Korean Names and Terms of Familiarity

Back when I posted about romanization, Reader Melody commented on how it was hard for her to understand names and the words usually connected with names, especially when the subtitles are different than what it sounds like is being said. So I thought it would be a good idea to try to explain some of the points of Korean name and familiarity culture.

Korean names are mostly derived from Hanja (한자), which is the word for the Chinese words used in Korean. Most Korean's have three syllable names; last name, and two syllable first name. Here are some examples and how they are written in Korean:

Lee Minho (이민호)
Choi Siwon (최시원)
Park Siwoo (박시우)
Baek Jiyoung (백지영)

In S. Korea, there are roughly 250 family names in use. Of these names, the most common, Kim (김), Lee (이), and Park (박) consist of about half the population, according to Wikipedia. Since there are a limited number of last names, it makes it a tad bit easier to recognize a name when you hear it.

First name wise, there are a million different ways to make a first name. There are always going to be the most commonly used ones, and those are going to change according to generation, so there's not much I can explain about that. There is one thing that a lot of the older generation did pretty often, and the younger generation does occasionally. Among siblings and cousins, a syllable in their given name is shared. Here's some examples.

Kim Junsu (김준수) and twin Kim Junho (김준호)
Park Yoochun (박유천) and younger brother Park Yoohwan (박유환)

Of course, because of the ebb and flow of popularity, there is going to be names that go out of style, and names that seem fresh and new. Alas, I haven't been able to quantify these names, and so I have no information to give you on this point, other that it does happen.

Now to move on to how the Korean people call each other. A lot of how people address each other has to do with how Confucianism has shaped their culture.

It is considered very rude to call a Korean just just their first name, or even just their full name. There is always another word or syllable attached to their name, depending on the relationship between the two people and on the status of the person being spoken off. Let's start with the basics. I'm going to use my own Korean name -- Tae Ahreum (태아름) -- as one example, and a friend's Korean name -- Kim Myungsoo (김명수) -- as the other.

Between close friends, and parents or grandparents to their children or grandchildren, the syllable 'Ah' (아) or 'Ya' (야) is added to their name. So between close friends Ahreum and Myungsoo, they would call each other Ahreum-ah (아름아) -- because the name ends with a consonant -- and Myungsoo-ya (명수야) -- because the name ends with a vowel.

The next step is between just about anyone you are on the same level with, or someone who is higher level than you.; co-workers, casual friends, a person you just met, etc. The syllable 'Ssi' (씨) is added to the end of either their full name, or just their given name. So between Ahreum and Myungsoo, who are just acquaintances, they would address each other as Tae Ahreum-Ssi (태아름씨) and Kim Myungsoo-Ssi (김명수씨).  With this syllable, there is no change depending on consonant or vowel.

Then we have the terms Goon (군) and Yang (양) for addressing a generally young man and young woman respectively. Usually used by older or higher level people towards younger or lower level people. So if someone like a neighborhood grandma were addressing Ahreum and Myungsoo, she would call them Tae Ahreum-Yang (태아름양) and Kim Myungsoo-Goon (김명수군).

For working people and co-workers, people are usually address by their name with their title. So let's say Ahreum is a teacher (선생) (seon-saeng) and Myungsoo is a CEO (사장) (sa-jang). They would be addressed as Tae Ahreum Teacher (태아름선생님) and Kim Myungsoo CEO (김명수사장님). The extra syllable added at the end there is the honorific syllable added to the end of titles and is pronounced somewhere between Nim and Neem. If the person you are addressing is below you in status or age, then you would leave that off.

Of course, not everyone always calls people by their name. There are tons of different ways you can address a person, without using their name. So, let's use our two examples and explore those different name. We'll start at the bottom again.

If Ahreum and Myungsoo were siblings -- last name disregarded -- chances are one of them wouldn't call the other by their name. If Ahreum was the older, then she would call Myungsoo by his name (Myungsoo-ya/명수야) and Myungsoo would call her 'older sister' or Noona (누나). But if the situation were reversed and Myungsoo was the older of the two, then he would call her by her name (Ahreum-ah/아름아) and she would call him 'older brother' or Oppa (오빠). Of course, there are more, however. If both Ahreum and Myungsoo were boys, then the younger one would call the older one 'older brother' or Hyung (형). Or if they were both girls, then the younger one would call the older one 'older sister' or Eonni (언니).

