Tag: Korean

K-movie Reco: Innocent Witness (증인)

K-movie Reco: Innocent Witness (증인)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I changed the drama reco of the month twice for different reasons. First I was going to review a K-drama called Partners with Justice. I changed it because I saw another drama which I couldn’t recommend enough and wanted everyone to watch as soon as they can. Realized I don’t have any pictures for that post.

I saw pictures for this one on my desktop and now I am writing this post because I cannot recommend this movie enough either. Anyway, I’ll get started.

Innocent witness tells the story of an autistic child Ji Woo (Kim Hyang Gi) who, inadvertently, witnesses the murder of an old depressed man living next door. His maid Mi Ran is charged with his murder but is acquitted thanks to her defense lawyer, Soon Ho (Jung Woo Sung). Later he realizes that he might have committed a mistake in disregarding Ji Woo as a witness because of her ‘disability’ while the girl might actually be speaking the truth. He takes initiative to get to know her, enter her world and finally reveals the truth behind the murder.

This is Soon Ho’s dad, such a liberal mind

Now, not to give out spoilers but it’s very apparent from the beginning who the actual murderer is. That is not even the main premise of the movie I would assume. What the movie does the best is to raise the awareness about these incredibly gifted people who had autism. Ji Woo has great hearing and can decipher even a whisper from the other corner of the courtroom.

And, so what?

Another thing it highlights is, how autistic people are regarded in the society. The girl’s statement was declared invalid because she was ‘mentally unstable’ during the first trial. Just goes on to show how much pain it must have taken the lawyers to prove her testimony as credible. And, as you might have already realized, I really love media which raises social awareness. And this movie does it ever so subtly, that you will empathize with the characters without even knowing it.

You might think it’s a thriller or action movie but it’s just a simply heart-warming movie with a focus on interaction between the two main characters. And darn, it manages to deliver it perfectly. What I loved the most was Kim Hyang Gi’s acting. It wasn’t awkward or deliberate. She executed her character with such finesse, that you just need to watch it.

Soon Ho developing friendship with Ji Woo be like

Once again, my high praise for this 129 minutes movie makes this post a recommendation. Some might find the first half a bit slow but it’s just two hours. Trust me, if you dig slice of life stuff, by the end, you will be melting. Ahhhh, can’t wait for you guys to watch it and comment on the post.

Conclusion: 10/10. Another interesting part is how the character of Soon Ho makes a 180 deg turn in his opinions about Ji Woo at the end. Dang, I’m gonna go watch it again now. Oh btw, this movie, in no way, is a mystery. I had taken it up because I thought so too but there were no regrets watching it. Just a heads up though.

Final Feelings: 😍

Watch here: I could not find the official streaming site for this. So, putting this link here: Innocent Witness

Such innocent yet powerful question!

Personal front: Aaarrrghhhh! I’m so sorry for missing posting for last three weeks. I did miss them because I was working on weekends but I had this notion in my mind that last weekend of October was fifth weekend of the month and only a personal update was due. I shall admit that I did not even try because of that, and I apologize for the delay.

Well, I finally got a Saturday off, although I need to work tomorrow. And now I do have some stock of posts since I didn’t post last three weeks. Let’s see how long can I maintain the streak this time. And I also need to finish these two short webnovels with 50-60 chapters each. The shorter ones are the best tbh.

Also, a patron of mine decided to buy me multiple ko-fis this week which is a very welcome thing for me. But, the transactions happened in various amounts on the same day. I refunded the amount thinking that it was a mistake, either your card got charged multiple times by mistake or it was an error on ko-fi’s behalf.

I have resolved this issue with ko-fi and apologize if you felt that my step was rude. I had no way to confirm if so many transactions on the same day were a mistake or not. I would not want my patrons to lose their money because of me. I know how hard it is to earn monies in this day and age. Once again, I thank each and every person here for your support.

Today’s song: Since I have started this job, I haven’t really listened to anything. Not old songs, not new ones either. It’s like, I’m just racing towards something, leaving behind other things that I have always loved. Let’s just post some song I’m hearing for the first time too today:

Drama Reco: Watcher (왓쳐)

Drama Reco: Watcher (왓쳐)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

“Why should I be righteous? That’s what makes us kill each other. I’m just trying to do the right thing for myself.” – Do Chi Hwang

Damn. My plan was to review another drama that I finished recently but once I started this gem of a series, I just could not wait to share this with my readers. Change of plans, the drama of the month is “Watcher”.

I have, previously in numerous posts, praised cable TV networks for their high quality dramas. Too bad they don’t get enough traction. This one is pretty recent, so some might have heard of it.

Watcher 1
Yes, listen to this pretty lady pliss and watch this drama!!

Watcher is a crime thriller where three different people come together to solve a case and catch a murderer they are all related to. This also involves corruption within police and prosecution department. And now you will say, but all the crime thrillers from Korea have this exact same story line. You are definitely correct.

