KoreanClass101.com Blog

In last week’s entry, I mentioned briefly how Korean artists, at least those of the pop music scene, often branch out into acting and other such activities between - or even during - albums. This week, I thought I would expand on that.

Something that I always found interesting to note about many artists in the pop music scene is that they aren’t just singers, but entertainers. Many of them at least dabble in acting, while many others have an acting career that seems to be as much a priority as their singing career. Their extra activities don’t stop there; some of the most popular artists can be seen on variety shows week after week, and many also take up positions as radio show hosts and music program MCs, or even have their own TV shows.

I really don’t know where these people get all that energy from. They seem to be doing everything all at once, and I think I’d die just from half a day in their shoes, I really do XD

I think it’s a pretty smart move on the one hand, since it keeps people interested, it keeps your fanbase with new things to constantly be involved in or keeping an eye on. In the case of dramas and movies, it can bring new script writers or new actors into public eye due to everyone watching because of a bigger name in the cast. For variety shows and programs with MCs, it can raise the ratings and viewers, and with radio shows, it can increase listeners, and both of these things are of course best for the company running it.

It’s also a great way to gain international fans. Korean dramas air in many other Asian countries, as well as in other countries that may have cable TV and the right channels. I’ve known quite a few people who haven’t been into Korean music, but have been into Asian dramas, and have ended up being fans of an artist because they saw him in a drama, went to find out more about him and realised he was a singer, and tried some of his music and really enjoyed what they heard.

I also think it’s kind of good that they have something to “fall back on”, and as well as that I think it’s just good that they get to have that sort of experience, they get to branch out and do something different, and decide just how much importance they want to place on it in their career.

So if anyone is interested in checking out some singers-turned-actors … here’s a few of my favourites! What are some of yours?

정지흔, better known as 비 or Rain, is one of my favourite singers as well as one of my favourite actors. He has starred in four TV dramas: Orange, 상두야 학교가자! (Sang Doo! Let’s Go To School), Full House, and 이 죽일놈의 사랑 (A Love To Kill, or Ijuksa … my favourite k-drama!) He’s also starred in 싸이보그지만 괜찮아 (I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK), a movie directed by my favourite movie director, Park Chan-wook, the guy behind amazing movies such as Oldboy (awesome movie!). 비 also has a part in the upcoming Hollywood movie Speed Racer, directed by the Wachowski brothers, and I believe it’s scheduled for release in early May this year.

윤은혜 (Yoon Eun Hye) is probably one of my favourite female celebrities. She used to be a member of the girl-group Baby V.O.X, but now she’s mostly an actress. In fact, I didn’t even realise she used to be a singer until sometime last year when it finally clicked. She’s acted in the TV dramas 궁 (Goong, or Princess Hours), 포도밭 그 사나이 (The Vineyard Man) and 커피프린스 1호점 (The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, a favourite of mine last year). She also starred in the movie The Legend of Seven Cutter also known as Escaping Charisma.

문정혁, better known to Shinhwa fans as the group’s leader Eric Mun, has been in the TV dramas Breathless, The Phoenix, Super Rookie, and Que Sera, Sera (another one I enjoyed last year, even if I did want to strangle the script writers at the end!). He also had a small part in the movie A Bittersweet Life (I love that movie!), and was the co-star in Diary of June which is also known as Bystanders. That movie had a pretty powerful message about bullying, you should take a look if you get the chance!

이민우 from Shinhwa, and rapper/funnyman 하하 both starred in the movie 원탁의 천사 (or Holy Daddy). I really, really adore this movie, it’s hilarious but also really touching. They’ve both also acted in other things, but for me 원탁의 천사 is the one most worth mentioning.

You can also find a bunch of artists acting in the sitcom Nonstop (also known as Rainbow Romance). That one has been going on for ever, I think since 2005? In the past, it’s had people such as Tablo from Epik High, Andy and Minwoo from Shinhwa, Yoon Eun Hye, and I think the current season has Kim Kibum and Kim Heechul from Super Junior, both of who have also acted in TV dramas.

There’s also something called Banjun Drama, or Reverse Theatre I think was another name for it. These are basically just short little episodes, each one unrelated, and each one has a “reversal”, some kind of odd twist in the storyline that completely turns things around. Lots of artists have participated in these, including members of Shinhwa, all of TVXQ, Bae Seul Gi, Kim Junghoon, MC Mong and Kim Jong Kook.