These are not reserved just for siblings, either. It works between cousins and friends as well. And Oppa and Noona work between romantically engaged couples, too. So say Ahreum and Myungsoo were dating. Chances are Ahreum would call Myungsoo Oppa, instead of his name, especially if she was trying to be cute. And if Ahreum was older than Myungsoo while dating, then he would probably call her Noona.

Because the family is such an important thing to the Koreans, they have many different terms for family members, according to how the person is related to the speaker. It goes so far as to having a specific word for your father's older brother's wife! Since there are too many to name, I'll just say that a lot of these terms aren't really used in most dramas, unless you happen to be watching a soap opera, and then they are all over the place.

And these are all just the very basic names and familiar terms, there are plenty more and it would probably take a dozen posts to cover them all. But I think, at least for now, these are enough to keep people afloat while watching the dramas.

Is there a certain topic about Korean culture or language that you would like to know more about? Let me know in the comments, and I'll try to answer your questions in future posts!

Sorry for how long this post was, and if you made it to this point, thanks for reading!

The Master's Sun or How to do a Drama Right

Picture found at DarkSmurfSub.com

I just finished one of the most well done dramas I have ever seen. Considering I watched it immediately after watching one of the worst dramas ever, this is pretty fantastic, and revived my faith in the greatness of Korean dramas.

The drama is called The Master's Sun (주군의 태양) and is one of the great ones. It aired at the same time that Two Weeks did in the fall, but while I made the decision to watch Two Weeks at the time, I almost wish I had watched this one instead. Of course, it turned out better this way, because I got to watch it with subtitles, which is much better in my opinion because then I can understand everything, instead of just half of the things.

First, a description. The Master's Sun is about a woman named Tae Gongshil (태공실) who can see ghosts, and has been living a life hiding from the scary ghosts as best she can. Then she meets the owner of a large mall, named Joo Joongwon (주중원). And after accidentally touching him, she realizes that he makes the scary ghosts disappear. So, in order to try to escape the scary ghosts, she clings to him and does everything she can to get into his life so that she can use him when she is scared. A lot of hilarious things happen along the way, and in the end they fall in love and end up happily ever after.

The first thing I want to say is the pacing of this drama was spot on. Remember how I talked about how poorly done the pacing was in Nail Shop Paris? This was most definitely not the case with The Master's Sun. Everything that was revealed came out naturally and at the proper beat along the story-line. And I was paying attention to that because that's one of the things I'm trying to work on in my own storytelling right now.

Next, the characters. There was a large cast of characters with a fairly tangled web of relationships. Not nearly as many as The Heirs, but still. It was interesting to see how everyone was related and how everyone had a part to play. Now, I loved almost every single character. There was the one bad girl who was the ultimate villain in the story who I didn't like, but she made a good villain and a good counter point for the main character that it was okay. However, other than her, I loved every single other character, which doesn't happen very often. Every character had a weakness and a secret, they weren't all perfect, and they all made mistakes. But they all did the best they could with what they had, and everyone -- except the bad girl who ended up in jail -- had a happy ending. I have never seen a drama end with this many couples before.

And the two main characters, oh be still my heart. There was actual, visible character development, and it was so wonderful to watch these two progress and become better people because of meeting each other. Because that's what love is supposed to do. And that's what I love to see. It happens quite often in K-dramas; the girl meets a guy who isn't very nice or looks down on her, etc., and through her love and the thing that happen he becomes a better person. But I've never seen any drama that has really taken it to the level that this drama was.

Because sometimes the characters change in unrealistic ways, or they don't change very visibly. But Joo Joongwon changed a lot because of the girl, and he changed in a way that fit his character and seemed natural. And then there was Tae Gongshil, who also changed. And I loved seeing how she went from being a scared, lonely woman who never did anything to a bright, happy woman who was willing to go after the man she wanted. It was beautiful transformation, and one of my favorite kinds.

One of my favorite thing to do nowadays when I watch K-Dramas is to play 'can you spot the K-drama trope' and this one was a gold mine. There was just about everything from the protective mother figure who doesn't like the main girl, someone ending up in the hospital, someone getting amnesia, a funny scene involving a bathroom, to the nasty rich woman who tries to steal about the main guy. It was great.

A lot of people in my circle of friends dislike K-Dramas with a passion. From my questioning and investigation, the only reason I can come up for this dislike is they are all desensitized to violence and sex, cynical about life, and used to American TV shows. For me, however, The Master's Sun reminded me of all the reasons I love K-dramas.