What stands out here is how the plot has been executed and the mystery of who that murderer is, you just cannot put one name to it. By even ep 12th, you would know people who are involved in the corruption, you would know who has been doing what all this while but you would just not know who that mystery man is. This, is what I call, a successful plot. Makes the viewers keep guessing.

I am on 12th episode while I have started preparing this post (remember I told you guys last week that I will need to prepare buffers for my posts since I might start working on weekends starting next week?) and I just feel like directly going to last ep to know who the person is. The suspense is killing me!!!

Watcher 2
Always to the point Do Chi Hwan

Phew! After a few hours, finally finished it. I would hate to give out spoilers though. Here is the plot. The story follows a cop named Do Chi Hwang (Han Suk Kyu), a traffic policeman named Kim Young Goon (Seo Kang Joon) and a prosecutor turned lawyer called Han Tae Joo (Kim Hyun Joo). They are embroiled in one case 15 years ago when Young Goon’s father is arrested by Chi Hwang for murdering his own wife, Young Goon being only witness and Tae Joo acting as the prosecutor for the case. 8 years later, Tae Joo manages to procure some evidence deeming Young Goon’s father innocent but is attacked by someone in the police breaking her family apart too. The story is set in the present where these three form a team to find the corrupt police officials and prosecutors and reveal the mystery behind all these incidents around these guys.

As I mentioned before, not only the plot has been executed flawlessly without many frustrating points because you are just so busy guessing who the actual perpetrator is but the acting and OSTs are top notch too. But I am sure I haven’t praised anything this much for the plot. Plot itself can carry this particular drama, other things are just icing on the cake.

Watcher 3
The minion doing all the dirty work ❤

The only thing that might be lacking is character development for Do Chi Gwang. You get to know his story, you come to know his POV but he still remains stubborn old man and that actually is his charm. Other characters really see great development, especially Young Goon. Seo Kang Joon also provide some comic relief to otherwise very serious drama. The struggle between what’s right for you, your emotions and what’s the greater good is real in this one though.

The one question they keep asking throughout the series is “Where does our humanity come from? What’s different between a human and an animal?” OMG, I have become such a big fan of this writer’s writing. I will go and look for more dramas from this writer or source material for this drama. In the meantime, you should go check the series out. It’s usual 16 episodes with 1 hour runs. You won’t be disappointed.

Conclusion: Good series need more watchers (Do you see what I did there? :P). I give this series a solid 10/10. 16 episodes, no romantic melo drama. Perfect for people interested in only crime thrillers. I personally also loved the wardrobe of our female lawyer. Those dresses are goals in life.

Final Feelings: ( ＾◡＾)っ ♡

Watch here: Watch Watcher for free on Viki

Personal Front: Nothing much to tell this time. I did get my first ko-fi last week. Thanks to the anonymous person and subsequent people who bought me some, I could prepare this post. I worked more than 40 hours this week and am going to work tomorrow as well. Gotta earn that extra monies lol.

Anyway, I am looking for animal shelters to volunteer for around my area. I could try the library too but I wanna work with animals. Not been very successful so far but let’s see.

Today was also the last day of my boss and a senior whom I had come to be great friends with at my current company. I’ll miss them both. Those last hugs TT_TT.

Today’s song: This new song this time coz haven’t been listening to any lately. Still dunno my feelings about this song from Stray Kids

Disclaimer: All images and videos belong to their respective owners and none of them are mine.

K-Variety Reco: Stray Kids (스트레이 키즈) and Mix & Match

K-Variety Reco: Stray Kids (스트레이 키즈) and Mix & Match

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
Such handsome bois up and down XD

Okay, totally different from what I usually do. Perhaps my recommendations of variety shows till now have been for laughs and lifting bad mood up. And I usually do not review two programs together either.

But this time I decided on these two because they have very similar formats and both programs are very inspiring. I personally do not like survival shows. Apart from showing idol lives and their hard work, they’re just full of tears. And big productions at the level of Produce 101 end up being plagued with issues like evil editing and stuff.

Well I did recommend Idol Producer to my readers a while back. But that was again because it was funny and inspiring at the same time. I did end up not finishing 2nd season of Idol Producer. Anyway, through these two programs, I will probably try to introduce to people two of the iconic boy groups that I love wholeheartedly: Stray Kids and iKon.

Now, Mix & Match is a 2014 9 episode reality show where the Team B from a previous survivals show, WIN: Who is next, are pitted against each other to see who’s up to par to form a new YG group. Stray Kids is, similarly, a 2017 show of 10 episodes where these YG trainees compete against as a team and against each other to determine who is good enough to debut.

Mix & Match Bobby
This precious kid OMG!

It seems that the leaders in both the groups had already trained and formed a team with the other members. So, their bond was good to begin with. Add to that the stress of possibility to lose some of your teammates you have trained with for years, I guess it’s their recipe for a successful survival program?

