Hurrah for NHK's Gogaku Series...
Apr. 20th, 2005 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkan...for they combine the fun of language-learning with the production values and familiar down home appeal of cable access television. Seriously, NHK pulled out all the stops for these shows - the Korean program features elaborate bluescreened sets, CGI characters, animations, cameos by famous idols - and then did its best to make it look like the show is directed and produced by juniors in the Burris IHETs lab. Perhaps it's being done intentionally to distract people's attention from all that lovely, lovely grammar, which I'm told usually just intimidates:
Garden Variety Viewer: Ladida, time to check out this week's lesson in the textbook. Imperative sentences? Particles? Verb conjugations? What the hell is going on he---
NHK Program: Look over there! Famous Heartthrob Idol Man just missed his mark and flubbed his lines! Again! Can you believe these guys are highly paid professionals? Ha hah!
Garden Variety Viewer: All is right with the world.
Both the Korean and Chinese programs feature 'mini dorama' to help engage viewers' interest during their quest toward fluency in basic greetings. The Chinese dorama is actually pretty kooky - the actors are complete hams but they know and revel in it.
The Korean dorama, on the other hand, is something else. There's been a Korean pop culture boom here in Japan over the last year or so; Japanese women are glued Korean dorama on the TV and it's become noticeable enough that there's a not unimpressive group of Japanophiles in the West who download said dorama and watch them subbed. I've always felt that I should try watching one and seeing what the fuss was about - if nothing else, it'd be a good way to increase listening comprehension.
Unlike its Chinese counterpart, I think the NHK Korean mini dorama is actually trying for a bona fide Korean dorama feel. And whoo nelly, is it ever stinky. The first 'episode' aired in yesterday's program. Our lead character is Maki, a headstrong and spunky Japanese foreign exchange student who, although she doesn't know it yet herself, has come to Seoul to realise her dream of snaring a Korean Casanova of her very own, just like she's seen in all the Korean dorama back home! Wouldn't that be romantic? But oh noes, what if her independent streak gets in the way of true love!? Don't worry, the text assures us, she's not too spunky and headstrong (that just wouldn't be very feminine, would it?), and what she really wants is for someone to take her under his wing and tame her. Egads.
I know these things are guilty pleasures for most of the people who watch them, but it makes me feel kinda...uncomfortable, because I've always prided myself on having guiltier guilty pleasures. The standard soap opera stuff just leaves me cold. Pop culture love stories (unless they feature something interesting like H/C or amputation or underwater demons) tend to make me cringe.
And to add insult to injury: Ryu. For those of you who don't know who 'Ryu' is, well, consider yourselves lucky.
I had no idea who 'Ryu' was either, aside from the fact that he was 'Ryu,' and he was lined up to appear as a regular. Of course, the constant trumpeting of the fact that 'Ryu' was cast in the program to begin with led me to believe that he was likely Important to pop culture fans. My suspicions were confirmed in the first episode two weeks ago, when 'Ryu' first walked onto the soundstage. 'Ryu' is one of these people whose handlers create to scream SEX APPEAL, but without any real edge or distinguishing personality characteristic that might turn off potential female fans.
So, you know, plastic.
Then 'Ryu' opened his mouth, and I felt ... odd. Like I should know who this guy was, but that would be highly likely, because I don't pay attention to the Japanese idol scene at all.
I figured it out yesterday. 'Ryu' is the person responsible for the theme song to Fuyu no Sonata, which was a huge Korean crossover dorama here last year. This means that 'Ryu' is the reason I didn't learn anything of value in my Korean lessons, because we spent six out of the eight months of lessons learning how to sing 'My Memory,' the aforementioned theme song. By ear. Transliterated from Korean into katakana Japanese, so we weren't even learning the true pronunciations. And I paid for privelege to have this experience. Anyway, all good (or otherwise) things must come to an end, class wound up, and I washed my hands of 'Ryu.'
And now he's come right back into my life.
For those of you intrepid enough to want a further taste of the 'I'm Sexy ButomgdontworrySONOTsexyinascaryway!' Ryu experience, my text informs me that you can get it here.
That will be all.
