안녕하세요!! (Anyong-haseyo)

This was the second week of the K-pop Academy and this week we are learning about the Korean script called 한글 (Hangul).

We were allowed to chose from four different assignments this week and I chose the fourth, looking for ten words that a k-pop artist/k-pop artists often use.

I have though about which idol (group) to analyze and in the end decided that SNSD (Girls’ Generation) would be a sensible decision.

SNSD is one of the, if not the, most popular all female k-pop groups in Korea. The members regularly appear on variety shows, reality shows (SNSD and the Dangerous Boys), music video’s, K-dramas, and commercial. It seems like whenever you turn your tv on in Korea, there they are.

The fact that the members of Girls’ Generation are often on television played a part in my decision making process, because the more footage I could find about the artist, the more likely it was that I would find commonly used words.

Then there is also the fact that they are with nine girls from about the same age. The more members, the more likely they will end up using the same words.

The SNSD’s Vocabulary Analysis

I spend roughly eight hours  strait  just watching SNSD footage (which is quite a achievement, even for the most die-hard fan). I watched all sorts of programs: Strong Heart fragments, the last two episodes of ‘SNSD and the dangerous boys’, an episode of ‘So happy together’, old commercials, music video’s. You name it, I’ve seen it and I ended up with the following words:

1. 오빠 (Oppa)

“Oppa” is what a girl says to an older boy or boyfriend (a boy would call an older boy “hyung”).

2. 언니 (Unnie)

“Unnie” is what a girl says to an older girl,older woman or older sister (a boy would call them “Noona”).

3. 사랑해 (Saranghae)

“I love you”. (informal)

4. 대박 (Daebak)

Expression said when someone is pleasantly surprised. It could be translated by “Wow”, “Amazing” or “Big hit”.

5. 장난 아니다 (Jangnan Anida)

“No kidding”, or “It’s no joke”.

6. (귀여운) Gwiyeoun

“Cute”.

7. 진짜 (Chincha)

“Really”.

8. 어떻게 (Ottoke)

“How?” or “What should I do?”.

9. 배고파요 (Baegopayo)

“I’m hungry”

10. 애교 (Aegyo)

The act of being cute/playfull.

11. 화이팅! (Hwaiting!)

Expression said by Koreans as a encouragement. It basically means "Let's go", "Do your best" or "Good luck" and comes from the word ‘fighting’, but that was a bit difficult to pronounce for Koreans so it got altered a bit.

So, now I had my commonly used words, it’s time for the tricky bit: thinking of a creative way to show my new found Korean vocabulary.

Idea behind my creative content for the assignment

When I was in Korea last summer, one of the things I would enjoy the most was walking the streets of Seoul with my friends and just look at the T-shirts people were wearing. It wasn’t the shape or the color that interested me, but the crazy text that would be on it.  I’m sure most people have seen some funny Konglish t-shirts. They are hilarious/adorable, right? I can only hope that my very very poor Korean sounds the same way to them.

This got me thinking “Why not turn the whole Konglish-thing around?”. I’ll try to learn Korean by painting my newly learned Korean words on t-shirts, call it something like ‘Engul’ (English + Hangul) and the best thing is, if I accidentally end up making a mistake I can pretend it’s deliberate to make it funny. Who knows, it could become a success with Korean tourist visiting London.

So, my new project became making ‘Commonly used words by SNSD’ clothing items. I bought some cheap clothes, some thick paper, a scalpel, fabric paint, brushes, tape and paint. Sadly it was only when I got home it dawned on me that:

11 words/phrases : 5 pieces of clothing = unhappy Suzanne.

So, I joined ‘chincha’ with ‘gwiyeoun’ to make it ‘really cute’.

The production process

• Find Hangul symbols
• Copy, paste to google translate (makes the characters look standard and all the same)
• Make a screen caption of the word in google translate
• Enlarge the image in Photoshop
• Print the image
• Carf out the Hangul symbols
• Use your now created stencil to copy the characters onto thicker paper (the kind you can’t print on, because it will get stuck)
• Carf the symbols out again
• Attach you final stencil to the fabric with tape
• Paint in the Hangul Symbols
• Let it dry for about 2 hours

The whole process was a lot more work than I originally thought it would be, but I think it was worth it in the end.

What do you guys think? =)