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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