Garden Variety Viewer: Ladida, time to check out this week's lesson in the textbook. Imperative sentences? Particles? Verb conjugations? What the hell is going on he---
NHK Program: Look over there! Famous Heartthrob Idol Man just missed his mark and flubbed his lines! Again! Can you believe these guys are highly paid professionals? Ha hah!
Garden Variety Viewer: All is right with the world.
Both the Korean and Chinese programs feature 'mini dorama' to help engage viewers' interest during their quest toward fluency in basic greetings. The Chinese dorama is actually pretty kooky - the actors are complete hams but they know and revel in it.
The Korean dorama, on the other hand, is something else. There's been a Korean pop culture boom here in Japan over the last year or so; Japanese women are glued Korean dorama on the TV and it's become noticeable enough that there's a not unimpressive group of Japanophiles in the West who download said dorama and watch them subbed. I've always felt that I should try watching one and seeing what the fuss was about - if nothing else, it'd be a good way to increase listening comprehension.
Unlike its Chinese counterpart, I think the NHK Korean mini dorama is actually trying for a bona fide Korean dorama feel. And whoo nelly, is it ever stinky. The first 'episode' aired in yesterday's program. Our lead character is Maki, a headstrong and spunky Japanese foreign exchange student who, although she doesn't know it yet herself, has come to Seoul to realise her dream of snaring a Korean Casanova of her very own, just like she's seen in all the Korean dorama back home! Wouldn't that be romantic? But oh noes, what if her independent streak gets in the way of true love!? Don't worry, the text assures us, she's not too spunky and headstrong (that just wouldn't be very feminine, would it?), and what she really wants is for someone to take her under his wing and tame her. Egads.
I know these things are guilty pleasures for most of the people who watch them, but it makes me feel kinda...uncomfortable, because I've always prided myself on having guiltier guilty pleasures. The standard soap opera stuff just leaves me cold. Pop culture love stories (unless they feature something interesting like H/C or amputation or underwater demons) tend to make me cringe.
And to add insult to injury: Ryu. For those of you who don't know who 'Ryu' is, well, consider yourselves lucky.
I had no idea who 'Ryu' was either, aside from the fact that he was 'Ryu,' and he was lined up to appear as a regular. Of course, the constant trumpeting of the fact that 'Ryu' was cast in the program to begin with led me to believe that he was likely Important to pop culture fans. My suspicions were confirmed in the first episode two weeks ago, when 'Ryu' first walked onto the soundstage. 'Ryu' is one of these people whose handlers create to scream SEX APPEAL, but without any real edge or distinguishing personality characteristic that might turn off potential female fans.
So, you know, plastic.
Then 'Ryu' opened his mouth, and I felt ... odd. Like I should know who this guy was, but that would be highly likely, because I don't pay attention to the Japanese idol scene at all.
I figured it out yesterday. 'Ryu' is the person responsible for the theme song to Fuyu no Sonata, which was a huge Korean crossover dorama here last year. This means that 'Ryu' is the reason I didn't learn anything of value in my Korean lessons, because we spent six out of the eight months of lessons learning how to sing 'My Memory,' the aforementioned theme song. By ear. Transliterated from Korean into katakana Japanese, so we weren't even learning the true pronunciations. And I paid for privelege to have this experience. Anyway, all good (or otherwise) things must come to an end, class wound up, and I washed my hands of 'Ryu.'
And now he's come right back into my life.
For those of you intrepid enough to want a further taste of the 'I'm Sexy ButomgdontworrySONOTsexyinascaryway!' Ryu experience, my text informs me that you can get it here.
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2005-04-20 01:53 pm (UTC)I've been hearing all about Winter Sonata from
It seems pop culture sex idols are equally scary in every culture. (Sorry to hear about your Korean class though... it totally sucks to pay for a class and go to all the trouble of attending, only to have it turn out to be useless. Really gives me pause when I think about taking one of those $200 courses at the Japan Society in Boston. I have the feeling I could be learning more on my own with $200 worth of Kinokuniya books.
no subject
on 2005-04-20 03:34 pm (UTC)Is this got any english subtitles or anything, that it could be a group-watchable event?
