webtoon" (Konglish for cartoon on web; comic strip) outlined what Mao Asada has that Sotnikova doesn't. This webtoon came about particularly because Japan held an ice show to commemorate Mao recently, and invited other figure stars, including Sotnikova. However, Mao Asada declined in going to the event and instead wowed everyone at the World Championships. Sotnikova however, chose to skip the World Championships, where she could have redeemed herself in the face of all her critics, but instead, went to the Japan ice show. Koreans praise Mao Asada because actually, she's had a lot of scandals or something of her own, yet she still faced the crowd and went on to a big event, the World Championships, while Sotnikova appears to have escaped from it.

        Personally, as a Korean myself, I'm also... disappointed with Mao Asada's latest feat because, Yuna Kim was robbed of her gold metal and now her title as the figure skater with the highest point ever. However, Mao Asada's last performance at the Olympics moved me along with other Koreans, I could link the same look of relief that "all of this is over" while she shed hot tears reminded me of Yuna Kim. Yuna Kim went through lots of arduous training and physical pains for over 10 years, and it's all the same with Asada. They're kind of in the same boat with this. So that makes it hard for me to hate her. 

        I know I keep bringing this topic on my blog again and again, but I don't think I can ever really get over Yuna Kim's loss. But there's great news in the Korean Sports world that I'll be posting about next, so stay tuned! :D

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Children on Korean Shows

          

Chu Sarang on the show "Superman is Back" - source: www.ytn.co.kr

          I haven't consciously noticed it, but I knew that children of a celebrity on reality shows was the trend these days. On social media, Koreans have been showing their affection for these kids, and I've been hearing some of the names of these kids but I didn't know who they were. By the way the Koreans were expressing their love, I thought it was some singer, but turns out, Yoon hoo is in fact just a son of Yoon Minsu, a singer.

Yoon hoo with dad, Yoon Minsu - source: news.zum.com

          I don't watch these shows featuring the celebrity parent and their child(ren), except for one, Star Junior Show Bungeobbang (스타주니어쇼 붕어빵), which includes a celebrity parent and their kids, but are different from the trending shows because those are reality shows - so they'll go camping or the dad and the kid would do something interactive - while Bungeobbang is actually on a set stage and they do quizzes together. But even though there's still significant difference, while watching Bungeobbang, I've always wondered whether there are negative effects on the children who are on the T.V. show. What do their classmates think of them and how do their classmates treat them at school? Does the negative influence of being in front of the camera ever get to them? According to this article, there are negative effects on children on T.V. 

         The article introduced to me some surprising elements that I've never really thought of before. As far as I know, I've only seen fans of these cute children, never antis, but it looks like they do exist. Man, having haters at the age of 5? That's gotta be rough. Plus going to an uninhibited island for "training"? It does smell fishy - maybe the broadcasters are exploiting the cuteness of these adorable kids.

        Personally, I enjoy watching Bungeobbang, the children really are adorable in their bluntness and innocence. It really is a unique emerging genre of shows, but here's another thing I've always pondered: These children are not technically celebrities, though their parent(s) may be, they're only considered as "a person of topic". I mean, if a little child is a celebrity, then he/she is a celebrity, they embrace their stardom, but what about if they're only dubbed as "a person of topic"? When you're only young, there are many things that can affect a child's developing mentality and this all makes me question whether using a child's adorableness on T.V. for viewer ratings, seem to be in the end, unhealthy for the child.


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The Unity of the Two Koreas

          The Korean peninsula is divided into North and South. There's a cease-fire, so that means that the two Koreas are still at war. The reality is that the vast majority of South Koreans are not worried about the North suddenly throwing an offensive or invading, but that 38th parallel line looms over South Koreans of all ages.  

          By that, I mean that all Koreans do have North Korea somewhere in the back of their minds. But with each individual's busy lives, the "other Korea" is easily forgotten most of the time. Then when North Korea makes headlines for whatever move they have made or are going to make supposedly, North Korea is not difficult to recall. I mean, when I say the "other Korea" is easily forgotten by South Koreans, I'm not saying they have some case of amnesia, rather, it's just, they just move along with their lives. Which is so doable since this cease-fire has been going on for well-over 50 years.

         It is in the interests of the South Koreans, however, to reunite with the North as one country. It's funny, how can two countries that are right next to each other, oh and also happen to share the exact same language and culture, be considered two separate countries? The only real difference is that the North is Communist while the South is a Republic. I mean think about it, there are other countries that share the same language, like the United States with Britain, Canada, Australia and possibly some other country/ies (of course, with slight differences with the dialects). But do they all share the same culture? Hence, it should make sense to the whole world that these specific, above-mentioned countries should be separate countries. I don't know, I'm not some expert on all the countries in the world, so maybe there are countries who are in the same case as the two Koreas, but I am Korean, hence I know Korea's situation which is why I'm focusing on Korea.

          Particularly, what the Korean churches (that are Biblically-sound and Christ-centered) have in their hearts is this: to love each other in the South first before they can even think about loving the people of the North once they unite. It's a wonderful consideration, isn't it? Regardless of what you believe, you have to admit - how can you handle loving and caring for the millions of Koreans in the North when you can't even love your own neighbor? So a Korean religious documentary titled "Are you Ready?" (the title is in English, too) came out not too long ago, and although it is a religious documentary, it makes that same point which is important and relevant to all South Koreans - are you ready for the rest of the Koreans to come down and live among you?

