Still Falling in Love with Kpop

 I'm starting to realize that my Korean Language journey is being hijacked by entertainment. I can't help it though. I've recently fully discovered the joys of kpop and kdramas. I had never seen a kdrama until after I'd been studying Korean for a good month or so.

I had heard kpop. I was aware of Exo and BTS and several others by name only. I had seen dance videos by them and Ateez and a bunch of other groups that are good dancers. The problem for me was that the music didn't grab me... only the dance routines.

The True Beginning

A.R.M.Y.s will be happy about this. I believe the first song that had music that jumped out at me was during a BTS dance compilation... "Baepsae" (aka "Silver Spoon" or "Crow Tit") was the first. The beat is sick! And the next was "Dope" from the same compilation. The sax adding to the actual beat in the chorus had me in love.

I listened to those a bunch of times and checked out other recommended songs in the YouTube comments. "Fire" and "Mic Drop" were also really good. So, I discovered that there are some kpop songs that I could actually listen to rather than just watch.

I fell down a bit of a BTS rabbit hole. I think I enjoyed Run BTS and whatnot more than most of the music, if I'm honest. But I came to like them quite a bit. Bias for the group? Park Jimin. I love pop-lock bad asses like J-Hope as much as the next guy, but expressive dancing always gets me.

Other Kpop

I actually continuously checked out other kpop whilst stumbling down the BTS rabbit hole. More the boy bands than girl groups. I haven't found any actually cool girl groups... mostly cutesy/sexy ones that haven't done it for me. Of course, I haven't been looking.

I listened to a bunch of Exo again, but the songs I checked out didn't strike me. I've come to like maybe two Exo songs... but I haven't listened to many to be honest. I listened to Ateez with special focus on the music... didn't find any that grabbed me as yet.

I checked out endless dance compilations because even if the music is weak, the dancing could be worth watching. That's how I found NCT U's "Boss", which I listened to like 4 times in a row right before bed... and about 6 more times when I got up. It was the first that made the stay-list.

The next day, it was followed by "Baby, Don't Stop" and "The 7th Sense". Several others have landed in the playlist, but those three will stay there until the end of time... that much I already know.

Stray Kids is the only other group right now that has a bunch of songs in my playlist. I'm not in love with any of them yet, but I like the general sound. They are really great dancers too. I had watched bunches of their videos just for the dancing.

And that's pretty much where I am now. I'm still checking out songs by groups... checking out playlists. There are endless groups I've never heard that are crazy famous (Shinee anyone?). There are some that I only heard for the first time today (like Monsta X). 

Today's Kpop Playlist Finds

1. Monsta X - "Middle of the Night" (1st/only heard)
2. Kard - "Don't Recall" (2nd I've heard & 2nd playlisted)
3. EXO-K - "Overdose"
4. Nu'est - "Bet Bet" (1st/only heard)
5. EXO - "Love Shot" (heard before, just now added)
6. DKB - "Elevator" (1st/only heard - never heard of them at all before today)
7. Jackson Wang - "Okay" (1st/only heard)

More Stray Kids & NCT

I added "Double Knot", "Double Knot" in English too apparently... "Easy" and "Miroh". Funny that I added "Double Knot" from two separate playlists without even knowing it was the same song... it just sounded good both times.

For NCT, I added "Kick It". I heard it before once or twice and liked it, but it stuck this time. I swear, I felt like every time a song would start and be really amazing, it was always Stray Kids or NCT.

Seriously... recommendations! I know you kpop fans are an obsessive lot. I'll check out whatever. Just leave me a comment here or on Twitter or whatever.

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes

Oh my fuck! This was sad, man. I was not ready. As sad as it was though, it had so many gorgeous shots that I had to share some of the prettier ones:

The above shots were of Seo In-Guk sitting on a cliff where his father was believed to have committed suicide. The empty bottle of Soju next to him was already poured out for his dad. I just thought the shots were stunning.

These shots were taken shortly after in a house he discovered near the cliff. I was totally captivated by the colors and style. The contrast of the colorful windows and dilapidated insides of the old home. Amazing.

This is the last one. It's a white dove flying out of the house the moment he opened the window. Like finding this old house allowed the tortured child in him to be free finally. I wasn't expecting any sort of symbolism or actual beauty in these kdramas, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Today

I was actually busy working at work today. We had a few errands after work, had dinner, and now it's after midnight. So, I didn't get done too much.

• Practiced all 3 irregular verb conjugations
• Practiced all the suggested refresher vocab
• Learned 12 of 49 words from the next lesson

I feel very comfortable with the conjugations now. I stumbled across a weird thing though. So, in plain/written form, present tense adjectives are conjugated exactly the same as the dictionary version, yes? 

맵다 is an adjective, right? "To be spicy"... that's a description not an action.

맵다 would be the correct present tense conjugation then, yes?

But according to the conjugation site I've been checking my answers with, it's not. Verbix.com has it listed as 맵는다... which is accurate for a verb, not an adjective. Anyone who knows Korean want to clarify this for me?

Tomorrow

I plan to watch some of whatever kdrama I start tonight. I might listen to some more kpop too, especially if I get suggestions... and then I'll revisit what I find tomorrow while I'm studying.

I hope to do some more vocab for the next lesson and finish the last three irregular conjugations in this lesson. Now that I'm fairly comfortable with my vocabulary and conjugations, I'd really like to try talking with a language exchange partner tomorrow as well. I'm excited and surprisingly a little nervous at the prospect.

파이팅!