no subject
on 2005-04-20 03:57 pm (UTC)Yes!! (Like I could watch it in un-subbed Japanese or Korean.) In fact, you might remember that mangaroo was lamenting that it really ought to be
mockedwatched in groups. Preferably with alcohol, and popcorn to throw at the screen. If the DVDs ever wend their way to me, are you and(Shutting up now before this goes way off topic. Um, gambatte with those Chinese lessons,
One last off-topic comment...
on 2005-04-20 04:40 pm (UTC)*running off to finish CCS Vol. 4 and wishing I had brought 5 & 6 after all!!!)
no subject
on 2005-04-21 12:25 am (UTC)Yeah. The Chinese lessons. I'm already behind;)
no subject
on 2005-04-21 12:23 am (UTC)Don't tell me I'm going to be tag teamed by the American contingent just as Fuyu madness dies here!
no subject
on 2005-04-21 03:36 am (UTC)But jumping off bridges is so much fun!If I get sucked into watching this thing, it'll be all
Witness this cautionary tale of the perils of Winter Sonata addiction:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mangaroo/18185.html
no subject
on 2005-04-21 12:19 am (UTC)Because I'm not going to jump of the bridge with everyone no matter how cool it is, unless I can convince myself I'm learning something.Yeah, my teacher's closing comments: You don't think you learned a lot, but you totally did! In eight months, you've learned how to read Hangeul, identify six particles, and count to ten!
Me: I taught myself how to read Hangeul in a week, and it's kind of sad that in eight months we didn't even learn how to, I dunno, conjugate verbs or anything.
I asked her about this, and her response was: Well, there's no way you can get fluent in eight months, so it would be pointless to try.
Which is relevant to what we were discussing earlier - people want to think they can learn a language in 6.5 minutes a day, and so they aren't willing to put in the work it actually takes, and the people in the business of providing instruction are catering to them. Which is unfortunate for the people (like me) who are prepared to spend a good deal of time learning.
If I were you, I'd ask to sit in on a class or two and see if they were worth the price. I'd also ask to see a syllabus for the entire course - something I didn't do for Korean. My first two classes were great, but the woman just didn't have any overall plan for the class and wasn't going to waste her time making one, and that's why it failed.
no subject
on 2005-04-20 03:32 pm (UTC)Yeah even without the character set on my computer, the pictures alone show a pretty generic pop type....bleh
no subject
on 2005-04-20 04:02 pm (UTC)Plastic is the word. The man has an online diary? Oh dear.
"Dear Diary: Today, I gazed at my breakfast cereal in a sultry manner."
Why is it that Japanese pop idols always look to me so irritatingly sure of their own sexiness that they fail to be actually sexy at all? (I suppose this applies to American pop idols too, now that I think of it.)
no subject
on 2005-04-20 04:37 pm (UTC)ROTFL re: sultry cereal....although that goes well with the sexy grammar...
*snerk*
Personally, I believe as soon as the moniker "pop idol" is in fact applied, the appendage of said idol immediately shrivels and drops off, leading to a cessation of further testosterone production, and thus resulting in the noted lack of any true sex appeal.
no subject
on 2005-04-21 03:04 am (UTC)borgloyal fans?A Question for the ages, it would seem.
no subject
on 2005-04-21 12:31 am (UTC)Why is it that Japanese pop idols always look to me so irritatingly sure of their own sexiness that they fail to be actually sexy at all?
W'Ryu' is actually a K-pop artist who's broken into the Japanese market, but yeah, they're all eerily similar wherever you go. I've been trying to figure out why pop idols are so popular when they're so bland, and I think it's because the blandness allows a large population of women to project their own favorite personalities onto these otherwise personality-less pretty faces.
For instance, you apparently like the idea of 'Ryu' gazing at his breakfast cereal. I hate that idea, because it makes me whoop with laughter at work, and then I have to do a lot of fast talking. But that's okay, 'cause we don't really know whether 'Ryu' likes cereal or not, so we can both still like him. ;)
no subject
on 2005-04-21 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-04-21 04:26 am (UTC)And of course there was cancer.
o.0 Oh dude!! I just realized you people (probably) haven't watched this gem of a vid yet.
Eyeball cancer!
http://s8.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1ITRWYGXT8K9R2YY0M8690GAIF
5.8 megs. And just. Yeah. You'll see.
Oh, have you seen My Wife is a Gangster? (Jo-pok Manura) Love that movie.