        As a biased, opinionated, anti-Communist Korean-American, this is my personal thought for why the two Koreas should unite: To abolish the wicked order and government in North Korea. You know, right this moment I really thought about it - what all the rest of us South Koreans expect with uniting with North Korea is that we all turn into one whole peninsula of a Republic. But... what if the North Koreans who dare to consider or meditate on uniting (it's imaginable that this is illegal in the North) are expecting that the rest of Korea turn Communist with them? I mean, I guess, it's more likely that if they do even think about uniting with the South, that would be like treason in itself, so might as well go with turning all Republic. Woah. I never really thought about this, guys. I've always assumed that when the two Koreas unite, it would all be a Republic, no more Communism. And I have confidence that when we do unite, we won't all go Communist. But it's kind of a scary thought that a North Korean could be assuming a Communist take over of the rest of Korea as much as I assume a "Republicanization" of the North. But then like I said, a North Korean thinking that unity would be a good potential alternative must hate Communism to think that, so maybe not. I just had a sad thought... Do North Koreans even know what the alternatives are, other than Communism? 

          I don't even want to put it as going all Communist or all Republic, one or the other. I'm stressing unity here. But it occurred to me while typing this up (like I said, I only touched based on the surface previously), Communism and Republicanism can't coexist. So this all leads up to the conclusion that unity is actually going to be much more difficult than I thought. This makes me really sad. 

         I know that this post has been an unorganized jumble of my ideas on the unity of the two Koreas, but I'm not going to revise it because I still want my ideas here to be displayed. I also know that this isn't my first time talking about something related to North Korea, but I would like more people to know the sad situation with South Korea regarding the "other Korea". 



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Review of the Korean 'Frozen'

          

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          Last week, I saw the movie Frozen dubbed in Korean. Having had seen the "original" movie (meaning, in English) 3 times, I had most of the lines, lyrics, and scenes of the movie memorized by the time I settled down for the Korean version. As a translator at my Korean church for the few American members we have, I've wondered how they translated the characters' lines and the song lyrics. Well, I have more criticisms than praises.

        First, let's start with how they translated the title. I know that there's not really a direct translation for the word 'frozen' in Korean, to say something is frozen in Korean, a noun has to directly follow. So you can't just say 'frozen' in Korean, 'cause then all the Koreans will think, "Frozen...what? What's frozen?" So, the movie title "Frozen" has been translated to 겨울왕국 which means "Winter Kingdom". I have to admit that it's not a bad job considering that the English title couldn't be translated directly, so it's not too bad of a substitute but I feel like it doesn't cover all of the movie. The "kingdom" in the Korean title refers to Elsa's ice palace that she made as she sang "Let it Go", and that ice palace melted as summer was brought back. So I feel like it's rather a temporary part of the whole movie, yet it got to be the title. Not only that, there are talks of the second movie coming up, since it's been so popular, and well, will Elsa make another ice palace? I don't know. So if Elsa doesn't make another ice palace in this possible sequel, then will the Korean title still be "Winter Kingdom II"?

        Second, I am not particularly fond of the cast they chose for the dubbing. I could tell that these were musical actors and actresses, by the way they were singing, since Frozen is a musical, just not on live stage. But... Is Korea running a shortage on younger musical actors/actresses? Because what I could also tell from their voices was that these were all at least middle-aged men and women. Which is a problem in this case because all the characters of Frozen are young! So it was weird enough hearing Elsa and Anna speak Korean in different voices (I'd memorized their English voices), but then they also sounded at least 20 years older than their faces.

         Third, what is up with all the formality?! Yes, the Korean language has formal and informal, and as a country who highly respects its elders and people of high position, in this case the Queen and the princess, the other characters would be very formal with them. But formality can create a sense of distance, relationship wise. So to see Kristoff and Anna talk formally with each other all the time, when they're bickering with each other and they're supposed to be just very casual and open with each other, was super odd. And Olaf never called Anna by her name, she was always called "Princess". (You're not supposed to call someone older or of higher position than you by their name, unless it's like "Princess Anna"). I wish they would have just bent the rules a bit, couldn't he have just called her Anna throughout the movie? The characters' actions were very informal with each other, but their tone was formal, so this was just all confusing to watch, at least for me, since I know how informal these characters are supposed to be with each other.

          Fourth, how "Let it Go" was translated for the one that was sung during the movie. Just like the "original" version, there were two versions of "Let it Go" in the Korean Frozen, and I had already heard the version of "Let it Go" sung by Hyorin of Sistar, the one played during the credits. In this one, she actually sang in English, the words "let it go" while the rest is Korean, of course. But then in the version that was played during the movie, sang by the musical actress, instead of singing the English words "let it go", she sang "다 잊어" which means, "Forget everything." I know, I know, it seems like I'm just nit-picking, they were close with "Forget everything". But I had my hopes up about my favorite song in the movie, I mean, before I saw the Korean Frozen, I heard Hyorin sing those English words, so what else was I supposed to expect? Also the Korean people have been gobbling up "Let it Go", so I thought it was sang just like that, those words in English.

         Now time for some long-awaited praise - they did a superb job of translating the lines! I've pondered how some of the lines could be translated, since some kind of phrases or figures of speech cannot be directly translated in Korean. There were times when jokes that would have made sense in English but not in Korean were altered a bit to change their meanings, which was unfortunate, but what could they do? So good job, Korean Frozen producers - genius translating!

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