As a fan of Yoo Seung Ho, a charming actor of South Korea who debuted at the age of 8 (Korean age), I miss him so terribly as he is serving the country in the military. South Korea mandates all men age 20 (international age: 18) and up to enlist in the military to do service for 2 years.
When I was just a little child, the idea of military enlistment frightened me. I had recently watched a Korean movie or something involving a woman volunteer and so that gave me the idea that I also had to enlist in the military when I grow up. But then my young-self was relieved when I was told that it was only the boys that were required to enlist and that I'm not born in Korea so even if I was a boy, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
But then my brother said that Korean-Americans are counted as dual citizens, so this means that he, as a Korean-American, needs to go serve in the Korean military sometime after he reaches the age of 20 (Korean age). I'm still skeptical about the authenticity of this, so whoever is not lazy like me, please look this up and let your fellow Korean friend know. :D
I asked my dad a few months ago if the Korean government would continue to mandate military enlistment for males after the two Koreas - North and South - are unified. Because, you know, the big reason military service is required is to train its male citizens in case a full-out war starts up again between North Korea and South Korea. I asked this because, I thought about it, and military enlistment for males have been going on for so long that it's now a Korean tradition for all Korean boys growing up and really, this was all started because of a cease-fire between the two Koreas. So I became a bit sad at the thought that the doom of military enlistment wouldn't have to be hung over the heads of Korean boys if the North and South just unified.
However, my dad answered that military enlistment would probably be still required because the Korean peninsula is attached to China, so Korea would want to keep their guard up. I find this unfortunate - the U.S.A. has Canada to its north and Mexico to its south but military enlistment isn't required here. (Well, my so knowledgeable brother informed me that there is a yearly military draft in the States too and it's random but I suspect the legitimacy of this too).
Regarding mandatory military service in Korea, there's more I want to touch base on but that is to be continued on a later post...
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Thursday, December 12, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Part 2 of The Unfortunate Shift in the K-Pop World
It seems like the busy world of K-pop is moving and evolving almost each second. And by moving and evolving, I mean getting to be more and more inappropriate. I said in the first part of my, well, rant about this issue, and that this is especially more concerning given the fact that a majority of these K-pop fans are young.
These fans -no matter how young or, for this matter, old they are- can have the right to like whichever K-pop group they want to like. So knowing that the young ones are free to like whichever girl group or boy group, shouldn't the producers in the K-pop industry be particularly careful about what they're trying to sell?
What really brought me to write a part 2 about this is that I heard that some girl group released a rated 30+ music video. 30 as in age. In Korean standards, a rated 19+ is like r-rated here in America and so a rated 30+ is huge. I didn't even know there was a 30+ rating! This scandalous music video has gotten just about everyone wondering what could possibly be in that music video that makes it so bad. Is it something sexual? Violence? Only a very limited amount of people will know. Speaking of which, there's my problem: who among that girl group's fans can watch their rated 30+ MV? Where is the aim in all of this scheme? To get people talking about them? How pathetic.
There's too many new groups coming out with similar, sexy concepts to count but never mind them, what about the groups that have been around for a while and are pretty popular? That's a lot of exposure to a lot of fans. And even in the age requirement for a MV or even the original song lyrics isn't as high as 30, even the 19+ ones are super questionable. Elementary students can't even view those music videos, or can they? We can all agree that we have easy access to a lot of things nowadays thanks to the Internet and YouTube is a great way to look up those explicit music videos. What's the point of slapping on a 19+ on a music video when it will be viewed to the general public online anyway? But back to the more popular groups that have taken up sexy concepts - what kind of message are they sending to their many, many fans?
It's makes me cringe to get on news sites that exclusively deliver news relating to K-pop, because a lot of the articles have inappropriate pictures and of course they all include in the title that it's rated 19+. In the midst of all the excitement of following the K-pop flow, meaning listening to all the new hits and checking out a hot new idol group, we all need to slow down, stop and see how sex appeal is being so painfully overused.
