It's not all teaching and K-pop for this waeguk. Last weekend a group of us headed west to Muuido, a little island off the coast of Incheon, to celebrate fellow S.M.O.E. Maureen's birthday.
We're on a boat!
There are some really beautiful places in Korea if you get far enough out of Seoul. My first few months here, when I was in my bubble of euphoria, I loved the vastness and the excitement of the city. It's starting to wear on me though. There is a serious lack of nature in Seoul.
I brag about my school a lot to my fellow teachers here in Korea because, well, it's kind of a big deal. To be more specific, Chungdam High School is located on the border of Apgujeong-dong and Chungdam-dong, the two ritziest dongs in Seoul. Every morning when I get off the bus and walk up the hill to school, I pass the Galleria Department Store, which houses stores like Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc. (i.e. brands I will never, ever be able to afford)
Galleria Department Store
Across the street from the Galleria is 'Rodeo Street,' which is lined with more stores and fancy restaurants that I can't afford. It is very common to spot celebrities in this area, eating or shopping or coming out of SM Entertainment, a talent agency that produces some of the biggest groups on the K-Pop scene these days. This building is located a stones throw away from Chungdam High School. Whenever a celebrity is reportedly in the building, teeny boppers wait outside the building to get autographs or just catch a glimpse of their favorite K-pop star.
However, if you are lucky enough to be a student or teacher at Chungdam High School, you might see a K-pop star in one of your classes. We currently have two entertainers enrolled at Chungdam: Sun Mi of the Wondergirls and Tae Min of the boys' group 'Shinee.' Sun Mi was supposedly one of my students last school year, but after the Wondergirls started touring last May, she only showed up during mid-terms and finals, when I don't teach, so I never saw her. This year she's taking 6 months off to tour internationally, so chances are slim that I will meet her.
The Wonder Girls (Sun Mi is the one in the pink)
Our other K-pop star, Tae Min, is a sophomore who is supposed to be in my 5th period on Tuesdays, but I guess he only comes to first period every day and then leaves. But today his homeroom teacher brought him into our office to meet the teachers. I did my best to be non-chalant and gave him a quick "Annyang haseyo" before he headed out the door. Really though, I was a little bit giddy and spent my free periods this afternoon doing 'Shinee' research, since I don't know much about the group.
I found that not only is he babyface of the group (they always have one of them in boy bands) but he's the best dancer. He's usually front and center during the dance sequences. In this video, he's the one in the hat:
He declined a request by my co-teacher to pose for a picture because he wasn't wearing any make-up. But even without make up, he is a cute little bugger.
Tae Min of 'Shinee'
Group Shot (He's the one in the "Wicked" shirt)
I should have asked him if he could introduce me to T.O.P. from Big Bang... oops.
Before I tell you about my K-pop celebrity encounter today, I need to give you a quick K-pop primer. What is K-pop? Technically it just means Korean Popular music, but a big part of popular music in this country consists of sappy love ballads, and that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the packaged for mass-marketing boy and girl groups like the Wonder Girls, Big Bang, Dongbangshinki (a.k.a. TVXQ) and the likes.
This video, “How To Dance K-Pop Style,” is a really good overview of last year’s top K-pop songs. It also sums up why I love K-pop so much: it's all about the dance moves. Watch and learn:
I love this video because what the couple talks about actually happens in class. Like If you use the word "nobody" in a sentence, someone will inevitably break out into the chorus of the popular Wonder Girls' song.
When I first got here, it was my students that did this. Now that I've been here nearly 8 months, I'm down with the K-pop, and I usually beat them to the punch.
Actually these days I'm probably too down with the K-pop. Upon my arrival I thought most of the songs were poor imitations of American pop songs, but like many things in Korea, I have grown to love K-pop; Big Bang especially. And because of the Hallyu* phenomenon, all of the groups have English names and most of their songs have English refrains, so I can at least sing along to that part.
Big Bang's latest project is a terrible song that was written to market Cyon's new 'Lollipop' phone:
T.O.P., my favorite member, looking very manly as always:
More about Hallyu *Hallyu means "Korean wave" or "Korean fever," and it's a term used to describe the surge of popularity of Korean culture in the past decade. Korean pop music, television dramas, and movies have a wide fan base across Southeast Asia, and the "hallyu" is spreading to other parts of the world as well. In fact, K-pop megastar 'Rain' has been spending more time touring overseas (recently in Los Angeles and Hawaii) than he does in his home country. Rain has been trying hard to crack the very lucrative US market, and was even seen last May on the Colbert Report having a dance-off with Stephen Colbert himself. I will post this video because even though it pokes fun at the very hard-working Rain, it's hilarious.
This blog is probably full of over-generalizations about Korean people, but here’s another one:
Koreans love to make up holidays. (Take Pepero Day, for example) Yesterday was “Black Day,” part of the three-part trilogy that is Valentine’s Day. On February 14th, females give chocolate to their significant other. Then March 14th is designated as “White Day,” where males are supposed to give their lady candy (type not specified). But hey, what about single people? What do they get?
Never fear, Korea has a holiday for us too. April 14th is “Black Day” (of course, the color of mourning). On this day, single people come together and eat Jajangmyeon; noodles with black bean paste. It’s a Koreanized “Chinese” dish.
I find this hilarious. Couples get candy, and single people get noodles! But hey, at least there is a day honoring us. I met Sarah and Josie in Hyewha (which is becoming a new favorite area of mine) last night to eat noodles in celebration of our singledom.
