Dokdo is Korean Territory!

            Do you know about Dokdo, the Liancourt Rocks? It's located in the East Sea (that's what it's called, not the Sea of Japan). It's been fight over by the Koreans and the Japanese, but it's official that Dokdo is Korean territory. This drama still exists, and it's been ongoing for years and years now.

           The reason why this old news is still going around is because, not all Americans appear to be informed about this. I mean, first off, Google tells me that the Liancourt Rocks are in the "Sea of Japan"! It's easy to think that these isles must be part of Japan since it's in their sea. Well, thanks to that typo, people on the "outside" can easily be led into the wrong information. So this drama won't easily die down, because somewhere in the media, they'll make the mistake of saying Takeshima (the name of the isles in Japanese) is a Japanese territory and Koreans will erupt at this.

           As you may already know about the rivalry between the two countries, Dokdo is a super sensitive topic. There's even a song in Korea titled, "Dokdo is Our Land" and there are movies and even a video game about it! As a Korean myself, I get touchy about this subject. With all the "Dokdo is Our Land" theme while growing up,  it's hard not to have that defensive impulse.

         Here are two solid proofs that Dokdo is Korea's - this is debated in the first place because it's close to an island of each country -: Dokdo is closer to Ulleundo (Korean island) than it is to Oki Island (Japanese island) and the Korean peninsula is naturally etched into Dokdo. Plus I saw this on twitter a couple of years ago - when the Japanese start to aimlessly argue that Takeshima is theirs, Koreans can retort by saying, "Then why do you need your passport to go there?" Are you appalled that some Japanese people argue that Takeshima is theirs when it's official that it's a Korean territory like this? It's puzzling, but yes, some still argue this.

        I hope a bunch of haters don't come at me for writing this, I love Japanese people, their language, and culture!!!!! But Dokdo is definitely Korean territory.



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Official Complaint to be Filed For Yuna Kim's Olympic Scores

          I thought the women's figure skating scandal of the Sochi Olympics was over - but guess not. Both the KSU and KOC are filing a complaint to the ISU about the judging for this sports and you can read about it here.

         I screen shot the above comment that one user left because they did a great job of explaining. I'm feeling half-and-half about this scandal - I mean, you saw on an older blog post what I feel about this. But now that more time has passed, I'm feeling, "Is it necessary to still hold on to this again?"

         I am a little hesitant to write this because I've already addressed this issue on my blog, and I don't want to appear as just some biased-Korean blogger who feels the need to bring this up again. And it makes me feel (Koreans who read my blog - don't hate me) like maybe the Koreans are overacting about this because well, they're Korean.

         But I still have mixed feelings about this because there's no doubt that Yuna Kim deserved that gold. I'm not arguing about this at all. But what's happened is what's happened. And if - if - Yuna Kim is to somehow get the gold back, wouldn't it be, I don't know, not as satisfactory? Because I think that gold metal would have been of more value if it would have been given to her at the proper. Now that Adelina has taken it (undeservedly), to snatch that away from her would be... I don't know, too much? It gets to me that Yuna Kim does not have her much-deserved two gold metals. But when I think of actually taking Adelina's metal to give it to the Queen, I don't think that's right either. Yuna Kim is the gold metalist in everyone's hearts.

        Yet, I still feel triumphant at comments like the one above. Plus I ran across this funny video of a parody of the occurrence at the Sochi Olympics. I think this event will leave as a special, amusing thing in the hearts of Koreans.


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Why it's Good that Koreans are Conscious of the Little Ones

          In my previous post, I mentioned that Koreans are trying to offer better shows for little children to grow up watching. I'm relieved that Korea is realizing, even if it's not maybe directly, that little children these days are growing up watching stuff on T.V. that may be more appropriate to view when they're older. I'm not just referring to the extreme cases of making-out or sex scenes on T.V. A fellow (Korean) church member of mine has two little boys, the oldest being age 5 and the youngest 2, and in their family, she teaches them to talk nicely. Such as saying "please" instead of just demanding for the ketchup to be passed, and she teaches them to talk nicely in both English and Korean. Now when she took her two boys to Korea last year, she was delighted to see her oldest boy learning more Korean but it disappointed her that he was learning all these not nice phrases/words. Korean kids these days do not talk nicely. They just demand the other kids to get out of the way instead of saying it a nicer way. 