I would recommend this drama to anyone who loves K-Dramas, however I'll also put up a warning: This drama is not for the faint of heart. Seriously, a lot of the ghosts are cringe-worthy and I found myself jumping in my seat just as much as the main girl. A lot of times in the beginning, the filming style was like a horror. So if you don't like scary things, I wouldn't recommend watching it.

Except I really would, because the ending is totally worth it.

This drama made me laugh more times than I can count, cry more than I have in a while, and cheer louder than I should have at 1AM. It was definitely worth the time I spent watching it, and chances are I will be watching it again.

So, dear readers, do you have a favorite drama that you go back to over and over again? Even when you know you should be watching something new? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

How Not To Do A Drama

Note: This might have a few spoilers. I apologize in advance.

Last week I watched a short drama, sort of to pass the time since I'm still getting used to being on the night shift again. It's an unusually short drama, only 10 episodes, called Nail Shop Paris. It has an interesting concept of a internet story writer disguising herself as a man -- a common trope in K-Dramas -- to get a job at a nail shop, where only men work -- another common trope -- in order to be close to the muse of her latest story. It has the usual flock of flower boys that are included in this kind of drama, and I really enjoyed watch it. It was a train wreck from the start, but still fun to watch.

So the story is Yeo-Joo is a writer who was recently accused of plagiarism and needs to write a new story that will clear her name. After her roommate Ji-Soo suggests she go people watching to find her next story she witnesses a man rescue a woman in the subway from a crazy person, and she decides to follow him. Turns out this man is Alex, a man who works as a manicurist at a high end nail salon. Yeo-Joo decides she wants to get close to him to find out more about him. Fortunately the nail salon is hiring. Unfortunately it is only hiring men. So of course she disguises herself as a man and joins the crew at the nail salon where she meets Kay, the resident ice prince, and Jin, the 'smiley angel.'

And then of course, wacky things happen because this is a woman pretending to be a man in a nail salon.

Throughout most of the drama, I liked it. It was a weird kind of like, because of how bad a lot of it was. I mean, there was a lot of good, but the bad and the underwhelming got in the way. It was a fun, mostly fluffy feel good kind of drama, which I like sometimes, and I liked enough of the characters to care about what happened to them Though looking back, that might have been because of the actors, not the characters themselves. Like people say, hindsight is 20/20.

While this was a good, light drama to watch, it was also the first drama I've come across that I ended up not liking in the end. Here's why.

Mostly, it was the final episode and the ending. It was horribly rushed, and they tried to fit three different very huge revelations in the last ten minutes. It was confusing, and poorly done. If things had been  spread throughout the last half of the drama, instead of the last half of the last episode, then I might have liked it better.

Then there was the main character, Yeo-Joo. She was a good character, I guess. I can't really pinpoint anything specific that I didn't like about her, but as the drama went on I didn't like a lot of the things she did and she just didn't seem like a very strong person. By about the middle of the drama I realized I didn't consider her as female at all. Maybe it was just that she actually looked male, or maybe it was that she rarely acted feminine. Even when she was with people who knew her secret, she still acted the same. And then in the last two episodes when she finally did start acting more like a girl, it felt flat and forced.

Then there was the romance. Honestly, I felt a bit conned by the end, because I had gone into the drama assuming one thing, and it ended up completely different in the end. I'm usually pretty good at picking out who the lead guy is, and who the girl's going to end up with. Not so with this one. The usual signs were there, but they were almost like false signs. So the one I thought throughout the whole drama was the second string guy -- Kay -- turned out to be the lead guy. That left me with a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth. And on top of that the love triangle wasn't handled well at all. First, the 'main guy', Alex treated her like a loved little brother for most of the drama, and then suddenly BAM! he has deep feelings for her as a woman.

And the real main guy, Kay, did one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. Near the end, when it was getting close to the time for Yeo-Joo to chose which guy she ends up with, both guys know that she's a girl, and both guys know that the other guy likes her. But Kay has been dating her, sort of secretly, and it's only been recently that Alex started liking her, or at least showing that he liked her. And when Alex, in his own way, said that he would give up for Kay, Kay got all pissed off and claimed that he didn't want to be seen as pathetic. For some strange reason. And demanded it be made into a contest. What?