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Saturday, December 7, 2013
"Snack" Foods in Korea
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| Click here for picture source |
There are 분식점 that exclusively serve only snack food in Korea, and as I've only lived in America, I've hardly been to one. So it wasn't until my very first visit to Chicago, where there's a large Korean population, when I went to H-Mart and saw that the foods I've been eating as meals my whole life are considered "snacks". I'm talking about 떡볶이 (dduk - bokk - ee), 김밥 (kim bap), 라면 (ramen), 순대 (sun - dae) etc.! You can click on the picture source link above and see more pictures of Korean snack foods.
The first one, 떡볶이 (dduk - bokk - ee), is just a dish of spicy rice cakes. To you who are not Korean/ have never heard of dduk-bokk-ee might think it's gross based on the description, but oh my goodness, you are in the wrong!!! Gag Concert actually did a survey for its Korean viewers (which is basically all of Korea) to see which of the four representative snack foods (listed in the above paragraph) is the most popular, and dduk-bokk-ee held first place! It's actually a wonder, when you think about what a simple dish dukk-bokk-ee is, why it is so enticingly delicious. Excuse me while I go cry and yearn for some dukk-bokk-ee.
김밥 (kim bap) is also one of my favorites. It's also called Korean Sushi, but it's not sushi at all, there's no fish involved but occasional tunas. Think of kim bap this way - it's a California roll but instead the rice being on the outside and dried seaweed on the inside, it's the complete opposite. So kim bap has dried seaweed on the outside with rice and some sort of meat (which meat it is is entirely up to the cook) and vegetables (also different based on the cook's choice). It's delicious. No more questions.
You should know this one - RAMEN! Oh, who can resist some good old ramen noodles? But let me tell you this: Korean ramen is different from the American ones. Personally for me, American ramen is gross - chicken flavor?! Beef flavor?! There's none of that in Korea! They are all spicy, usually kimchi flavor, and I declare that ramen should all be spicy, otherwise it's not ramen. Hey, no hate, just stating my own opinion. Seriously, I grew up with just spicy ramen and when I found out there are such things as non-spicy ramen, it was like finding out that there's a pizza without any cheese out there.
순대 (soon-dae) are blood sausages. Sound gross? Well, can't argue about that with you there. I used to really like soon-dae, until one day, I ate some and got sick and ever since, I can't even stand the smell of it. (What's that psychological term for this case?) Anyway, soon-dae is very popular in Korea and it's like a buddy with dduk-bok-ee and just snack foods in general.
I mentioned something about how I grew up thinking these foods were all for meals and not snacks. It's still odd to me today that these foods are considered as snacks. My parents did not make this distinction and I grew up devouring kim bap and dduk-bok-ee and ramen for meals. I mean, don't they all sound like potential meals to you? It's like eating fries for snack, which, I think some people actually do, but it's still weird. So Korean students eat these snack foods as, well, snacks, like after school and all of that and very recently, one of my younger siblings asked my dad why Korean kids tend to not eat a lot of food during meal times. My dad said it's because they eat a lot of snacks which makes so much sense! They eat something like California rolls (kim bap) as snacks, so it's no wonder they're not that hungry for dinner! But hey, absolutely no hate for Korean snack foods, I heart them all, except for soon-dae.
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The Reason Behind the Nationalism in Korea according to Yours Truly
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| Click here for picture source |
I would say that most countries have some sense of nationalism. The Republic of Korea (대한민국, dae-han-min-guk) is no exception. You can find out more of Koreans' evident nationalism and how they cheer on their country's team by clicking on that picture source link. So it's clear that Korea is one country full of national pride but where does this all come from?
Before I try to answer that question, I want to set a disclaimer: Like in most other countries, there are a significant number of people in South Korea who wish to live in a different country. In other words, just like in most other countries such as the U.S., there are some Koreans who are dissatisfied with their government and what not. So as I talk about Korea's nationalism here, just keep in mind that Koreans are not brainwashed with some propaganda or whatever.
