For these two classes we watched a popular Korean Television show 신서유기or New Journey to the west. It is a travel reality show that has been on for 7 seasons. It gained wide popularity with the uniqueness of the games and hilarious events that occurred. This show initially caught my attention for the name of the show. Journey to the west or 서유기 or 西游记 is one of the classics of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature. The novel is published in 16th century during the Ming dynasty written by Wu Cheng’en and told an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tangd dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the “Western Regions,” which was actually Central Asia and India. This television show New Journey to the west involved six members that need to got through many ‘sufferings’ and challenges like monk Xuanzang to look for the seven lost dragon balls. The show ends if they are about to get all seven dragon balls, but they have failed every single episode for seven seasons.
The two episodes that we watched are themed with 도사(monk or priest) and 레터로(retro), and the members of the crew have to each dress up as one of the provided outfits and complete theme related challenges. In the retro themed episode, one challenge they faced was to figure out a location with four syllables with hints. The first hint they received is “한양 세종 서울”, or Hanyang, Sejong, and Seoul, which are the name of a few regions in Korea near Seoul. Initially some members thought they were referring to the capital 수도, the three words were actually referencing Hanyang University, SeJong university, and Seoul University, or 한양대 세종대 서울대, making the answer to the first syllable “대.” The second hint they received was “송은이표 강조!” which directly translate to “Brand Song Eun’yi’s emphasis.” However the hint was actually all the surnames of all six members lined up “송민호 은지원 이수근 표지훈 강호동 조규현,” and the clue was “성” or surname. The third hint was “555 33 33” which if one types out with an old phone with the 9 keyboards will spell ‘LEE’ or 리. And the last hint was Singer 김수희‘s song 남행열차 which translates to ‘the train that goes south.’ The three syllable makes up 대성리, and the last hint suggests it’s a train station, making the final answer 대성리역 or Dae Seong Ri Station, which was an old retro trains stop that people love to visit.
In the second episode that we watched, it featured a popular Korean game called 고요속의 외침 or Shout in Silence. The game required two participants to wear headphones with really loud music and one has to try to understand or lip read what the other person is trying to say, and the pair who is able to guess most words wins. This is really fun game to watch and also a good game to learn how to pronounce Korean words and learn new words, as the participants have to be really articulate and slow when passing on the message. The most word I heard during this game was actually “천천히” which means slower. One interesting phrase that I came across was 떡 하나 주면 안 잡아 먹지, which means if you give me a piece of rice cake I won’t eat you. This game is really entertaining as in many occasion though one’s answer might be wrong, but there are some similarities in pronunciations and wording that the answers still make sense. I really want to try this after learning more Korean with my friends.
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