I just started a new Netflix original series called "첫사랑은 처음이라서", which means Because It's my first time having a first love. The drama is about these 5 young college students, each dealing with difficulties in their life. I think it is a great drama because it helps me learn about Korean culture and what the youth is dealing with. I will be looking forward to watching it during the summer.
Brenda Lim's Posts (14)
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I recently read an article about a lawsuit that has been going on in 3 years in Korea. It caught my attention as I was researching for my cultural presentation. The title of the article contained the name of the main actor of "Train to Busan". He had acted in a drama called the "Guardian". The sponsors of the drama were suing the production of the drama and were fighting in a legal battle for the past three years. The sponsors of the drama claimed that the main character was supposed to eat the soup, but the co-actor ate the food, so they were suing for the return of half the contract agreement.
It was interesting because these "TMZ" moments happen in Hollywood, but not this dramatically. The sponsor's products were featured and it was obvious. However, I wondered what would happen if this kind of event happened. After I thought about it, the Korean culture places great emphasis on a specific celebrity. If a celebrity wears something, it's sold out the next day often. Therefore, it's understandable that the sponsors would even sue over this. I thought it was a really interesting story.
There was an article on Facebook that caught my eye. It was regarding a hot new topic on Youtube that has been gaining attention. People commonly vlog in Korea regarding topics such as 먹방, which is eating, GRWM (Get ready with me), and makeup artists. This concept was one that I had never heard of before- Study with me. I was curious so I clicked on the link, and there is a person sitting at a desk literally studying. I was so surprised because there was no talking involved.
I am curious why Korean people start these new topics and how they go viral. Even my friends watch 먹방 while they are eating, I turn on GRWM videos with makeup artists as I get ready, but I'm not sure if I will ever hop on the bandwagon of "Study with me".
I am attaching the video which has 2.8 million views.
This semester, I have been helping one of my friends who is a leader of a praise team in Korea. He asked me to help with the translations of short 5 minute messages or sermons. It has been a really great experience because I have been realizing many things. For example, I once again realized that the sentence structures of English and Korean are totally flipped, which makes it difficult when you translate. Just as an example, if I were to say "귀여운 강아지가 사과를 좋아한데!", it would literally translate to "Cute dog apple like", which makes no sense at all. It has been a challenge to keep the phrases as similar as possible with the transitions in the video, but also recognize that the sentence structure is totally different. I also realized that there are so many phrases in Korean that cannot be translated or expressed in English. Because I understand the culture, I try my best to translate it in English without the phrase sounding odd.
I am attaching a link to a message that I have most recently translated! (Notice: it is a Christian video, so please keep that in mind!)
As mentioned in my biweekly journal, we took a field trip to Grand Mart. It was a really good experience because other students were there as well. One interesting event that happened was one of the students had trouble with ordering what they wanted. He said a number such as 31, but the person taking the order misheard it as 32. In Korean 1 and 2 are similar in sound. 일 (il) is one, and 이 (ee) is two. She kept making sure, and asked "are you sure you said 31 not 32?". However, the student was sure he said 31 (I heard him as well!). Because of the similar sounding numbers, it was understandable that this kind of misunderstanding occurred. It was a situation we all laughed at and had lots of fun.
While browsing on Facebook, I found a very interesting video. The video was snippet of the show "Voice"- Germany. The video was captioned in Korean; it said "독일오디션 프로그램에서 우리나라 노래부르는 소녀", which means "A girl singing our country's song on a German audition program". Out of curiosity, I clicked the video and I was amazed. This teenager was singing "The Truth Untold" by BTS ft. Steve Aoki. She sang the whole snippet of the song in Korean, minus the couple phrases of English. She said that she learned the language herself, and her pronunciation was impressive. The judges were initially stumped at the unfamiliar language. They were guessing if it was Italian or Spanish, but to their surprise it was Korean.
As mentioned in my previous cultural post with the show "Kingdom", it is amazing how social media can play such a large role in spreading Korean music and Korean culture. BTS is a Korean idol group that has made it on the Billboard charts and has even given a speech at the UN.
I have attached the link to the video, which has over 700K views right now!
My second cultural post is a screenshot of my conversation with my two aunts in Korea. I will be going to Korea this summer and this is a group chat between the three of us. 큰 is big, and 큰고모 means my "big", or older, aunt. 쟉은 is small, and means my "small", or younger, aunt. Learning geography in Korean class help. Both my 큰고모 and 작은고모 live in the Seoul Province, so I will be close to places like 홍대, which is a hipster, "downtown" atmosphere and 강남, which is the city mentioned in Psy's very famous song, Gangnam Style.
