In this biweekly reflection I will write about Parasite which was the lesson one or two week before spring break. In order to keep with tradition, we watched a little bit of 예능, a korean variety show, with the title kang’s restaurant (강식당) season 2 to first introduce ourselves with Korean. I forgot to write about this reflection from the lesson as I had not realized I had until I did the podcast assignment with Jimin and Ellie. I initially referenced it as something that I had done but I stopped myself after watching the introductory first 10 minutes of the film as I had remembered this would be one of our lessons. In this lesson we watched the movie Parasite which had just won a couple of Oscars and film awards in the days before the lesson. The purpose of this lesson was to appreciate a little more about Korean culture and to put to practice the words and topics we had talked about in all of our lessons previous to this lesson. Some things that we were to focus on were the metaphors and symbolism that was apparent throughout the film. This ties back into our lesson of 관용구 and another lesson which had a focus of 속담. These ties in because 속담 or korean proverbs tie in and usually have a deeper meaning than what is seen on the surface or literal definition of what seems to be words put together. The thing about this movie that was so eye-opening is how much metaphors especially the scene where the rich man Mr. Kim says in reference to the driver from the poverty background “He always seems like he will cross the line but he doesn’t” which was like a way of saying not passing boundaries. This could be interpreted as just what is allowed in interactions between a boss and worker but it had a deeper meaning because it showed the difference in social classes between them as Mr. Kim conversed with his wife about how he doesn’t cross the line but his smell does. This part further made it more insightful because he lived in the lowest classes of Korean society. Another thing notable was how the rich and wealthy classes were completely unaware of those in the lower classes which was further symbolised by the husband of the former housekeeper living in the basement bunker of the house and further embellished this idea. This is also ties into a previous lesson of 관용구 or commonly used korean idioms as there were definitely scenes in the movie that showed the difference in social classes which could be seen as arrogance due to wealth and one of idioms we had learned was about being arrogant too confident. That specific idiom was 배가 아프다 which literally means “stomach hurts” but the idiom translation is being jealous of someone being well off, which is seen throughout the movie and the difference in social classes that is expertly depicted by director Bong Joon-Ho. All in all, I learned a lot about the huge difference in social classes and how extreme poverty is in some parts of Korea from this film portrayal of the very bottom of society that is almost unheard of. I had not known until this movie how big of a problem this was as my parents had never talked to me about it. This film also helped me to grow in my language skills as I was able to make these connections, watch the film and understand most of it without the occasional subtitles that the movie had, and watching the film for deeper meaning instead of just watching the film for the sake of watching it.
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