As for radio shows, I don’t listen to any but I do know that ballad singer 성시경 has one called 푸른밤, 그리고 성시경입니다. Super Junior’s Eeteuk and Eunhyuk host Super Junior Kiss the Radio (Sukira), and Yesung hosts (hosted?) M.I.R.A.C.L.E for You, and Kangin was hosting a radio show as well. I think he’s now replaced Tablo on 친한친구 라디오, with Jo Jungrin.

So there you have it. Korean pop singers are very busy people, and there is a lot more to their career than just singing.

We spent yesterday travelling to San Francisco to pick up a Korean boy who will be staying with us for the next four months. He is 11 years old (양력으로). To me this seems very young to be away from home for that length of time, especially to be staying with relative strangers. However, as I understand it, this practice is fairly common in Korea. While we are not doing a business, the “home stay” market is quite large.

We had two home stay children a couple of years ago with limited success. What I mean by that is that the parents sent their children here to America with the hope that their children’s English speaking ability would improve and thus increase their educational opportunities in the future. Most of these programs, as far as I can tell, deal with groups of kids in a very structured program. Thes kids do not get a signifcant amount of real life free-speaking of English. The two students that we had spoke only in Korean to each other and really took advantage of the Korean spoken in my home as well. So, I don’t think that they had as much success as they could have.

The exprience was good though, and it helped expose my children to the Korean language more. (This kind of learning is a two-way street after all.) The boy staying with us now seems to have some good English skills and a willingness to talk and fit into our family. Both of these qualities should ensure that he has a successful stay here (and that we don’t suffer with an uncooperative child…).

What do you think, is 11 too young to spend tht much time away from home? How would you feel about sending your (hypothetical) child away like that? And, do these programs really work or do they just make the parents feel that way? I think everyone should experience another culture directly, I just don’t know if someone that young can appreciate it.

These days, Korean students are in the middle of 겨울방학 (winter vacation) so things are pretty quiet around the orphanage.  Kids go home (remember that some of them still have parents) and a few are away on some sort of school trip.  I also haven’t been around there as often as I usually am since my own schedule is a bit different right now.

It must be pretty boring for them.  Since they aren’t in school, they stay home all day.  It’s too cold/dangerous to play outside, so they are stuck watching TV, or maybe going to the computer lab.  For many of them, that is their day!

I’m sorry there isn’t much else to report.  I hope to get a new video made with some of them this week, and have it up for the next post.  I could get them to make a video that would tie into one of the recent KClass lessons.  Anything in particular you’d like the kids to help you with?  Let me know!

Earlier this week we announced the launch of the Hanja Vocabulary feature in our PDF’s. Today, we are glad to announce the much anticipated release of a new premium features which is sure to take your speaking skills to new heights.

Pronunciation Practice
To address speaking practice, we have integrated a state-of-the-art software to allow you to record your own voice so you can compare your pronunciation to our teachers and continue to refine your speaking skills. This feature is available to all active Premium subscribers in the Line-By-Line Audio Transcript page for each lesson in the Learning Center (see screen shot below):

We hope you enjoy this new premium features and as always please let us know what you think.

Team KoreanClass101.com

Hi everyone! What kind of thoughts does the word “January” bring to your mind? These are the first things that come to my mind. Please share with me what January means to you !

I’ve spent the past week wondering what to write about for today’s blog entry. I don’t want to start writing about specific groups or even specific genres for another couple of weeks, so I was wondering for most of the week what I could write about. It’s one of those things where there’s just so much to write about that you end up not knowing what to write at all because you don’t even know where to start

I have that problem a lot XD

But when I signed on today, I found that a couple of artists that I like have released digital singles, and so in that I have found my topic for today

Digital singles - tracks that you can legally download from the artist’s/label’s website - are something that certainly aren’t exclusive to the Korean music industry, but this was where I first realised of their existence, and it seems to be quite a popular thing for artists to do.

I’ve seen them used in a variety of situations, and even though they’re free, I think they’re a pretty clever marketing strategy.

In the case of a new artist, maybe one that hasn’t debuted yet or hasn’t released a full album yet, digital singles are a good way to get exposure with new listeners who may not want to spend money on someone that they haven’t heard much of before. It’s also a handy way to gauge popularity and interest, from being able to see how many times the digital single has been downloaded.