        It never, never, occurred to me that Korean kids all talk like grown ups, according to her. And it's true, they grow up hearing lines from dramas and well, dramas involve older actors and actresses being dramatic, and so these kids learn to talk like them. Now, this is all a massive deal, it's too much of the Korean culture and has been for a long time for Korean kids to all of a sudden change the way they talk. But it's nice to step out of the box and see that hey, these kids are all barely potty-trained and yet they talk like their a bunch of grown-ups. You may be picturing a bunch of thumb-sucking kids swearing like they've lived for a good amount of years, but that's not what I mean. The Korean language is comprised of formal and informal and while you're talking formally, you can still be pushy when you talk, and that's the kind of tone that little Korean children talk with.

        Plus, more and more Koreans say, "Kids these days can handle this" and by "this", I mean, stuff on mass media that is on the fine line of being inappropriate. This unfortunate thing is happening in America as well, with the increase use of sexual appeal and technology, kids are encouraged to grow up faster. But back when I was just a little kid, on "Korean " T.V., there were plenty of age-appropriate shows that I could watch that taught good morals for little children. But then over the years, for some odd reason, the once immensely popular children's dramas started to be in decline, leaving only regular dramas, and Korean animations have always been rare. So there has been a shift here, now, when it comes to some program for children, it's always some kind of Barney-type show for the really little ones, and then dramas. There's no middle ground. What are kids in elementary school supposed to grow up with? Oh, right, they can watch dramas that are all identical with each other or flip on the music shows, which are fun, but do not quite give them something valuable to grow up with.

         So am I glad that Koreans are finally getting the fact that the future generation of Koreans need something better to grow up with? Yes. They have been so deprived! And it makes me almost giddy that the broadcasters have been trying to bring back children's dramas and now their trying to be successful with fully Korean animations. Now the Korean animators really should be funded, and like I said in my blog post about children's dramas, the broadcasters should really watch and learn from the popular children's dramas from the early 21st century.



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South Korea's Aspirations for it's Animation

          The latest hit Disney movie "Frozen" has also been a hit in South Korea, and this was known to me even though I'm all the way over here in the States. The article/news portion here analyzes that the popularity of Frozen in Korea (apparently, the country that loves Frozen the most outside of the U.S. is So Ko) shows that Koreans are deprived of some good animation, particularly ones that people of all ages can enjoy. Two 100% Korean animations that have been successful are mentioned in the article and it's "뽀로로 (Pororo)" the penguin and "Larva". 

          When I think of "Pororo", I think of my cousin's son, who was less than a year old when I first met him and he would be needing attention and what not until "Pororo" would come on T.V. and magically, he'd remain calm and watch the show. This is not just a special case for my second cousin here, it's a national thing in Korea - all the children love "Pororo" and the parents do as well, not just because it may calm their children down but because they find the show amusing themselves as well. The first time I encountered pictures of the two characters from "Larva" was on the popular Korean chatting app Kakaotalk and these characters were in emoticons for your fun chatting experience! Hence, for a while, I had no idea that these hard-to-identify creatures were characters of some animation show. 

         But I did end up sensing "Larva"'s popularity as well and "Pororo" is too popular to miss out on its popularity. However, I'm not very convinced that these show that Korea is about to debut something as huge as Disney's "Frozen". I mean, they did mention that Korean animation does have the potential, it's just that they're not funded enough to demonstrate their skills. But I need more proof than a highly popular penguin and some caterpillar(? I am having trouble recalling what animal the "Larva" characters are right now) to show me that Korea is going to produce the next "Frozen". 

