Nov/Dec 2019—Ddong and Slang

What I'm Up to

*Sung to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas*
♪ In the month of December my studies asked of me~
5+ boxes to pack
4 AM bedtime
3 long papers
2 demanding finals
and a Con~fucian presentation~~~♪

I had a pretty packed last couple weeks at school, but complaining about that isn't really what I want this blog to be about. I'll just say it took about 1 1/2 weeks after coming back to the US to recover from the not-so-healthy way I treated myself during finals week and from the jetlag. Finally my headache's gone, my neck isn't sore, and I don't wake up at 2 AM hungry for a bowl of cereal anymore. I've also been able to do the things I haven't in 16 months, like bother my cat (with looove), bake, drink proper black coffee, and receive some much needed mommy hugs. Now that I'm feeling healthy again and the busy holidays are over I'm settling in for the next 45-ish days until I return to Korea.

When my family came to meet me at the airport. They're the cutest!

I'll spend most of that time watching as many things as possible in the Korean language, because even though last semester proved incredibly busy, I'm planning for an even more difficult spring semester by taking a class taught in Korean. I figure there isn't much demand in the job market for Korean Studies graduates, but if I can raise my language abilities many new doors will open. Fingers crossed!

Culture Note-Bathrooms

I keep meaning to discuss differences between Korean and American bathrooms, but always decided in the end that pop culture, identity, and foreigner/Korean interactions were more interesting. But there are some things that really took me by surprise when I first came to the country.

1. When I was an exchange student my dorm's community bathrooms had no toilet paper or soap, so I had to get used to taking them with me. I also began carrying them around in my purse, because I found that even the poshest of places were negligent when it came to stocking necessities.
2. Stalls don't tend to have that awkward crack in the door that lets the person on the toilet seat meet eyes with the person at the sink. *shivers*
3. Many bathrooms in homes don't separate the shower area from the rest of the room, so everything gets wet. When I lived in a one-room apartment I always had to place my towel in the far corner when I bathed to keep it from getting soaked.

   

   No place for a shower curtain

   
   
4. I bought my first pair of shower shoes in Korea, which I learned people use inside bathrooms because fungi spreads easily over wet surfaces. It makes sense to have these in public areas but family houses keep them too, and I even bought my own pair when I lived alone. If everyone else used them I should too, right? Besides shpwers, I've also seen people wear shower shoes to make short trips to a convenience store. Last winter, I remember someone came into the GS25 wearing a long, padded coat, while also wearing shower slippers.
5. You'll be hard pressed to find large, body-sized towels. Hand-towels are more common, even to dry yourself after a shower.
6. Korea has lots of heated toilet seats, and often come with a bunch of built-in buttons that someone can opt in on to get their bum extra clean.
7. Squatting toilets. Weird at first, but I actually don't mind them now. They're more sanitary since you don't have to touch anything in the bathroom as much, and they also *ahem* make it easier to go. But it's not a big deal if you don't want to try one. The only places I've found squatting toilets are in subway stations or other high traffic areas, and there's nearly always a seated toilet option as well.

   

   A squatting toilet

8. On a similar note, I get the feeling Koreans don't get as squeamish as Americans when it comes to bathroom talk. I often hear toilet jokes, which are usually more playful than crude. I've even seen some cafés dedicated to poop (똥 "ddong) 💩. Take note of the unique mug design and bread shape in the picture below. 😂 Again, references to and jokes about toilets are cute and silly, rather than crude, so you'll likely find more giggling customers taking fun pictures at this café than people making crass jokes. 
   