In the case of an already established artist, it’s a good way to keep the interest of the fans between albums. Being frequently in the spotlight is something that is pretty important for continued success, and each country’s artists achieve this in a different way. While the Japanese artists release several singles between albums, Korean artists seem to act in dramas and sitcoms, or appear frequently on variety shows, showing their sides as entertainers rather than just singers. They just don’t seem to release a lot of singles between albums. Some do, but most of the time the artists simply put out a full album, and pick two or three tracks to make MVs of and do performances of, and promote the album as a whole for several months, and then put out a new album. Digital singles are a handy way to fill in the time between albums, especially if the artist is likely to take more than a year to release their next one, or isn’t going to be heavily promoting. It’s also pretty handy if the artist is currently busy with other activities. It’s kind of like “I’m still here guys, don’t worry!”

It’s also a handy way to make special little releases, for special seasons such as Christmas, or for special projects or commercial campaigns, such as 비’s promotions for BMW with the Still Believe digital single, or Drunken Tiger and Jaurim’s collaboration for Spray Love, a campaign (I think with The Bodyshop?) to promote AIDs awareness.

Digital singles also allow the artist and their management to see how things lie with the overseas fans. I’ll use Super Junior’s U single as an example for this one. Although later released as an actual CD single with three tracks, it was first released on SM Entertainment’s website. There were two songs, released seperately over the course of four days. The first track was U, which was downloaded over 1.7 million times. This is a huge amount, considering the fact that Korean albums by the most popular artists very rarely break the 300,000 or 400,000 mark in domestic sales. And through the stats of the downloads, SM Entertainment was able to see the extent of Super Junior’s overseas fanbase.

So, there you have it I think digital singles are a really, really smart thing, for a lot of reasons.

For your reading pleasure my daughter is going to tell us all about her experience at a 찜질방. 

So, in Korea, there are these things called 찜질방. usually, there’s a 목욕탕 there too. When I went to korea a few years ago, a few of my friends had talked about a 찜질방, but I didn’t know what it was, only that it was ‘fun’. So this year I got to find out.

I went there with a couple of my friends and upon entering the building, it appeared to be just a 목욕탕. The person at the counter gave us some  pink uniforms (shorts and a T-shirt kind of thing). Then we went up a few flights of stairs and put our things in some lockers and changed into our uniforms outside of a small 목욕탕. Then we went up more stairs and into a big room. There were people (men, women and children) just lounging around in their unifoms (guys got blue ones) watching one of the two TVs (one had dramas goin on and the other had soccer). The walls were all covered with shiny quartz rocks of all different colors and depicted a mural of some giraffes and jungley things. There was also many small celtic looking doors (like what you wood imagine Snow Whites cottage to have) in the walls with a temperature and the name of the room over it. Some of the doors were just big enough to crawl through, but I didn’t go in, because they looked a little scary. These were usaully the hottest rooms. In the back was a small ‘restaurant’ type thing.

My friends and I went back there and they purchased hard boiled eggs and a salad bowl sized thing of 매실. We watched a drama, then went and sat in one of the hot rooms (70C) for a while. Inside were more murals of a huge sun, (well it was called the sun room). I peeked in at a few more rooms and they were all completely tiled with a shiny rock mosaic. There was one room, called the 얼음방. which was like the inside of a freezer complete with ice on the walls. We pretty much skeedaddled out of there.

The next time I went, we actually sat in the hot room instead of watching Golden Bride, and after I had become sweatier than I had ever been in my whole life, we went and washed off in the 목욕탕. Apparently becoming extremly sweaty helps detoxify your body and is very good for your skin and helps you lose weight. (Everyone in Korea is concerned about losing weight.) All in all it was indeed a fun experience.

I spent my Christmas traversing around Korea, so I’m sorry I can’t tell you what happened on Christmas Day. Perhaps I’ll have some things to report after my next visit. Today I want to share about something I got from them just before my vacation. On Friday that kicked off the winter holiday, my friend Josh and I had a little Christmas party with the elementary boys. We went to Costco, bought some snacks, and rented Harry Potter.

That evening, after dinner, I couldn’t find any of the official orphanage staff. The kids were a little rowdy, and they don’t really listen to us well, so I was looking for a Korean adult. One of the boys told me that 오마 was out “buying clothes.” Seems like a strange errand for 7PM on a Friday, doesn’t it? Anyway, the 6th graders were in charge. That happens a lot actually, and seems to work most of the time, but that is a different topic. Anyway, I soon found out that she had gone to buy sweatshirts for me and Josh! A cool gift. But the really neat part is that each of the boys had written a little card to go with it. Almost each card is identical, they say things like:

안녕하세요? 같이 놀아주었던 것 감사합나다….감기 조심하세요…옷 따듯하게 입으세요

Thanks for playing with me…be careful of colds…dress warmly!

Here’s a great winter phrase to use with your Korean friends. You’ll score big points with it, I promise: “감기 조심하세요” Be careful of colds!

Hi everyone, did you all have a good start of the new year?

From reading the signboard, can you guess what this pub is emphasizing?

If you can, you really understand a lot of Korean! But even if you don’t, don’t worry because it’s an old saying, and it’s only a part of the original saying. The saying goes “배보다 배꼽이 크다.” which means “Your belly button(navel) is bigger than your stomach.”

Korean people say this when someone forgets what’s really important and ends up making or doing more of something that is extra. For example, when you see someone taking a taxi and paying 100 dollars in order to go shopping to a cheaper mall and save 50 dollars, or when you see someone cooking just for three people and buying the amount of ingredients for 30 people :-), you can say “배보다 배꼽이 크네!” or “배보다 배꼽이 크군요.”

And here, it only says 배보다 배꼽, but not Korean people would be confused about what it means because it’s a very common saying that one gets to hear a lot at home or on TV (no one would think “배보다 배꼽이 작다” or “배보다 배꼽이 뭐?̶

So this pub is saying that they provide with more than ten different free side dishes for ordering beer or soju as it’s written on another signboard right next to it. In Korea drinking often means a lot of soju or beer and even more 안주(side dishes), and how much 안주 you’ll get served (along with how good they taste) is an important factor in deciding what pub you will frequently go with your friends!

I decided that for this entry, I would take a look back over 2007 and talk about my favourite releases of the year. I’ll even be linking to some of 2007’s MVs! And a couple of my friends are into slightly different artists, so I even asked them for some of their own highlights of the year, so that I could bring you guys a bit of a variety.

2007 saw the release of a lot of good stuff. I hate to think how much money I’ve spent this year buying new releases as well as older ones.

We’ll start off with a couple of albums that were the highlights of 2007 for me.

(HipHop) The year started off with a bang, with the release of Epik High’s fourth album, Remapping The Human Soul. It was 2 discs packed full of amazing hiphop, and I really, really consider it the best album of the year. My favourite tracks were Fan, 혼 and 피해망상 pt. 1. Even if hiphop isn’t your thing, you should give Epik High a try. I never liked hiphop either, but Epik High are one of my favourite groups, and I have friends who don’t like hiphop but really enjoy Epik High. So, that kinda says a lot.

(R&B) M (이민우 from 신화) released his third album, Explore. It saw M making the transition from singer to a fully-fledged singer-songwriter. Stomp and The ‘M’ Style were two supercharged tracks from this R&B album, and One Last Cry had a bit of an Usher feel to it, nice and smooth.

(Soundtrack) Tablo (from Epik High) and pe2ny teamed up together to form Eternal Morning, releasing the album Soundtrack to a Lost Film, a collection of (mostly) instrumental, soundtrack pieces. Each song was crafted with a different scene in mind, ranging from romantic comedy, to horror, to animated. It’s an absolutely brilliant piece of work, very creative and very original. White and Fingertips were my personal favourites.

(Pop) F.T. Island were one of 2007’s new groups. I adore this group, I really really do. They’re a band, so they play instruments instead of just dancing around, and they have some really nice songs. Cheerful Sensibility was their debut album. If you’ve heard Buzz, these guys sound a bit like that. I really look forward to seeing how these guys are going to progress over the course of this next year. 집착 and FTIsland were great tracks, and 행복합니다 was lovely.

(Ballad, Soul) 박효신 released his fifth album, The Breeze of Sea: The Ballad. It’s absolutely gorgeous, especially 추억은 사랑을 닮아 and Lost, and if you like slower, ballady songs then you should definitely give 박효신 a go. He has quite a distinctive voice and style.

