Updating on my love for all things Korean...

I've got some K-drama withdrawal symptoms. Finished watching Terroir with the dishy Kim Joo Hyuk as male lead. Yummy! I really like these strong/silent/'masterful' characters. Sadist that I am, I think he's drool-worthy even when he's being mean and nasty to his leading lady Han Hye Jin - whom I didn't really like. Terroir was not bad - although, for something that cost US$6mil to produce though, its low ratings proved to be a real disappointment. Still, I enjoyed the scenes of the lovely French chateaus and countryside. Never was a fan of wine since half a glass will leave me red in the face and slurry already, but this series did perk up my interest.

Now that its over and the OST is downloaded and on permanent repeat in my Zen, I'm chaffing at the bit and wondering what's next. Terroir debuted in Korea late last year, or early this year but it took them this long to get the dvds out here! Looking at TS and Poh Kim, I wonder why they do not move faster to bring in K-dramas earlier and expand their range wider. The answer to that, someone told me, is that only a country bumpkin like me would still watch K-dramas on DVDs. The rest of the civilised world, I was told, has moved on to watch anything and everything under the sun on the internet via highspeed broadband connections!

So I tried hopping to Mysoju once in a while when the urge to catch up with hit K-dramas like City Hall or My Fair Lady hit me. But I have to say that watching dramas in 15min interrupted spurts is really exasperating at the best of times. Plus there are links that might not work and the small screen size really puts me off.

To ease my withdrawal symptoms - general restlessness, insomnia and OD-ing on the dramabeans blog - I am re-watching Delightful Girl Chun Hyang which was what got me hooked on the K-bandwagon in the first place. Happy to say that I still love it! And my expanded Korean vocab (thanks to my songsenim in Korean class!) helps me understand and appreciate it even more. Even K-pop is becoming a bit clearer to me now. Like jigsaws, the bare minimum I have in terms of vocab is helping me piece together a bit more of the picture but there's still much more to learn. Still I am happier with the tiny bits of revelation I get these days when it dawns on me with eureka moments - "Hey, I think I know what she's singing about - ka jok means family! Something about family! Yay!"

I've finished Korean stage 1 already but don't know if I should go for stage 2 since the Japan trip is coming up and I'm likely to miss at least 3 lessons already like this.

Korean stage 1 was interesting. We are taught formal Korean (songsenim says a foundation of formal Korean makes it easier to learn banmal later on) and I can now read and speak simple sentences. VERY simple sentences! Gillian usually hogs my notes when I come back from a class so she's also learning and we do trade simple - VERY simple! - sentences once in a while. In the long run, I think I am likely to take Korean further than the dabbling I've done in other languages like French (never moved beyond stage 1 elementary french) and Italian or Japanese.
Hopefully one day I'll be able to watch a full K-drama without any subtitles!