   You can see such pictures at Instagram/똥카페/poop cafe (link)
   

Korean Word

This past semester I took a break from formal Korean language education and instead focused on making my speech sound more natural. Through YouTube videos and reality shows I picked up some slang, which I founf were mostly multiple words cut apart and stitched back together. For example, 갑분싸 (kap-boon-sa) appears in situations similar to those we might call, "awkward silences." The word comes from 갑자기 분위기 싸해짐 (kap-ja-gi boon-wee-gi ssa-hae-jim) or, "suddenly the atmosphere becomes bad." 열공 (yeol-gong) means to "study hard," and comes from 열심히 공부하다 (yeol-shim-hee gong-boo-ha-da). I've even learned from a friend new ways to say hybrid-English words like "profile picture" (poo-sa)* and "Starbucks" (seu-beok).**

An example of what 갑분싸 might look like

*Poo-sa comes from the Koreanized English word 프로파일 (poo-lo-pah-ill) and the Korean word for "picture," 사진 (sa-jin)
**Seu-beok is the shortened version of 스타벅스 (seu-tah-beok-seu)

What I'm Listening to

• Hip-Mamamoo (link)
• A jazzy, power vocal group that departs from the sexy-or-cute girl band trend, Mamamoo recently released the song Hip, which articulates the member's real experience with people who make a fuss over silly things like their fashion choices.
  
• Money-Dawn (link)
• One half of the couple kicked out of their agency for dating, Dawn makes his solo debut under a new company with a really cool and soul searching song about the desire for money. It's worth watching just for his artful dancing and facial expressions.
  
• Soso-Winner (link)
• I wanted to include these guys because not only is Soso a great song but I accidently came across this group's promotional fanmeet while out getting groceries. While watching, I realized I'd passed by one of the members before the event began, but at the time I'd just noticed that he looked a bit odd with his blonde hair and makeup. 😂

  

  Winner's fanmeeting

What I'm Watching

• 워크맨 (work man) (link)
• This new YouTube channel has 3.2 million subscribers even though its first upload wasn't until August 16, 2019. It's a fast-paced, hysterical show about a man trying out different part time jobs in Korea.
  
• Whisper Game (link)
• In this game two people listening to music on noise canceling headphones try to describe keywords to each other, leading to lots of screaming and misunderstandings. The game has become so popular it's shown up in various Korean variety shows.
  
• Crash Landing on You (link)
• This new drama (available on Netflix) is as drama-y as you can get. A rich South Korean heiress accidently paraglides into North Korea, where she meets a local soldier who protects her. After finishing up an International Relations class where I learned in detail about the country's nuclear activity and human rights violations, I do worry about the danger of depicting North Korean soldiers in such a rosy light. On the other hand, the narrative does help humanize a people that I and likely many others tend to see as either helpless victims or dangerous enemies. I don't mean to argue that human rights issues in the North aren't despicable or that its citizens aren't in need of dire aid, but the drama does acknowledge that North Korea's inhabitants are humans before they are issues.
• (Update, apparently one of the writers defected from North Korea, so much of the depictions of NK are accurate.)
  
  

What I'm Up To (Photos)

Shot after Samuel Seo's concert (white shirt, middle)

I went to my second proper concert of the year in November, and it was for the same artist I attended the first concert for in July. Going again might sound silly (it certainly did to me at first, so I didn't buy a ticket until a week before the show) but I've been doing more of what makes me happy without overthinking it to the point I'm afraid to do anything. I'm tired of questioning the validity and necessity of the things that excite me; if I always questioned and suppressed those things I'd never have come to Korea. That's actually what happened after graduation when I convinced myself I should get a job in the "real-world," and spent a year being of little help to anyone. It may sound silly to care about musicians, or go to foreign countries, but remember God made the world and said it was good, and invited humanity to continue creating. Making music that I relate to and that expresses something true is an act of creation I'm glad to support, and my own work analyzing and writing about Korea is my contribution to that creation. Let's keep enjoying the world while we try to fix it.

Anyway... Samual Seo had a fansign  after the concert for those who bought his CD and I finally got to meet him! Watch just for the failed high five at the end. 😂 

Me and my signed CD!

Fun English

(I realize these are pretty hard to read. The top left says, "Sunshine my life/ Look under your feet. The great opportunity is where you are. Every place is under the stars." The top right says, "BUT/ Approach from youthful sense/ Core of valuablé things/ Necessary stuff") It's not that the English is always wrong, but sometimes things that sound natural in Korean don't sound so natural when translated, like the top left picture. The top right is just weird though. 

November/December cafes!

 November/December food!

Good to see friends after so long. <3

마무리까지 읽어주셔서 고맙습니다! 다음에 뵙겠습니다! Thanks for reading to the end! See you next time!