Not gonna lie, this is exactly what brought me into the scene of ~Korea~ I remember, it was during a flight to New Zealand, in 2007, when I watched this movie. I really liked it, despite people saying it was lousy, and I especially liked the MV (Wonder Boy by Super Junior) played at the end. On the flight back to Singapore, I watched the movie again and when I got home, I immediately went on YouTube and searched for the MV, as well as find out more about the group.
From then on, I was sucked into the whirlpool of K-pop. It just led on from one fandom, to another, to another, and another. I spent nights after nights watching videos on YouTube and listening to K-pop. I totally loved it, and I still do. Today, I’ve strayed away from fangirling pretty much, but I’m still hooked on to all things Korean. Through K-pop, it sparked my interest in the Korean language, the Hangul system and Korean culture. I was never a language person, seeing how I hated studying Chinese, and never was interested in culture of any sorts. However, something in the Korean culture appealed to me and of course, I won’t deny that K-pop did play a huge part.
Seeing how I was in my 2nd year of Junior College, I had to focus on my studies and hence delayed my learning of the Korean Language. I could barely read or write Korean, but let’s just say my entire of 2008 was spent being a fangirl. Yes, I’m proud of being a fangirl, I’m not ashamed to be one (: Towards the end of 2008, I started gaining interest in other things Korean. I finally got to try Korean food (honestly, Korean food does not look appealing to one who has not tried it! But once you try it, even pictures make you hungry.) and my parents gave us the chance of going to Korea when they agreed for it to be our family trip’s destination. The above picture was taken in Korea!
After spending 2 weeks in Korea – and enjoying every single moment of it – I got more and more attracted to it. Returning to Singapore, I wanted to go back very badly, and I still do. But most of all, I really wanted to learn the language. I didn’t get down to learning it right away, as I contemplated between attending a language school, or just signing up at the community center. Eventually in March, I registered for the Korean Language Stage 1 programme at the CC and began weekly lessons. My teacher is a translator for Korean Air, and a very nice lady (: Our class was quite big, with about 20 students. I picked up the language pretty quickly, as watching numerous Korean variety shows and listening to Korean songs did help a lot. After 12 weeks of lessons, our classes came to an end, but my Korean was still not good, but at least I could construct simple sentences. We had about a month’s break in between before Stage 2 began, and I tried learning Korean online on my own, as well as reading Korean Entertainment news articles etc. I have since completed Stage 2 and most definitely, my Korean has improved by leaps and bounds.
I am an active U-Kiss fan and I run a Singapore-based forum for them, together with a few other (awesome) girls. I’ve died down as a fangirl over this year, although I still do keep up with Korean Entertainment news (: Thanks to running a forum, I’ve taken to translating messages from the members, as well as news articles related to them. It’s definitely helped me to a great extent! I’ve also had chances to interact with other Korean fans (although not much) and of course, learnt a little Internet language ;D
I aim to be able to speak Korean fluently soon, as I realise my Korean abilities are really limited to non-verbal communication. Yes and I’ve been given the chance to go to Korea again at the end of this year! ^^ It’s only been half a year since I started learning Korean (trust me, my Korean skills were really non-existant before that) and I’m trying not to be too ambitious, so I’ll take it slow (: I’m not taking formal classes now, but I go for the Korean Language Program at NTU, which is actually held by our Korean exchange students, and it’s not quite lessons but we learn things from them (:
That’s been a lot of words, more for me to read back next time – I love reading my old posts to see the change – but also to share it. If you’ve read till here… *hands you a cookie*! (:
