💌 A Love Story Between Languages and Me - Part 3: Korean 🇰🇷

Hello Friends!

I’m Fionna, a product manager, YouTuber and late-night FM DJ.

Every Sunday I share a story on what inspires me to be creative and musings that week. I’m fascinated by design, technology, people, languages, and the idea that I can use them to reinvent myself.

You will find that I express myself through different languages, witty mEmeS and impeccable formatting. Intrigued? Want more content like this in your inbox?

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I'm bilingual in Mandarin and English. As a hobby, I took French and Korean in high school and I'm still trying to keep them up in 2021. Through friends and travel, I also dabbled in learning Cantonese and Polish.

Bonjour je m'appelle Fionna, je suis bilingue anglais et chinois et j'apprends le français et le coréen.

여러분 안녕하세요. 저는 피오나입니다. 네, 저는 블랙잭, VIP, ELF, 카시오페아 입니다. 케이팝은 저를 '한류'에 빠지게 했고 춤도 배웠지만, 저는 우정 때문에 계속 배우기로 결심했어요.

In this series, I will unwind the "love letters" between me and these languages - what serendipitous encounters that started it all, the ups and downs, and where we are now.

Thanks for reading Part 1 and Part 2.
Today, let's talk about the most Mirotic of all - 한국어 🇰🇷

English | French Français| Korean  한국어 | Cantonese  粤语 | Polish Polski | Mandarin 中文

🎙️ Listen to this story on Spotify

A Brief History

Grade 7 - Self-taught and performed Super Junior's "U" dance at school assembly
Grade 9 - Took Korean classes at Night School
Grade 9 - Founded a student club covering K-Pop dances
~ Many Korean dramas, radio shows and variety shows later ~
3rd Year College - Travelled to Korea for 2 weeks
Time in between - screaming “NOLZA” at 2NE1, Epik High and G-Dragon's concerts
Working at Microsoft - Weekly Korean classes taught by employees

Discovering K-Pop

In this digital age, K-Pop is probably the biggest reason why people started to learn Korean - to understand Korean Music, to sing Korean music, and most importantly, to follow artists who sang and danced to those music.

I’m no exception.

Not sure if I was too late or too early to the K-Pop bandwagon, but the earliest song I listened to was Big Bang’s “Dirty Cash” from their first album in 2006.

Such nostalgia! Then, inevitably, I came across SM Town, and was swoon by TVXQ and Super Junior. Especially SJ because they were the largest boy group at that time with 13 members, and one of them is Chinese, Hang Geng or 韩庚.

I was listening to their songs on repeat and watching variety shows they guested on (which is another incredible discovery because these shows are hilarious and a great stress-reliever). Even though I watched them with Chinese or English subtitles, I would still pick up a few expressions or two. Mostly commonly,

화이팅 - Cheer up!
사랑해 - I love you~
대박! - That’s amazing!
뭐라고? - What? What did you say?
왜그래 - What’s wrong?
미안해 - I’m sorry.
Note: these are all informal expressions without honorifics, not intended for seniors.

Fast forward to 2021, K-Pop is everywhere. If you have watched at least one K-Pop music video you’d know that it has this powerful, peculiar, yet enigmatic way of hooking you into the world created by the artist, leaving you wanting more. Alright, I’ll stop here. This is not a story on K-Pop, but how it got me started on learning Korean.

The reason is very simple, curiosity.

I enjoy their songs, I like how they dance, and I want to learn more about them! What inspired them to write these songs or become an “idol”, how do they practice before stage, what’s the story behind that cool music video, and what other hobbies do they have, etc. A way to do that is watching talk shows, and you guessed it, they were in Korean. But as a fan, you’d want to get the latest scoop when it comes out, and not wait for subtitles. So, pull up yo sleeves and imma learn this thing myself!

Night School

Similar with the French Explore program, I saw a flyer about Night School in the Guidance Counsellor’s room. Yes, I was a regular because I did morning announcements and quite frankly, I enjoyed visiting.

I enrolled in Korean Level 1 at Night School with a friend, but she soon dropped out and I kept going anyway… (mm I’m sending a pattern here 😢) The classes were every Monday from 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. at either Georges Vanier or A. Y. Jackson Secondary. I couldn’t remember, but I remember going home after school to eat dinner, then taking the TTC for 1 hour all the way up to “Sheppard-Youge” then to “Don Mills”. When classes are done, I would take a 2 hour night bus home. Needless to say, it was quite the trek.

Here’s a handy map of the TTC: I went from the yellow line to the right end of the purple line

Despite the terrible and somewhat dangerous commute at night, I enjoyed the classes and they helped me set a solid foundation for pronouncing and writing Korean. Again speaking was not well-taught, and I could hardly remember the grammar.

To this day, I still remember the teacher, Mrs. Bae Mi Ae or 백미애 or 白美愛. Her name is especially memorable because the 3 characters literally mean white, beauty, and love. Mrs. Bae embodied all of that. Her graceful way of talking and walking, and the care she put into ensuring her students are progressing was admirable. I treasured these 3 hours every week because I was learning something that I wanted, and the classes were delightful!

Looking back, I do regret not taking Korean after Grade 9, but as an exchange, I packed my schedule with equally memorable and meaningful things from Grade 10 and onwards. Perhaps I’ll write about those another day.

Anecdote: I’d never expect by taking Korean at night school, it would not only help my Korean, but also help me get A’s in Chemistry. I was quite carefree and didn’t care much about grades in Grade 9. We had a chemistry quiz every class on Tuesdays and I hardly remember studying for those. However, since I had a 2 hour bus ride every Monday, I studied on the bus. It was definitely a bumpy ride with terrible lighting, but I was bored and pushed through. Consequently, my chem grades skyrocketed 🤣.

K-Pop dance

Learning and performing dance covers doesn’t require or help me learn Korean. However, in order to keep up with the latest idols and trends, I had to be in-the-know and pick songs that are well received. Knowing this also helped with recruiting since people liked different idol groups and they wanted to dance to songs by their “oppas”.

Traveling to Korea

7 years after I first started learning Korean, I had the opportunity to visit Korea.

A lot of things have changed then, EngSci has robbed my time from dancing and my music taste has assimilated to what my friends were listening to, which were more American/Canadian. Insert Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Drake etc. Though I continued watching shows and dramas (when I should’ve been studying… RIP), so I was still connected to the culture and really wanted to experience it myself!

After my internship in Asia, I took the dough and splurged on a solo trip to Japan and Korea for a month. Having learned Korean definitely helped me to get around and gave me the confidence to talk to strangers, which was something that I never did in Japan. The difference was stark and I had a much better time in Korea because of this.

Anecdote: I almost couldn’t go on my trip because I planned the trip on paper but didn’t booked all the flights. When I arrived at the airport, I only booked a flight to Japan and not yet to Korea. It was about 30 mins before boarding and the airline staff checked my docs and told me that I couldn’t board unless I show proof that I’m not trying to stay forever in Japan. So I had to use my tiny iPhone 6 at the time and laggy airport WiFi to book a flight from Japan to Korea on the spot. Once I showed them the payment page, they let me in and I sprinted to security… 🤯

Lessons learned: Check the regulations on durations of stay for foreigners in your destination country, and make sure you have an outbound flight in case of Japan.

After safely landing in Korean, I stayed in Seoul and made a trip to Nami island. I was able to read the signs, ask for directions, order food in Korean and most importantly, ask strangers to take photos for me :P #InstaTourist

When I was visiting the Ihwa mural village (이화 벽화마을), I fell in love with the murals and wanted to take back a souvenir. I walked into the first craft store I saw and struck a conversation with the owner. Little did I know, that conversation led to taking a photo together, to helping me find a hairdresser (because obviously that’s what you do in Korea 💇🏻‍♀️), to having several meals together, and lastly, an unnie (sister) to talk to.

The “Angel Wings” mural at Ihwa mural village where I met unnie

As the story developed, I was in constant amazement that we were able to communicate despite… our differences. She spoke 100% Korean and I spoke 70% Korean and 30% body language. I think all the years of watching and listening to Korean content paid off, she didn’t sound foreign to me and I was able to understand most of what she said, especially the everyday expressions which were common in dramas. I definitely didn’t get all the grammar right but I was able to use the vocab I knew to put together sentences and make myself heard.

We also added each other on Kakao Talk, the most popular messaging app in Korea. Even though I relied heavily on Google translate, but it gave me a chance to learn written Korean in the form of instant messaging where people use short forms and the Korean alphabet as emoticons like “ㅋㅋㅋ” or “ㅎㅎㅎ” to express laughter like “lol”.

Needless to say, traveling to Korea is the absolute best way to learn Korean.

Concerts

You think going to concerts is just for funzies? Nope, it’s an EPIK way to learn Korean!

I went to a 2NE1 concert in Macau. Even though the audience was mainly from Hong Kong, mainland China and Macau, there were international students from Korea too. Given the “Blackjacks” community were super friendly, I was able to chat up with some fans and exchange our favorite 2NE1 moments ♣️💞

It still pains me knowing that this was 2NE1’s LAST concert as a group 😭

Here are my favorite songs from these concerts, or songs that best represent my mental state or perception of the artist at the time:

Language classes at work

Time gets funny after starting a full-time job. Yes, there’s the regular 9 to 5, but after that you’re completely free. It’s up to you on how you want to spend it.

New to the job and city, I was afraid that I would be too bored. So I scavenged through the company email distribution lists (like student clubs but for adults) for activities I liked, which included Korean. Thankfully, a “Korean language class” DL was active and I passed the “interview” to join. The teacher and students were all full-time Microsoft employees, and we met every Monday in a conference room to learn Korean for an hour.

Calling it a class is probably too formal, it really was an after-work social for us to chill and have fun learning Korean together.

The first teacher, Bobby, was super chill and friendly. We followed a textbook most of the days and he’d answer our questions about Korea. Every once in a while, we’d enjoy a meal together at a Korean restaurant, where we also learn some Korean as it happens.

Bobby was super generous and invited the class over for Lunar New Year (음력 설날) and we celebrated LNY together! A very Korean or Asian thing to do ㊗️🧧🎊.

Joohee, our current teacher keeps a meticulously organized OneNote of our class discussions, where we describe our past weekends or thoughts on a current topic like the pandemic. Since I’ve been with the group for 4+ years and have come to know the members well. The harmonious and relaxed environment has allowed me to speak freely without the fear of being judged, and be constantly be amazed at how everyone else is still learning Korean on their own. Every Monday’s class is full of genuine laughter and wholesomeness 🥰.

Class from September 2020 where I transformed my balcony into a 🥬 garden

Now

Sadly, I feel like I’ve fallen way too behind the 한류. I didn’t even know BTS when they blew up on YouTube… The OG K-Pop artists who I followed growing up are releasing albums less frequently now, so naturally we’ve moved on to other things.

I enjoy the Korean classes at work and will continue to learn with these goofballs. However, it’s too much to take Korean and French at the same time, but I’ll keep listening to Korean music or audio books. Perhaps I’ll watch a variety show or two. Yoo Jae Suk is way too hilarious to miss.

At last, I’ll leave you one of my favorite Korean songs as of late.

If you found this amusing in anyway, I’d love it if you could share it with a friend or on social media - whichever floats your boat :)

Leave a comment below if you have any questions or feedback, happy to keep the conversation going. See you next week!

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