You should know that Korea has a dark history of invasion by another country. So it's true that Koreans are less open to non-Koreans. I'm afraid that the whole world is going to look at one thing I say and misinterpret it and create chaos so let me explain: this doesn't mean Koreans are a bunch of total racists, let's remember that racism is unfortunately in existence in other countries as well, and although I did say Koreans tend to be less open to non-Koreans, modern-day Koreans absolutely love foreigners. Just think of it as how Americans also love Asians (I have a number of friends who are obsessed with Asians). Anyway, back to my point about how Koreans are less open to foreigners, so I have to admit that their racism does stem from that too, but I'm not contradicting myself - this doesn't mean Koreans are complete racist freaks and let's face it, there are racists everywhere in the world. Just like how those Americans who are obsessed with Asians love Asians, none can deny that they've said racist comments about the people group they love; so Koreans love foreigners but there's racism in Korea, too.
So because of Korea's dark history, Koreans are met with sentimental nostalgic books and T.V. programs that stir up nationalistic feelings. There are a whole bunch of shows that just lets you ponder the wonders of Korean culture - food shows, programs that capture the life of the farmers in the countryside, ect. I personally have seen a few of these sort of programs, and honestly it's difficult to not have ever watched them, and they do a good job of making me feel proud of Korea. But I've heard an opinion of a non-Korean couple living in South Korea that Korea just airs a lot of these nationalistic shows, as if Korea doesn't have anything to show off. I feel like that's a bit ignorant. Like I said, Korea's history binds the Koreans in unity together and there's another thing to know about Korean culture. Quite a lot of Koreans living in the urban city, Seoul, are from the countryside, like Busan which is way down south. So I mentioned that Korea airs T.V. shows which fills viewers with nostalgia effectively because those countryside people living in Seoul miss their hometowns.
Korea has a lot of distinguishing features that go otherwise unnoticed, until when shows like Gag Concert mention them and viewers can laugh while being all proud of those components that make up Korea. I've lived my entire life in America, and maybe this is because I grew up very Korean, but I can't really see a huge sense of nationalism here in the United States. I mostly hear a lot of complaints against the government and I don't really see Americans unite when the country's team is up in the World Cup. I know, Americans do care when they're in the Olympics and what not, but I don't really see unity. So in the sense of nationalism, I think there's a clear difference between America and South Korea.
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Thursday, December 5, 2013
International Recognition for Girls' Generation, NOT Hate, Please and Thank You
If you know K-pop, then there’s no way for you to not know
who Girls’ Generation (GG) is. Girls’ Generation not only stunned the audience to
silence by winning the first-ever YouTube Music Awards but they also made 5th
place on the list of ‘Top 10 songs of 2013’ by Time Entertainment. As a S♡ne
myself, I am very pleased with the many accomplishments of GG. Well, then my
feeling of Korean pride nearly vanishes when haters comment things like, “I've never even heard of Girls’ Generation before.”
Okay,
let me set things clear – it’s not a crime itself to have had never heard of
Girls’ Generation when you live in America. But wouldn't it be great for Americans who have never heard of them react positively when GG wins a big award like the YTMA? Unfortunately, we don't live in a world like that. I have to admit, I've had the whole "But I've never heard of them before"-type of complaint myself too. However, here's my argument: Girls' Generation have been on the "David Letterman Show" AND "Live! With Kelly", so it's not like Americans were just thrown in their face this unexpected Asian girl group taking home the prize, GG has attempted to make themselves be known in America. But I'm holding true to my word - I'm not pointing fingers at anyone for not knowing who Girls' Generation is. My point is, why can't we accept that not everyone can win?