(Soft-Rock/Ambient) 못 released their second album 이상한 계절, also known as Strange Season. 못 were one of my new discoveries this year, and damn; they are fantastic, so if you want to try something that’s sort of soft-rock, sort of ambient, sort of something else, then definitely give 못 a try. They’re a bit like Nell, for comparison.

Really, this year has been filled with good stuff after good stuff, I could sit here and list even more albums that I thought were great, but I’m trying to just keep it at my top picks XD
My friend who is into punk picked Shorty Cat’s I Ain’t Be Controlled as the best album of the year. I don’t like punk at all, so I’ve got nothing to say about it! But from what I’ve heard, Shorty Cat are worth checking out if you’re into punk.

From another friend, this year’s top albums were 뷰렛’s (also know as Biuret) Be Full of Spirit, Beautiful Violet, which is rock with female vocals, and pretty good from what I’ve heard! The vocalist has a really powerful voice. And 노아’s The Soul Singer. I just listened to his single 나란 사람, and wow. It’s a pretty ballad, and he has awesome vocals.

Wow, this post is getting long. I hope no-one minds!

Now we move onto some of this year’s great Music Videos, and I’ll link to the ones that I can find on YouTube. I thought this was a pretty neat way to introduce people to new things, and YouTube has a lot of great stuff on there. Click on the song name to see the MV!

My top picks would be:

Epik High’s Fan. This has got to be the coolest MV ever. Really. I love the way Epik High do their MVs, and this one is definitely my favourite. A girl kidnapsthe object of her devotion; this is a song about the pointlessness of fanatical love.

Eternal Morning’s White. It’s so abstract and odd, I really, really love it. I don’t understand the concept but it left a huge impression on me.

마골피’s 비행소녀. 마골피 caused such a stir when this came out! Totally new, yet her MV had basically an all-star cast, with Heechul, Kangin and Shindong of Super Junior, Yoochun of TVXQ, Park Joon Hyung of g.o.d, Kim Jang Hoon, and an adorable little child actor whos name I’ve forgotten. And yet we still had no clue what 마골피 looked like, or who on earth she was! It was a great way to catch everyone’s attention, though the hype died down after the release of her digital single.

넬’s It’s Okay, from their re-arranged album Let’s Take A Walk. This is such a lovely MV, I love the colours, the way it’s done, just everything about it. 넬 are such a great band.

Moogadang are such a spastic band, and their OAO MV was … very special. This is like crazy pophiphopdance, I don’t even know what you can call Moogadang other than spastic XD They’re really fun!

JYP’s Kiss. I have to throw this one in here because… it’s just so weird. And different. I don’t even know. JYP is a strange, strange man.

Tony An’s Singing That Melody, featuring SAT. This is such a catchy song, I still get the urge to bounce around to it whenever I hear it.

Drunken Tiger’s 8:45 Heaven. I thought this MV was really, really well done, I love the concept of it. And it’s such a sad song, dedicated to his grandmother who passed away.

성시경’s 한번 더 이별. I love this guy, his voice is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for ballads.

손호영’s 하늘에 내 마음이. This was one of my favourite songs in 2007, I was hooked on it the moment it came out.

And finally Anyband’s Talk, Play, Love. This is actually a commercial, for Samsung’s latest model of their Anycall cellphone. But at 9 minutes long, with 4 songs for the campaign and featuring Tablo (Epik High), Junsu (TVXQ), Jin Bora and BoA, I’ll consider it a single and MV XD. Set in a world where music, play and love is outlawed and everyone is enslaved, the four rebels spread their message of “Talk, Play, Love” to set everyone free.

And a personal favourite MV for purely fangirl reasons is 신화’s The Snowy Night because these guys are my favourite group, and this is their latest MV which just shows them recording and being their usual stupid selves xD

Other singles and MVs recommended by my friends are Super Junior T - 로꾸거, 김지은 - 어제와 다른 오늘, I The Tri Top’s - 청개구리, Younha - Password 486, M to M - Tell Me You Love Me, Chaeyeon - My Love and The Nuts - 잔소리.

Wow. What a post. But 2007 was that kind of year, a complete overload of great music. For me, there was a ton of new discoveries. I’m really looking forward to seeing what 2008 is going to bring!