Hugh and Jongdae talk about if Korean guys stop their university studies in order to do their compulsory military service. Those that follow Kpop and Kdramas would be very aware that Korean men have to do their military service, but they might not realise what age are usually doing it at. Kpop stars and actors usually delay their military service because of their careers, often waiting until the last possible allowed time to do it, so it may seem like Korean men do their service in their late 20’s. Usually though, Korean men are doing it at a much younger age and usually when they are in university.

It’s great to do videos with Jongdae because he is much younger than Hugh, Daniel and Han, AND he hasn’t done his military service yet, so he gives another perspective. If you have more questions for him, please leave them in the comment section!

This is something I’m quite curious about. Mr Gwon has no desire to ever wear that army camouflage ever again and said his friends, who have also done their service, have an aversion to it as well. Some say they have an “allergy” to anything military looking because compulsory military service is so stressful and difficult. Some refuse to ever buy the brands that are used in the military, even though they are just a completely normal brand outside the military too. For example, they won’t ever buy a brand of skin lotion if it was the one they had to use while doing their compulsory military service.

However, I see that military camouflage patterns on clothes and bags all the time in Korea! I’m wondering whether only younger guys who haven’t done their military service yet are the ones buying it? Let me know in the comment section, if you are a Korean guy and you’ve done your service, do you still wear clothes with a military camouflage pattern? Or do you never want to wear it again?

In regards to this type of military looking clothing, what is it like in your country? Is it often used in fashion or is it shunned?

Something we didn’t mention in the video was WHY Korean men have to do compulsory military service but I think most people are pretty aware of North Korea. South Korea and North Korea are still technically at war because a formal peace treaty was never signed. With such an unpredictable and unstable threat right across the border, South Korea needs a very large military force. If there wasn’t compulsory service they wouldn’t have the manpower. The issue of ending compulsory service does comes up, but with provocations every now and then from North Korea it’s very hard to even just scale it back a bit. However, the Western media always blows up the North Korea issue, so don’t think North Korea is going to launch huge attacks or anything like that.

It is interesting how people’s perceptions and views are formed by the country they grow up in. Many people understand the need for the military but there are others from countries that have no military and have a very negative view of the military that are critical of anyone who does military service. I think it’s very unfair to judge those that have to do compulsory service and it’s best to have a balanced view. Korean men that do their service don’t necessarily agree with all decisions made by the military, it doesn’t mean they agree with war, but it’s their national duty.

You get very used to the military presence in South Korea. Everywhere there are men in uniform and military vehicles and get a bunch of Korean guys together and inevitably the topic of military service will come up. Men that don’t do their service become excluded from these conversations, can find it hard to connect to other guys and can even not be hired for jobs because they didn’t do it. When the majority of the male population have given up 2 years of their life for their country, it’s important for them to see that Kpop idols are doing it too.

So what we said in the video was just our guess about Big Bang – that at least some members will likely enlist after their comeback (“comeback” in the Kpop sense of the word).

Rachael wasn’t ready when he yanked it like that.

If you aren’t sure who Rachael is, we’ve interviewed her before:

Big thank you to everyone who came to the meet up! Was so nice to see everyone.

There may not be as many comics this week because we are very busy preparing for our move to Korea. We are also filming as much stuff as we can, like the Ask Korean Guys videos because we won’t be able to see Han and Sophie for several months.

He told me this story because of the Titanic thing the other day. There are a lot of really boring times when doing military service so they like to act out scenes from movies to pass the time. Of course it made sense to do Titanic scenes because they were on a ship! The poor guys who were new were bossed around by those in a higher position and made to do things like this!