Oh, sweetie Tiffany, the GG member that came to America to represent her group, made it sound like as if GG only won because of their fans. She was being humble, not being all pompous and flat out saying they won because they're awesome. Oh, yes, fans did play a key part in their victory but to the haters that are sitting around grumbling that they only won because of their fans and are degrading GG's many talents - think about this: Why do you think Girls' Generation even has a lot of fans? No, not just Korean fans. Not just Asian fans. All around the world. Girls' Generation deserved the award. I have to say that I Got a Boy is not my personal favorite, but check out their other music videos - they can sing and dance. Now, Psy's Gentleman was also a nominee and I want to say that I think it's because he had a ridiculous video go viral before Gentleman, gaining him immediate international recognition. Girls' Generation's music video for Gee actually was the most viewed Korean music video until Gangnam Style rolled around.
My regret is that SM Entertainment, GG's company, would have pulled a JYP, Wonder Girls' company, and had GG's American debut song, "The Boys" be played on the radio and all of that. But it's not like SM just sat around doing nothing - in the big screen in Times Square played the preview for Girls' Generation and like I said, GG were on a couple of American T.V. shows. Plus at the same time, I understand why SM didn't pull a JYP, that would mean sacrificing a lot of time spent on promotions in the home country Korea and Japan for Girls' Generation. Can't win them all.
Okay, let me pause trying to sound all professional and rant real quickly - the audience was HORRIBLE as Tiffany went up for the award and deliver her word of thanks, no one even clapped. To the audience that had the case of frogs being stuck on their throat, who cares if you're clueless on who Girls' Generation is, the least you can do is slam your two hands together! Check out other videos of places where Girls' Generation has won awards (that shouldn't be difficult at all since they've won countless numbers of awards, so you've got plenty to choose from) and see how the audience goes crazy for GG because we all know that as long as GG is on the list, that's just a 99% guarantee that they will win. This is the superiority of Girls' Generation whether you like it or not.
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Oh, sweetie Tiffany, the GG member that came to America to represent her group, made it sound like as if GG only won because of their fans. She was being humble, not being all pompous and flat out saying they won because they're awesome. Oh, yes, fans did play a key part in their victory but to the haters that are sitting around grumbling that they only won because of their fans and are degrading GG's many talents - think about this: Why do you think Girls' Generation even has a lot of fans? No, not just Korean fans. Not just Asian fans. All around the world. Girls' Generation deserved the award. I have to say that I Got a Boy is not my personal favorite, but check out their other music videos - they can sing and dance. Now, Psy's Gentleman was also a nominee and I want to say that I think it's because he had a ridiculous video go viral before Gentleman, gaining him immediate international recognition. Girls' Generation's music video for Gee actually was the most viewed Korean music video until Gangnam Style rolled around.
My regret is that SM Entertainment, GG's company, would have pulled a JYP, Wonder Girls' company, and had GG's American debut song, "The Boys" be played on the radio and all of that. But it's not like SM just sat around doing nothing - in the big screen in Times Square played the preview for Girls' Generation and like I said, GG were on a couple of American T.V. shows. Plus at the same time, I understand why SM didn't pull a JYP, that would mean sacrificing a lot of time spent on promotions in the home country Korea and Japan for Girls' Generation. Can't win them all.
Okay, let me pause trying to sound all professional and rant real quickly - the audience was HORRIBLE as Tiffany went up for the award and deliver her word of thanks, no one even clapped. To the audience that had the case of frogs being stuck on their throat, who cares if you're clueless on who Girls' Generation is, the least you can do is slam your two hands together! Check out other videos of places where Girls' Generation has won awards (that shouldn't be difficult at all since they've won countless numbers of awards, so you've got plenty to choose from) and see how the audience goes crazy for GG because we all know that as long as GG is on the list, that's just a 99% guarantee that they will win. This is the superiority of Girls' Generation whether you like it or not.
(692)
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Korean Celebrities and Dating
Another star couple has emerged in Korea and it's Kim Bum and Moon Geun-Young. I was surprised at this news, even more when I saw that Kim Bum is younger, but I'm also happy for them. I mean, it's their time to date, looking at their age. Plus it was pretty courageous of them to come out all public.
