New video! Another podcast video where we chat about some topics. These are the easiest videos to edit at the moment and luckily Yul is happy enough to be in our arms quietly while we talk.

I’m terrible at remembering names in English, and even worse at remembering them in Korean. I don’t remember the names of so many of Hugh’s friends, so when talking about them he either uses nicknames like “Jewellery shop guy” or takes the time to explain how we know that person in particular.

Hugh also has picked up some Aussie ways of identifying people, especially if they have the same name as other friends. We know a “Jenny Jenny”, as opposed to “Microwave Jenny”. That’s an Australian movie reference there… please guess what movie that’s from in the comment section!

Hugh and his sister watched this drama, so I saw bits and pieces of it but didn’t watch all of it. I was glad to see that a popular drama has a lead male that wasn’t another rich son of a CEO, like almost all other dramas. Apparently it has sparked an interest in men in the special forces though.

What I find a bit ironic is that now there is this interest in how soldiers speak and even some women (who don’t have to do compulsory military service) have started trying to talk like a soldier. Previously, men who finished their service could be self conscious about their automatic soldier speech, especially because people might make fun of it. But now it was in a drama, it’s suddenly “cool”. How fickle people are…haha.

Speaking of name changes, it used to be hard to change your name in Korea, but these days it is quite easy. I don’t think Hugh should change his name though…

Korean dramas are watched by people all around the world. They can be so addicting! If you are visiting Korea and really want to get a glimpse of one being filmed we recommend going to Sangam DMC in Seoul. This is where all the big networks are and they often use the surrounding area for filming. Scenes that are supposed to be set in the evening are often filmed at 2am on the empty streets. But we’ve seen plenty of scenes filmed around 10 or 11pm. Many car scenes are filmed at night, but we caught one being filmed during the middle of the day. Because Korean dramas are filmed so quickly and the show starts being shown on TV before the filming is even finished, you may actually catch one you are currently watching being filmed.

He tries to say that he doesn’t watch Korean dramas, but he does sometimes. He has been binge watching the drama ‘Oh My Ghostess’. He disappeared for several hours last night and I eventually found him watching it. I had been resting after my operation and was stumbling around trying to find him.

Health Update: I’m still recovering from my operation and just waiting on pathology results to see if the cysts they removed were cancerous. At this point the doctor says it’s unlikely they are, which is good news.

We answer your questions about Korean dramas. There is always lots more to say on all these topics, but never enough time. If you’d like us to elaborate more on a certain answer just leave a comment and we’ll try to reply.

Some extra thoughts:

I really do feel that schools can vary a lot based on where the school is and the type of school. Hugh definitely had a more wild time at school than I did, even though I went to school in Australia. His school was considered more of a technical high school where students weren’t going to go to top universities anyway. He literally drank alcohol on school grounds. In this area we can see that teenagers are probably way more promiscuous too. We’ve been in restaurants where teenagers next to us were talking about sexual things in a very crass way. Compare that to many other schools where people are very shy around the opposite sex. Especially if someone goes to an all boys school, or all girls school. When we did this video with Jongdae he talked about just never even having the opportunity to meet girls. Hugh says lack of students and money means that the highschool in this area was co-ed and there was less pressure on students to study hard, so teenagers end up being…. teenagers. There is some truth in teenagers in dramas being ridiculously awkward, but when people in their 20’s are like that, it’s super unrealistic.

Also, of course not every guy is going to be doing an “event” for his girlfriend, but it’s completely normal if a guy does. Korea also has that push and pull idea with dating which means that guys are expected to be very persistent if they really like the girl.

Were any of these answers in the video surprising to you?

Korea is an awesome place, but how some people in the international Kpop and Kdrama communities talk about Korea can more harm than good. Of course Korean tourism plays a part as well. We’ve heard of people coming to Korea and expecting to meet a rich handsome guy exactly like in a drama and when that doesn’t happen, they go back to their own country angry and disappointed and hating Korea. We get a lot of emails and messages, and many of them are worrying to us because of the high pedestal some people place Korea on. I know that many of you have a very balanced view of Korea, so you might be surprised that there are people with such extreme ideas about Korea, but we are seeing it more and more. In particular, I think people from countries where they may lack a sufficient education are particularly at risk, as they lack the skills to research and understand on their own. It’s easy to get caught up in the glitz and glamor that is presented internationally about Korea, which can lead to disappointment in the long run.

For international Kpop fans, they may be surprised to hear how little people actually listen to Kpop. There are the huge groups that people know about, but mostly Kpop is for teenage girls, and even then those girls will have one favourite group, not several. It’s odd to many Koreans when they see international Kpop fans liking so many groups at the same time. It may be hard for some fans to hear but your favourite Kpop group may attract very little attention in Korea. That’s why some Kpop stars go onto TV shows, because it’s a much bigger platform for them to attract attention that may trickle down to the Kpop group they are in. That’s not to say that there is no Kpop in Korea, you’ll hear it all the time, being played in stores and you’ll see the bigger groups in advertising and of course you may have the chance to go to a concert, but Korea is not magical Kpop land.

We talked about many other things in this video but had to cut a lot. One thing we had to cut but will talk about later is how the international community talks about Korean military service and the problems with that.

This is definitely something that doesn’t bother me while I’m in Korea, but if we were living in Australia in our own place I’d have all the paper in the “right places”. Since my parents usually have Koreans boarding with them my mother has made a rule of no toilet paper in the kitchen. While it’s natural for Koreans to have it with them while cooking, it’s too odd for Australians to be using it as much a multipurpose thing.

We do have kitchen towel in the kitchen at my inlaws house here, but I think I use it more than anyone. I use it when cooking and as a serviette/napkin while everyone else is using the toilet paper. Having meals in Korea is vastly different to what I grew up with as well because the style of eating is so different. I would definitely fold the napkins into nice shapes and place them on the plates for nice dinners or when we had guests in Australia.

What Hugh said about sometimes using newspaper for toilet paper as a child was surprising for me. It is interesting to see how different our childhoods were.

Let us know what other stereotypes are always in Korean dramas. Also let us know if you want us to talk more about Korean dramas, in particular about what some things mean in the context of Korean society.

Been dealing with some health problems recently which is why we missed Friday’s comic and video. Sorry guys!

There are lots more things to talk about, so for those wanting to discuss it, feel free to talk about it here, or over in the comment section on YouTube.