The other thing that really got me in the end was she didn't end up having to really chose between the two guys. She ended up getting to keep both of them, which to me felt like cheating. Much like how the Twilight series ended, the girl got everything in the end. Which is not how it is in real life. There is always going to be a loser in real life, and sometimes I wish dramas would show that. Yes, we all want to know that the other guy or the other girl gets a happy ending too, but not if it weakens the rest of the story. And plus, all I could think of how hard it must have been for Alex to continue being around the woman he loved while she was with another man. So not only did it not make sense, but it caused pointless heartache for the second string guy, when it should have just been ended cleanly so he can move on and find someone else.

Of the two guys in the love triangle, I much preferred Alex, the guy she didn't end up marrying. He was softer, gentler, and always put others first. Always. Even when it came to the girl he loved. I would have chosen him, instead of the other guy who was jealous and anxious and picked on the girl, even after they got together.

But then, that's just me.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the drama, for all it's faults. It was entertaining to watch this train wreck of a drama, and there was a lot of things that I did like about it. I might watch it again in the future, if only to watch Alex, but I will most definitely not watch the last episode. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

So, dear readers, have you ever watched anything -- K-Drama or not -- where you hated the ending? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Marathoning Dramas, or How I Switched My Schedule

Since my job is a twenty-four hour manned position, occasionally I have to work the night schedule. It's exactly the opposite the day schedule, except I have to live like a vampire, sleeping during the day and waking when the sun goes down. It's what I did for the first few months on the job, and now after a few months of day shift, I'm moving back to the night shift.

In order to do this, I have to switch my schedule around. I don't know how other people do it, but most of the time I stay up 24 hours, pass out when morning comes again, and that's it. This time around wasn't quite as easy as the time I switched to days, but it was still easier than the first time I switched to nights. And since I have recently re-discovered Hulu as a way to watch K-Dramas over here, then this time I decided to marathon a new drama as a way to keep myself awake.

Honestly, not the best choice I could have made.

First, I decided to watch Who Are You, which is one that came out over the summer, 2013. Because I wasn't connected to Drama Fever, my normal way to watch dramas, I didn't know that this one existed until later in the year, and I was smacking myself for not seeing it before. It stars Ok Taecyeon as the main guy, who is one of the rappers from the K-Pop group 2PM, and So I-Hyeon as the main girl, who also started in Heartstrings and Cheongdam Dong Alice. It's about a policewoman who wakes up from a coma able to see ghosts and her journey in figuring out how she got put into a coma, why she sees ghosts, and how she can help the ghosts that appear to her. The whole thing is equal parts comedy and melodrama, with a healthy dash of horror.

Second, watching this drama over the last two days has certainly been an emotional roller coaster. One moment I'm laughing at how silly and goofy and adorable Taecyeon is, and the next I'm weeping at how heartbreaking the main girl's story is. Of course, most dramas are like this. The first half of the drama is full of comedic situations and all the things to get you to fall in love with the characters and care about them. Then the second half is all about taking everything away and making the main couple really work to be together, which usually entails heartbreak, misunderstanding, outside forces working against them, etc.

I just finished watching the second to last episode, and a very important ghost character finally left. It was so heart-wrenching that I cried -- as I tend to do a lot while watching good dramas. More on that later -- and then I just didn't feel up to doing anything. I haven't watched the last episode, and I've been kind of moping around my room without purpose. This seems to be a pattern of mine.

But I've gotten off track.

So, I'm now on a weird night schedule, and probably will be for a couple of months, if not more. Watching this drama has helped me stay awake while making the transition, even if it left me kind of down, and I recommend watching it, if only because it is such a well done drama. And it's got Taecyeon.

So, dear readers, have you ever had to work on a weird schedule? What did you do to make the switch? Tell me about it in the comments!

As always, thanks for reading!

You, Who Came from the Stars

In the void left by The Heirs ending on SBS here in S. Korea, a new drama has started. In Korean it's 별에서 온 그대, and the English translation is You, Who Came from the Stars. Since I needed a new drama to watch, and now had my Wednesday/Thursday drama slot open, and because the ever handsome Kim Soohyun is the star, I decided on this particular drama. And from the first moment I knew I had chosen right.

Sometimes it takes me a few episodes to really get into a drama. Sure, the handsome guys sort of keep me coming, just to watch them, but after getting through the first few episodes the actual story and other characters have to interest me, or else I stop watching. And with Stars, man. It was love at first sight.

The story is about an alien who came to Earth -- and S. Korea -- 400 years ago and has been living in S. Korea, waiting for the next opportunity to return home. Except he has now fallen in love with the biggest Hallyu star in Korea. At least, that's the story. He hasn't fallen for her yet. If you're curious, Hallyu is the word used to describe the wave of Korean media spread throughout most of Asia and some of the world. Like K-Pop and the K-Dramas. I have a blog post about that planned for the future.