What do I mean? I heard that it's difficult especially for female Korean celebrities to date publicly because apparently, the number of fans go down. Male fans all have this fantasy of their favorite star possibly being their girlfriends and then all of a sudden their noona has a boyfriend, then to their shame, they disloyally leave them. Or something like that. Plus, it's imaginable that it's the same for male Korean stars. So you can see that it's not an easy decision to make whether you're going to go public about your dating life or not as a celebrity.
But this doesn't mean that celebrities all end up forcefully being forever alone. There are considerable numbers of married celebrities. However, it's harder for K-pop idols to date. Okay, instead of sounding all neutral I have to pitch in my own voice in this - I, too, cringe at the thought of one of my favorite boy group members dating someone. So it's not like I'm unsympathetic to K-poppers but at the same time, it's sad to me that their freedom is already virtually deprived from them but the fact that they can't freely have a love life without the consent of their agency is worse.
Unlike many SHINee fans, I was actually happy for Jonghyun when he was dating actress Shin Se Kyung, I thought they looked good together (and, I must admit, Jonghyun is not my favorite member sooooo yeah). Plus I'm happy for Wonder Girls' Sun, who is now married and very recently gave birth to her first child, for making such a big step as a K-pop idol and of course, we can't forget her agency that allowed this huge irrevocable thing. In fact, she's the first K-pop group idol to get married in this generation which brings light to what upsets me. We have older idols, for example, SHINHWA, who are all in their 30s and yet none of them are married yet. Maybe it's not their agency and status preventing them from having a love life, but that's what it seems like and it makes me feel bad for them.
Also, there are K-pop idols who've said they want to get married early. It's a common desire, I also want to get married early. But it's harder for K-pop idols to achieve this dream because, K-pop idols have the reputation of being young, so it's mighty difficult for them to be finding their significant other while busily holding concerts and promoting their next album. Plus think in the view of the fans, they want their oppas to be with them forever, not eventually quitting their job to make their own families.
So there have been gradual increase in celebrity couples or celebrities with boyfriends/girlfriends but not so much in the K-pop world. But sticking to my point, I like that more celebrities are breaking out of their shells and dating, and I'm torn when it comes to K-pop idols. It really always depends on who's dating who for me to decide how I feel about them.
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What do I mean? I heard that it's difficult especially for female Korean celebrities to date publicly because apparently, the number of fans go down. Male fans all have this fantasy of their favorite star possibly being their girlfriends and then all of a sudden their noona has a boyfriend, then to their shame, they disloyally leave them. Or something like that. Plus, it's imaginable that it's the same for male Korean stars. So you can see that it's not an easy decision to make whether you're going to go public about your dating life or not as a celebrity.
But this doesn't mean that celebrities all end up forcefully being forever alone. There are considerable numbers of married celebrities. However, it's harder for K-pop idols to date. Okay, instead of sounding all neutral I have to pitch in my own voice in this - I, too, cringe at the thought of one of my favorite boy group members dating someone. So it's not like I'm unsympathetic to K-poppers but at the same time, it's sad to me that their freedom is already virtually deprived from them but the fact that they can't freely have a love life without the consent of their agency is worse.
Unlike many SHINee fans, I was actually happy for Jonghyun when he was dating actress Shin Se Kyung, I thought they looked good together (and, I must admit, Jonghyun is not my favorite member sooooo yeah). Plus I'm happy for Wonder Girls' Sun, who is now married and very recently gave birth to her first child, for making such a big step as a K-pop idol and of course, we can't forget her agency that allowed this huge irrevocable thing. In fact, she's the first K-pop group idol to get married in this generation which brings light to what upsets me. We have older idols, for example, SHINHWA, who are all in their 30s and yet none of them are married yet. Maybe it's not their agency and status preventing them from having a love life, but that's what it seems like and it makes me feel bad for them.
Also, there are K-pop idols who've said they want to get married early. It's a common desire, I also want to get married early. But it's harder for K-pop idols to achieve this dream because, K-pop idols have the reputation of being young, so it's mighty difficult for them to be finding their significant other while busily holding concerts and promoting their next album. Plus think in the view of the fans, they want their oppas to be with them forever, not eventually quitting their job to make their own families.