My 작은고모 is mentioning that she can find me a "알바" which means part time job. She has two sons, 5 and 8 years old, so she wants me to speak English with them. I am looking forward to going to Korea for the first time and spending time with relatives!
I binge-watched a new series on Netflix called "Kingdom". I first heard about this series when I was watching a Korean entertainment show and actress, 배두나, (Bae Doona) mentioned the new Korean series. Bae Doona is often mentioned as the actress who made it to Hollywood. She featured in Sense8 and Cloud Atlas. One of my favorite Korean actors, 주지훈, also is a part of the show. Joo Ji Hoon was an actor in the Korean film "Along with the Gods", a film I watched in Korean class last year.
Surprisingly, the first season was amazing!! I actually finished it in one day. The whole series was in Korean, and there were English subtitles. I got my Taiwanese friend to start the show and she loved it as well. As Korean culture and media is becoming more well known through Kpop and Korean dramas, I realize how vast an effect media can have on being able to spread the culture of a country. The setting of the series is in ancient Korea, which additionally helps bring more awareness and education to not only the current state of South Korea but also its history.
Attached is a link to the series!
For our tenth meeting, we had a final review. Jimin made a study guide for us reviewing all the material that we learned this semester. It made me realize that I learned a lot more than I expected to learn, including weather news jargon, ancient Korean art, and the history of Yonsei University. I'm glad that I was able to learn even more Korean this semester and become a more well-rounded Korean speaker.
For our ninth meeting, we went to Grand Mart, an international market that primarily has Korean foods and has a Korean restaurant inside. I ordered 짜장면 and 육계장, and shared it with my classmate, Jenna. 짜장면 is a black soybean noodle and 육계장 is a spicy beef soup.
For our tenth meeting, we practiced our speaking skills by solely speaking Korean to one another. We sat outside in the library patio and talked only in Korean for a long period of time. This practice helped me use diverse vocabulary because not everyone was on the same level so I had to be able to explain what I wanted to say in multiple ways.
During our seventh meeting, we worked on 2 packets that contained reading comprehension and answering questions related to the readings. We learned about the Yonsei University (연세대학교) and its history. We also learned about very famous, old Korean art pieces. It was interesting to learn that an American missionary established the university and there are remnants of American culture rather than Korean culture, such as the main color of the university which is blue and the mascot which is a tiger.
During our eighth meeting, we learned about two ancient Korean artworks including 연화도 and 일월오봉도. The "연화도" art work contains lotus flowers and a pair of ducks. It is an artwork that parents used to gift to their children as a message to be humble, prosper, and have lots of children. 일월오봉도 is an artwork that "awakened" the king to remind the king that he should not be above the civilians but that he was sent to humbly rule.
During our fifth meeting, we learned about a very important day in South Korea, which is March 1st, 1919. The movement is called 삼일절 which literally translates to March 1st. 삼 means 3, and 일 means 1. The movement was a day where the South Koreans peacefully protested against the Japanese Imperialism by waving South Korean flags. We learned about a South Korean hero, who I am familiar with. Her name was 유관순, Gwan-soon Yu. She was only 17 years old. One of her most memorable moments was when she was taken to court and the Japanese said that if you admit you are at fault, we will spare your life; however, she declared that the Japanese were at fault for killing innocent civilians and she passed away in jail.
For our sixth meeting, we watched a movie called "Swing Kids". It was an interesting plot because the movie took place in a prisoner of war camp that contained both North Korean and South Korean POWs, that was divided by a fence. The main character is a North Korean that is gifted with the ability to tap dance, a South Korean girl who can translate Korean to English and also tap dances, a fat Chinese man, a South Korean man yearning for his lost wife, and an African American American army officer.
For the third and fourth week, we learned more metaphors/idioms and vocabulary, and geography. We learned words that were interesting because each "character" had a meaning, derived from Chinese characters. For example, 선악 means good and the bad. We watched a Korean weather news clip and paused frequently- Jimin quizzed us, and we also asked questions. For the fourth week, Jimin printed out a map of South Korea and we learned about the geography. We learned the names of all the provinces and major cities and what they are famous for. For example, Jeju Island is famous for the wind, rocks, and women. This lesson was extremely helpful because I will be going to Korea this summer, so it helped me visualize where all my relatives was and how I will plan my route in South Korea.
During the first two weeks of our Korean class, we first planned out what everyone's interests were and prioritized what we wanted to learn in the semester. Then, we learned about Korean metaphors and idioms with vocabulary that is not used commonly in everyday language. For example, one of my favorite metaphors that I learned was "입이 가볍다", which literally translates to "the mouth is light". However, it has a deeper meaning, which is that someone is bad at keeping a secret, or is a blabber-mouth. For the vocabulary not commonly used, I was surprised because many of the vocabulary we learned is commonly used in the Korean news.
