Korean Music
Anyone who’s known me any decent length of time has been exposed to more Japanese music than they probably cared for. For this, I make no apologies. I’ll admit that Japanese and Korean music is very similar. Massive groups, up to 15 singers (none of whom play any kind of instrument), catchy repetitive pop songs, singers who look better than they sing, not too different from American popular music when you really think about it.
In fact, for every major pop star/group in America, there is a Korean copy. That’s not just a cynical observation, it is intentional. For Britney Spears, there is BoA. Backstreet Boys are countered with Big Bang. It goes on, and is blasted in the streets at all hours. The only major difference is that in America, sluttiness is heavily emphasized, and tons of focus on sex. In Korea, cuteness is a lot more important than sexiness, so you end up with grown women (sometimes), dressing like a teenager. Or like a Final Fantasy character.
I’ll stop here to interject, I’m not complaining about this. At all.
A few examples:
Girls’ Generation
Pretty popular. A lot of my students don’t like them because most of the members (12 members) have had plastic surgery. I’m not sure why they love Wonder Girls so much if this is so distasteful, but no one ever said teenage girls were great thinkers.
Warning, though, the video is annoying, but catchy as all hell and the girls are really cute. This song is playing at all hours in korea, usually at high volume in the street, often two within earshot of eachother. I know every lyric thanks to students singing it ad nauseum, but have no clue what it means, beyond the subtitles.
The Wonder Girls
Probably the biggest group out right now. Groups of schoolgirls walking arm and arm singing whatever Wonder Girls song is in their heads is a pretty common sight in korea.
Every English teacher quickly learns from this video that we cannot use the word “Nobody” in any lesson, because it will prompt every single student, male or female, to sing this song.
Rain
Rain was the most popular entertainer in the world for awhile, even in the states, although I never heard of him. He even had a hilarious dance off against Steven Colbert on the Colbert Report when he beat Colbert in the Times top 100 most influential people list (thanks for the info, Tiffany). If you watch only one video, make it this one.
And yes, I do have a shirt and vest like the one Rain is wearing. And I rock it pretty well.
Next is Big Bang. Big Bang is huge. I really don’t know how they can ever leave their homes without being literally mobbed and kidnapped by crazed mobs of teenage girls. They have their own brands of clothes and shoes. They do commericals for every product imaginable. I used to try to use pictures of them and music to keep students’ attention, but I can’t anymore, because so much as showing a picture of them results in a literal riot as girls shriek, cry, and completely lose control of themselves. We usually simply cannot restore order. I really wish I was exaggerating.
I’m not a huge fan, which does not impress my students. According to them, I simply don’t have an ear for true musical talent. I asked them to choose between Big Bang and somewhat more influential artists such as Santana, Queen, or Clapton, and just got blank stares in return. So I tried Beethoven, and they chose Big Bang as the more important figures in music.
Hagrid
Most of you reading this know me. I like to keep my hair in a state of general disarray, so it tends to draw attention, especially here in Korea. Students have likened my appearance to Beethoven, Ben Franklin (they know more about American history than any American student does, sadly), and the one that really sticks, Hagrid, from Harry Potter.
In fact, it stuck at my school, and it caught on and stuck at the english camp. Not many of my students call me Hunter at all, anymore. At first, they all just called me Sangsamnim, which is just teacher, but I really don’t like formal titles or names. Mr. Herr wasn’t going to fly either, especially because their “r’s” tend to come out as “l’s”. Then they started calling me Hagrid, which most of my co-teachers fought against at first, feeling it was disrespectful, but now just let it slide.
I told the students if they were disrespecting me with it, there isn’t much I can do to stop them, but that I’d be pretty disappointed with Korean youth if that were the case (appeal to their nationalism, it really really works here in lieu of real discipline), and many of them took great pains to explain to me, in English no less, that they didn’t mean any disrespect, and would stop if I still wanted them to. I kinda like it as a nickname, and since they are doing it in good spirits, I don’t mind at all, and now I’m Hagrid. 
English Camp
In most of Asia, English is a really big deal. I mean a big deal in the way that mountain climbing or training for the olympics is viewed in the west, its a life goal and a hobby for people here. Very commonly, when I walk down the street or enter stores, people of all ages try to practice English on me. Lots of times I walk by little kids, some of whom are very shy and will wait until I walk a long way away, shout “Hello”, and run off like I have a gun (and of course, because I’m from Texas, I most certainly do).
At the start of the Winter break, I taught at an English camp. The camp was held at a tourism high school (a boarding school where students learn to run hotels, casinos, boats, bars, etc.). These kinds of high schools are common here, I’ve even seen a bodyguard high school. It was strange at first, but then I realized that these kids graduate high school with the equivalent of a bachelors degree in actual skill and knowledge in something. And if they decide not to pursue that, they just go to college. Its sad the idea of a useful education from high school was so alien to me.
We (teachers and students) stayed in the dorms the whole week (it was break, and most of the students had gone home). There were 7 or 8 foreign teachers, including myself, 3 from South Africa (very nice people). We each taught a subject and rotated classes all week. I taught Science. I hung space filling models of various elements from the ceiling and pictures of Einstein and Newton and the like. My class was about motion, specifically, the Egg Drop. Korean kids are really really good at the Egg Drop. These were elementary to middle school kids, and few of them lost their eggs, even from the 5 storie drop with no parachute allowed. My class actually ended up being pretty popular, and we had a TV news crew in there for enough time to get in the way of everything.
We ended up going to a weird little petting zoo midway through the week, with a few pigs, chickens, and for some reason, an ostrich, which managed to bite about 6 kids because they have no common sense at all (the kids, not the ostrich, although I doubt it was much smarter). No one sued.
We owe Jim Henson more than we can ever know.
In class today, I’ve been using a clip from an old Sesame Street episode to teach. In fact, several old clips, and not just today.
I know I grew up with it, as well as most of you reading this, and it just seemed entertaining to us as children, but there’s something weird about going back and watching it again after all this time. The show was actually educational. It was intelligent, and it taught us everything from brushing our teeth to spanish. It was also funny, and to me, a lot of it still is. It uses a lot of sophisticated wordplay and I think that did a lot to improve our vocabularies. The show has since gotten as bad as any other kids programming, and I think it shows in today’s kids’ near illiteracy and ignorance of the english language, as well as any other language.
Especially post-Elmo, Jim Henson’s first controversial muppet suffering from Downs Syndrome.