I looked completely awful at school today (I'm sick, I didn't feel like washing my hair, and I've recently put on weight) but I got two of the nicest compliments from my students.
When I was walking into school with one of my students from last semester, she noted that I walk really fast, which is probably why I'm "so thin." This girl probably weighs about 85 pounds, so she was definitely flattering me, but I still appreciated it.
Then in one of my all boys' classes, I was working with a student who didn't have a partner. In broken English, he told me my eyes were beautiful. He pointed at his own eyes and said, "Me, black eyes. You, Green." It was really cute. They definitely cheer me up when I'm feeling sick and gross.
Me & Lee Min Ho of "Boys Before Flowers" Turns out I'm not the only one obsessed with this ridiculous show. Boys Before Flowers mania has swept over Korea. Love it or hate it, everyone, foreigners included, is talking about this show, which is based on a Japanese manga series. The much-anticipated Korean adaptation aired in January, with relatively unknown actors, and became an instant success, almost entirely due to the four male leads, known as F4 (or Flower Four). We discussed the show as part of my lesson plan this past week, which was about expressing opinions, and it definitely got my students talking. (With the exception of some of the upper-level boys' classes, who told me they didn't care who Geum Jan Di chose in the end. The audacity!) I've also overheard ajummas talking about it on the bus, foreign girls discussing their favorite F4 member while waiting for the subway, and supposedly guys are requesting Gu Jun Pyo's signature curly hairdo at the barber shop.
While the show was a huge success, and the actors have become household names overnight, the show was criticized, among other things, for its implausible and silly storyline. In an interview, the director said this in response:
"Our main focus was to cast the most handsome, cutest and freshest F4, [as opposed to the Japanese and Taiwanese versions] and keep them that way throughout the show,” said director Bae. “Everything else came after that."
In that they succeeded. I've watched the Japanese version, Hana Yori Dango, and it is much better in terms of acting, storyline and character development, but the F4 boys aren't nearly as pretty as the Korean ones. The last episode was Tuesday, much to the dismay of all the females in this country, myself included. However, the show's actors are endorsing everything from cosmetics to cell phones to Dunkin Donuts, so their pictures are plastered everywhere. There's also talk of a sequel. I'm crossing my fingers... The last episode, tear. My new favorite socks, featuring "Gu Jun Pyo" and "Yoon Ji Hoo" You can watch episodes with English subtitles at mysoju.com Be careful, it is highly addictive.
So it turns out I'm really lazy at blogging. I am, however, really good at uploading pictures to my Facebook account and adding lengthy descriptions, so I thought I'd try that out here.
I've been really busy with teaching the past few weeks (my schedule this school year is a lot more hectic, which I like) but I've still managed to get out and about a bit this month. Here are a few highlights:
EV Boys Video Shoot The EV Boys are a group of American English teachers here in Korea that sing funny songs about living in Korea as a foreigner. I saw them perform at Jane's Groove back in December and became a fan. Their song "Kickin' it in Geumcheon" hilariously and accurately describes life as a "waeguk" (foreigner) Check it out: They shot a new video in early March called "We Want Taco Bell." In Korea, the only Taco Bell is on the U.S. military base, so most of us are deprived of Chalupas and Mexican Pizzas. They needed extras for the video, and my friends and I gladly obliged. The shoot was a lot of fun; I've always had a flair for the dramatic and it came out in full force that day. The video will be cut sometime this spring, so I'll post it then.
St. Patrick's Day in Korea On St. Patrick's Day, it was as if all of the foreigners in the country came out of the woodwork to celebrate. I think I saw every foreigner I've met in my 7 months here. It was pretty funny because we showed up thinking we were going to see a parade, and when the parade was going to start, we followed the mob of waeguks dressed in green towards what I thought was the start. After walking around the block for about 15 minutes, I realized that we were the parade. Following the "parade" we ended up back in Marrionier Park (near Hyewha Station) where they had free Guinness and Irish music and dancing. Unfortunately I couldn't stay because I have swing dance lessons every Saturday at 3:30, which brings me to my next picture...
The Swing Bar Ashley dancing with one of the regulars
Ashley and I signed up for another session of swing dance lessons. This time I'm in the lindy hop class, which is a heck of a lot harder than the jitterbug class, but still a lot of fun. This time around Giryoung isn't there to translate for me, so I have to rely on big, exaggerated gestures and the limited English of my instructor, whose Swing nickname by the way is "Dora." I don't have to heart to tell him that's a girl's name. The lindy hop is not only harder to master, but it's more of a work out, which is good, because after all that Thai food on winter vacation, I porked up a little bit. I've also joined a gym in my neighborhood with Kim, and am hoping to be "beach ready" as they say, by summer.
Well, besides watching Boys Before Flowers, teaching, and studying Korean, there's not much else going on right now. After my two trips over winter vacation, I'm kind of broke for a while. In May I'm going on a trip to Jeju Island with my school, so I'm excited for that, but it will involve chaperoning about 400 sophomores. Not exactly a dream vacation, but Jeju is supposed to be beautiful, especially in the spring, so I'm looking forward to it.
Annyong hi kaseyo for now ;)
P.S. Like I mentioned above, I've gotten lazy with blog postings, but I have my students laboring on one instead. I have an after school class of about 15 students, all girls, who spend 3 hours a week learning English with me, voluntarily! They are a great group and I've had a lot of fun with them so far. Here's the blog I'm forcing them to update: http://www.chungdamhs.blogspot.com/
