Comments on: Korean beats French

By: Kimie

Kimie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:04:06 +0000

So, what’s the result of the internal poll?

By: Joanne Hong

Joanne Hong — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:26:03 +0000

I think dramas are strongly based on the culture and life of the background country. Due to the popularity of Korean drama, particularly among Asian countries, Korean food and culture started to get a lot of attention. I remember, some years ago, some Korean writers or reports mentioned that Korean ‘Kim-chi’ was recognized more as ‘Ki-mu-chi’ with Japanese pronunciation. But, after Korean Wave started, I’ve never heard ‘Ki-mu-chi’. I don’t know about how drama and film are different, but I think the drama genre is more culturally based than the film genre, because it mainly focuses local audience, mainly based on something like life, love, historic events, and etc, while the film includes more variety of genres, such as Sci-fi, fantasy, and so on in which the culture is more generally covered.
In this regard, the dramas could be a kind of material for learning cultures.

By: Mariam

Mariam — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:48:46 +0000

many people think that we only want to study Korean because of dramas and so, but we are actually more interested in the culture and the life of Korea, their food and so on.

By: Joanne Hong

Joanne Hong — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:59:59 +0000

As a Korean, I’m so happy about this surprising news. I found that the term ‘Korean wave (‘Han-ryu’ in Korean) sounds very very interesting. The term has been coined, based on Korean entertainment, which has been popular mainly in China and Japan. Actually, I’m a big fan of Korean dramas and still watch at least one episode of the drama almost every day.^^ Interestingly, I heard that the desire of Korean entertainment industry to win the audiences around the world has contributed to misrepresentation of Korean identity, due to the enterpreneurial ideology which is probably ‘Capitalism’. This reminds me of American animation, especially Disney, who has created the characters more globally acceptable in the aspects of culture, religion and so on, in its animations. Then, this resulted in changes in American identity representation.
However, one good thing is that Korean language is getting more globally recognizable in the era of ‘Korean Wave’. I think that generally, ‘Gaining’ companies with ‘Losing’.

By: Jenny Zhang

Jenny Zhang — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:36:49 +0000

Sometimes, I wonder which language people across the world would choose to learn as a foreign only for the sake of sheer happiness. I know that’s gonna happen only in Utopia, since language learning is always influenced by the cultural politics of a nation-state. But, it’s good to see Korean and some other languages wavered the center of gravity in FLL in some parts of the world.

By: Don Glass

Don Glass — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:59:14 +0000

Mariam,
If you want to make a Korean Club in DXB, I’m sure that we can make that happen…send me an email so I can get in touch.

By: Mariam

Mariam — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:20:04 +0000

Interesting thing to read, especially about Korean fever.
and I wish we have a Korean club here at ZU-dxb.
fav. ^^

By: Don Glass

Don Glass — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:07:44 +0000

You hit the nail on the head with the Korean Wave comments. I run the Korean Club here at ZU in AUH and the girls are crazy about all things Korean. Many of them watch Korean dramas and listen to Korean pop music. We have lots of plans to expose them to Korean Culture starting with an exhibition of Korean Art and Photography and a Korean Movie (200 Pounds Beauty) next week. I must admit being a bit of a cheerleader for the Korean Language cause and I encouraged the girls to get out there and vote. This could, of course have some effect on numbers but the interest is there for Korean Language as evidenced by the fact that about 130 girls signed up for the Korean Club on club day this year.