        Of course, it doesn't necessarily have to be the next "Frozen". What they're aiming for in Korea is animation that will offer to little children something healthy to watch for their development and something that people of all ages can enjoy. I can't say whether they're reaching for something that will mesh these two goals together in one project, but that wouldn't be a bad idea either. Anyway, I'm just glad that more Koreans are aware of this need to provide more animations that are appropriate for children and that they're want to go beyond further to captivate audiences of all ages. Why? Well, I'll tell you that on my next blog post, because the reason for this is a whole another topic on its own.

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Are the Olympics just for the Money-making?

          I've heard that they say that the Olympics is just for business purposes, and not a sports thing. I think that it's crucial that we analyze the validity of this because so many athletes arduously train for years to take home the gold, but if all of that hard work is for some bogus worldwide athletic event, isn't their training in vain? The Olympics is known as a time where all the countries are at peace with one another "for once", but is this actually true when the Olympics is supposedly just for money and the host countries are accused of rigging the performance results?

         Are you thinking what I'm thinking as I type up this blog post? That's right, it's the ice skating scandal. That link will lead you to an article that does a good job of including all the details, but it is geared more towards the fact that there indeed was an ice skating scandal. But I've done my research when this all happened, and found that there was a considerable amount of people claiming that there is no such scandal and you can click here for one of the articles with this voice. This scandal has actually garnered a lot of attention, if you didn't know already, and this brings to attention what the Olympics is actually all about.

         Because it's sad when small countries like South Korea only has one representative for a certain sports, in the case of figure skating, Yuna Kim, and that representative has a lot of pressure from his/her country, all to go compete where money-making is the focus, not the actual athletics part. Going off from this, why is the Olympics something that the whole world takes so seriously when people say that it's all just for money? Not that I don't care for the Olympics at all, but it's something interesting to think about, what draws all of us to the Olympics? Should we make such a big deal out of something that really can be just a scheme for businesses to earn some bucks? At least considering these questions and reflecting on our own personal motives for the Olympics would be good for shaping a truly peaceful event for all the nations. It's because Olympics may really be a scheme for bringing in money for the many sponsors and these questionable rigging that it can't wholly be a friendly event worldwide. When one country attack another country, they may just strike back when they get their chance.


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Fine Dust Particles In Korea

          Fine dust particles have started to take over in Korea. What will the future environment of Korea look like with all the hard-to-get-rid-of fine dust flying around? This is a good question to ask because Korea has been especially on the high rise nowadays, in economics and the entertainment industry, and with all the growing interest, more people are seeking to live their but fine dust may just be an obstacle. Korea should take more measures to ensure the health and welfare of its citizens from the fine dust and of the newcomers. 

          I've been hearing about the term, "미세먼지" (fine dust) on a popular Korean portal site and never really thought much about it nor did I knew what it was exactly, up until very recently, that is. Related search keywords that I would see on that Korean portal site would be "How to get rid of fine dust" and I just thought it was just one of those temporary or seasonal issues that Koreans were talking about. Then I started hearing about it on Gag Concert, and then my dad had visited Korean just a little over a week ago and he talked about how bad the air was there. He brought this up when I mentioned moving to Korea one day and he said that Korea's not going to be the best place to live in because the air was so bad. I was alarmed by this and I asked what is this fine dust that everyone was talking about and then once I got my answers, it finally seeped into my brain that this was not such a light issue. I personally have hopes of moving to Korea and I'm a health-freak (okay, more like a germaphobe), and polluted air is not appealing at all. 

         Wanting to assure myself that although it's serious right now, the dust will pass and all will be well, I said to my dad that it'll be different when I go there. His claim was that China's factories will continuously produce fine dust, which will inevitably be blown into the Korean peninsula. Korea should be mindful of this and know that this recent trouble with the fine dust will probably not go away. As a well-developed country, Korea should look at this as a big picture, meaning their future, and take into consideration what actions can be taken to at least reduce fine dust levels, for its sake of being a prosperous country.

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