So there have been gradual increase in celebrity couples or celebrities with boyfriends/girlfriends but not so much in the K-pop world. But sticking to my point, I like that more celebrities are breaking out of their shells and dating, and I'm torn when it comes to K-pop idols. It really always depends on who's dating who for me to decide how I feel about them.
(572)
Korean Innovations that Should Exist in America
Living as a Korean-American in America, I am met with frustrations at times because some systems will be a lot smoother for some cases. Woah. That was a vague statement. Okay, here's what I mean, there are some things in Korea that really need to be brought to America. I will talk about my personal opinions but you can also check out this video, since I agree with what they mention.
In addition to the table-bells, there's something else in Korean restaurants, where you have to go pick up the food, is this buzzer-thing that you hold on to and when it lights up and buzzes, that means you're food is ready and you should go pick it up. I have yet to see one of these in an American restaurant, I've only used these at Korean restaurants in America! *angry face* But then again to be fair, I don't know a lot of American food places where you would order and then stand around waiting for your food... Because well, the place I've been to is H-Mart, a Korean super-market in urban cities of America, where they have a food court. Wait, I've thought of an instance where these buzzer-things would come in handy!! At malls, there are food courts right? Well, you can order and pay and then sit down with your buzzer and get up when your food is ready. Hmm, but that wouldn't be efficient since food courts are full of fast food places... (Guys, I'm actually thinking of all of this as I go, sorry). I don't know, but anyway, I find these buzzer-things to be cool.
Another thing that I agree with that was mentioned in the video is the new ways of locking your doors! Seriously, when you go to Korea and see that metal keys are only used for cars, then you feel pretty outdated back at America. And it gets me wondering - how is it that Korea seems to be more technologically advanced at times?
The video mentions bank cards that can be used to pay any public transportation system, right? Here's the problem in America: public transportation itself is not widely available. Seriously, only the big cities like Chicago and New York City have taxis, buses, and subways (wait, does Chicago even have subways?), otherwise you must have a car to get to places. Maybe the dangers of teenage driving can be significantly eliminated if public transportation was brought! Okay, put down your tomatoes, I'm just saying and I know that I'm being unfair because our economy can't afford something like this and ya-di-ya-di-yadda.
(435)
In addition to the table-bells, there's something else in Korean restaurants, where you have to go pick up the food, is this buzzer-thing that you hold on to and when it lights up and buzzes, that means you're food is ready and you should go pick it up. I have yet to see one of these in an American restaurant, I've only used these at Korean restaurants in America! *angry face* But then again to be fair, I don't know a lot of American food places where you would order and then stand around waiting for your food... Because well, the place I've been to is H-Mart, a Korean super-market in urban cities of America, where they have a food court. Wait, I've thought of an instance where these buzzer-things would come in handy!! At malls, there are food courts right? Well, you can order and pay and then sit down with your buzzer and get up when your food is ready. Hmm, but that wouldn't be efficient since food courts are full of fast food places... (Guys, I'm actually thinking of all of this as I go, sorry). I don't know, but anyway, I find these buzzer-things to be cool.
Another thing that I agree with that was mentioned in the video is the new ways of locking your doors! Seriously, when you go to Korea and see that metal keys are only used for cars, then you feel pretty outdated back at America. And it gets me wondering - how is it that Korea seems to be more technologically advanced at times?
The video mentions bank cards that can be used to pay any public transportation system, right? Here's the problem in America: public transportation itself is not widely available. Seriously, only the big cities like Chicago and New York City have taxis, buses, and subways (wait, does Chicago even have subways?), otherwise you must have a car to get to places. Maybe the dangers of teenage driving can be significantly eliminated if public transportation was brought! Okay, put down your tomatoes, I'm just saying and I know that I'm being unfair because our economy can't afford something like this and ya-di-ya-di-yadda.
(435)
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