So far, I've only see tfour episodes of this new drama, so I can't really explain what it is that has me so enthralled. Other than Kim Soohyun, I mean. I haven't see enough to figure it out myself. I know that I like the female lead, which is important in my book, and I really like the worldbuilding that has been done to give Kim Soohyun super powers, but aside from that, I can't put it into words. I just love it.

Sometimes drama episodes can seem really long. Well, they are really long, compared to American TV. And sometimes it is kind of boring, so I glance at the clock to see how much time I have left. Or it's really exciting and I want to check the clock to see how much time I have left. Either way, I'm looking at the clock to see how much time I have left.

During thee out of four of the episodes I've watched so far, my eyes have been so glued to the screen I haven't even thought to look at the clock. Which of course leads to surprise and a little bit of outrage when the episode ends seemingly out of the blue because I wasn't paying attention to the time. But the drama is just too good to complain about something like that. The fourth episode was just tad boring, with a lot of talking and discussing a death that happened. 

I highly recommend watching this drama, at least so far. There are still seventeen episodes to go, but I have a feeling it will continue to be good. And who doesn't want to watch Kim Soohyun and his amazing acting? (You can't see it, but I'm smiling like a goof just thinking about Kim Soohyun.)

What K-Drama are you currently watching? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

K-Dramas or How The Heirs Blew Me Away

It's no secret that I love watching Korean Dramas. Not many Westerners do, so whenever I talk about them at work I always get people telling me how dumb or clique or silly or any other adjective that described their dislike. But for me, K-Dramas are a refreshing breeze and are much cleaner than most American TV. There are some American shows that I like, but a lot of stuff now a days are either full of things I don't want to watch or have been going on forever and there is no way I'd be able to watch it all.

K-Dramas though, only last one season of 16-24 episodes. They are like a novel, one story that has a beginning and an end, instead of a series of mini stories that have no ending. I don't get to watch them much anymore, after arriving in S. Korea, because the website I normally watch them on doesn't have the rights to play them in Korea. However, I do get to watch a few when they are playing live. While this is a lot of fun and keeps me from marathoning them like I have in the past, there is the downside of no subtitles, and my Korean isn't that great. It's good enough, but not great.

So far, I've watch two dramas as they aired. The first one was called Two Weeks, and started Lee Min Ki as a former gangster who gets framed for a very violent murder and has to escape the police and the gangsters who want him dead long enough for him to go through a surgery that will save the life of his daughter. It was a very emotional drama and it had a great ending.

Then I watched The Heirs. There was so much expectation going into this drama. First the lead male was played by Lee Min Ho, who is a very popular, very tall, and very handsome actor from the likes of Boys over Flowers and City Hunter. Then the lead male's older brother was played by an actor I recently noticed and fell in love with because of his FANTASTIC deep voice (I'm a sucker for deep voices; must have been all that late night NPR) and his absolutely brilliant smile -- when he happens to smile, anyway. Then there was the second string male, Kim Woo Bin from one of the School dramas, who also has a deep voice and this exotically handsome face that I wasn't sure about at first but fell head over heels for by the end of the show.

What made me love this drama, other than the wonderful male cast, was the writers turned most of K-Drama stereotypes head over tail. Main guy was good, second string was jerk. Main guy's (real) mom was good. Horrible girl rival mellowed by the end. Etc. Yes, this is a drama about rich teenagers, so there's a lot of pettiness and  teenager-y things, but half the time  the teenagers were all making mature choices and decisions, and then dealing with the consequences like adults. For the most part, anyway. Lee Min Ho had a moment of weakness where he just self-destructed, which was really hard to watch.

But there was a lot of themes of different kinds of love, repairing relationships, and family throughout the whole drama, as well as a good thread of becoming better people and learning to get along. It was so phenomenal that I will most definitely buy it and watch it again, and this time hopefully be able to understand a lot more about motivations and the like, most of which I missed because they used vocab I am not familiar with.

If anyone wants to watch a good, cutesy romance that is a refreshing change from most out there, this is the one to watch.

The only problem I really had was with the English in the first two episodes, which are set in L.A. S. Korea's idea of what American's are like is really sad and depressing.

Have you seen The Heirs? Have you seen anything else with the main actors, Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye? Tell me what you thought in the comments!

Thanks for reading!