Still in a Nook

Today was the first lesson of my Advanced Korean class. I’ll be taking it for two months, just like the previous basic and intermediate courses. After that I will decide whether to take the KLPT for an official certificate. Haiya, think until very nice lah, see in the end how first.

This advanced level is a pain to take though. Instead of clearing it in one course, we have three levels within the advanced level itself. Yea I think it’s pretty normal but sz;fjsldfj THE MONEY!!!

So… we have about eight students in total which is a pathetic number. And it turns out that ALL of the classmates are K-pop and K-dramas fanatics. They’re working adults (I presume, from their faces >

The teacher is not the teacher that used to teach us. She’s more demure and polite. And she badly wants the class to converse in Korean. Well I guess the few months of purposely using broken Korean and laughing our asses off didn’t help. HAHAHA

Warning: Read only if you want to know about K-pop culture.

Frankly speaking, when people around me ask about me taking this third language, I absolutely hate it when they assume that K-pop and K-dramas are the reason why I want to learn Korean. I am not that shallow to spend money to learn a language because of a fad okay. And I definitely started to like the music before all the new poppish singers came out.

I really want to beg those people not to come and talk to me (except Shiqi^^*), telling me how much they know about this singer, that drama, because I am generally not interested in how LITTLE they know. They’re only scratching the surface of such an interesting history and it PAINNNNSSS me to see the K-pop industry being tainted by tons of overseas fans.

Not that reaching out to a regional audience is a bad thing, but…

Ever since this Korean Wave thing started, many Korean singers (gasoos) have been travelling overseas to China, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong (China especially), to promote their albums and even recording albums in that country’s language. It’s a win-win situation as that country’s fans are happy and the music companies are making money…

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MUSIC??

Does anyone feel the same as me? Doesn’t anyone think that the music itself is being compromised in a way to make it more mainstream? It seems like when you close your eyes and pretend that a recent K-pop song is being sung in English, it sounds like any other Western singer’s song.

And I seriously wonder what the Korean fans think about this Korean Wave. In our mindset, we really hope that our country’s singers can venture out overseas successfully.

But not many people are aware of such a thing called Korean Pride. It goes a long way back in history when Korea was occupied by Japan and was forced to adapt Japanese culture in their lives.

Using Korean terms or language was punishable and stuff like that. Even the monarchy was abolished and that is why we have ‘Goong’ as a drama and not a reality.

The Korean people were even forced to convert to Shinto, a Japanese religion! Just tell me how do you cope with all this shit if one day Singapore was forced to be like Malaysia and convert to Islam (just an example).

So anyway where was I… ah yes. Korean pride.

Naturally after the war, a strong sense of nationality pride grew in the people and they become very protective of their culture and identity, cos they lost it once after all.

That is why, we see a ridiculous sea of red during World Cup and get awed by the whole stadium going, “DAE~ han min gook! *jak jak jakjakjak*” and totally forget who is the opposing team because the whole fucking stadium is filled with Koreans.

And it also explains the requirement of a ‘Korean security number’ which many online game players know about when they try to play an Korean online game. The implementation of this was to ensure that Koreans and only Koreans could play the game cos well, KOREAN PRIDE you see. -___-

Same thing goes for forums and websites. You cannot post a message or view content unless you join as a member with a Korean ID.

In the dark, though, some desperate game player actually programmed a generator of Korean IDs for simple purposes a few years back.

But I was okay with that during then, since I joined websites to be a silent reader. However what’s pissing me off is the whole fuckload of foreigners joining websites and posting the messages in English and Chinese, using very casual language and asking the Koreans to make the website more accessible for overseas people etc.

It is so ridiculous and babaric that it makes me go batshit crazy in front of my computer.

Just imagine, you have a zen garden with people that you are close to, and suddenly a bunch of aliens barge in, speaking unintelligible language and promptly messing up your sanctuary that you created. Just imagine how the Korean people feel lah! To speak in English is not an easy task and do the babarians know how some of them refuse to speak in English because of their Korean Pride(again)?

Okay, that’s all I have to say. It just pains me to see Korean stuff not so Korean anymore~