It was so sad to see the people who initially left, but audience digs friendship and stuff including me, so well, it teared up me too and I prayed hard for people to return back too. Was it successful is something you’ll have to find out through the programs. The missions these guys went through were kind of similar as well.

The differences between the two would be addition of three new members in Mix & Match to already 6 member Team B. Three of the original 6 were fixed to debut at the beginning of the show and remaining three had to fight with the new three members for their places.

Stray Kids did not have any additions because it was a team formed by the leader Bang Chan on his own. From the premise and further interviews from JYP, it seems that JYP did not have any hand in putting the guys together since the beginning. Bang Chan did it all on his own and hence, it was crucial for JYP to see their teamwork and chemistry and determine if they’re worth putting his time and money in.

I don’t think it’s from the survival show though :rummaging the brain hard:

People would ask me what’s good in a bunch of kids fighting to debut as an idol group? My answer is, one I see them working hard till like 5 am and then to attend school at 7 am and so they’re going without sleeping for so long just to achieve their dreams. I cannot forego my sleep no matter what circumstances and these guys are putting in so much hardwork, of course I am damn inspired. Not that I endorse the lifestyle these guys follow, it’s just too unhealthy. But if they’re happy, I am happy too.

Second is, you actually see them achieving their dream, at least most of them. Plus these guys produce such good songs for 15-20 years old, based on their dreams, their hardships in life. That’s talent right there. Don’t you relate with them? Ah, there are people out there going through similar things like normal us and they’re giving their best to change that. I should do it too. No, I can do it too.

That’s inspiration right there. To think bunch of kids would help me in my down time and help me get up and rise and shine.

Conclusion: I highly recommend these two series, because they’re short; you get to learn a lot about SK’s idol industry and idol lives; they’re inspiring, at least to me; there is quite a lot of entertainment and emotions and last but not least, there is a bunch of unexplored and unreleased but amazing music there.

Final feelings: ୧☉□☉୨

Watch here: Mix & Match; Stray Kids

Personal front: Finally a weekend where I am not going out. Unfortunately, I got so addicted to my friends in past two weekends that there is a major missing happening here. I did not meet them this frequently when we were in college together, but I actually traveled 5 hours one way to meet them, that too consecutive weekends. Wow, I am surprised at myself, wouldn’t have imagined doing that 2 years ago.

It’s funny how people around you change you. People, I know you are not reading this, so I can write it peacefully, but I am missing you guys too much, like ‘I wish I could fly and meet you guys right now’ missing.

Anyway, I don’t have much to write about here. I guess I’ll be writing about my friends for next month or so coz no other topic to discuss. Lol. I’ll stop boring you guys with my friends’ details. But they’re the best group I have found till now. I might have said this for more people before and that might have been true till then. But these guys are gold of a different level. Anyway, peace.

Today’s song: Another Stray Kids song? This song talks about their aspirations and how they’re in hell doing the survival show and their training period in general but now they only have one way to go, up. IN first two listens, the music makes you a bit tipsy for some reason but it’s still interesting and grows on you very easily.

I guess I’ll post one more from iKon. This was done while they were doing WIN: Who is next, but it’s a really inspiring one too. I still cry when I read the lyrics. Their performance was legendary at that time though. Linking both performance and studio version, coz the feels are best in the live version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks9SdHV5t-Y

Disclaimer: None of the pics and videos belong to me. They belong to their respective owners. Thank you for letting me borrow them.

Webtoon Reco: My Letter (연의 편지)

Webtoon Reco: My Letter (연의 편지)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
Your letter ch 2

O.M.G. Like how can one person write such a wholesome and most importantly complete story in just 10 chapters? And a while back I was talking about a good story line in less than 50 chapters.

You read that right. Just 10 chapters. Not novel chapters but webtoon chapters. This week I bring you guys a story which would make your hearts full. It started publishing back in Feb. I think I started reading this webtoon in March, but never realized that it would finish so soon, and I miss it. I truly miss it. Another Wednesday webtoon came to an end. And it had such an impeccable timing too. I can recommend it to my readers this week.

The webtoon, written by Cho Hyeon A tells the story of a girl called Sori. Kind and caring, Sori stands up for a girl being bullied in her middle school and becomes a victim herself while her friend transfers away. Ultimately Sori has to transfer from her middle school as well and she finds herself traumatized from her past experience and hence, a bit difficult to interact with people in new school.

Your letter ch 1
I don’t know how many times I have asked that question to myself till date. It’s so relateable…

Afraid that she might face similar situation again, she decides to keep to herself. And then she finds a letter under her desk in the class. This results in a treasure hunt where the guy who previously used to sit in Sori’s seat, takes her on an amazing discovery of magical places and new friends.

Apart from its pros of great art and amazing plot line, that you usually might find in my recommendations, this webtoon has an unusual charm to it. It takes you on a ride of nostalgia of your school days where you might or might not have formed great relationships, not with just classmates but people around, may be gardener or janitor. Also, the special corners in your school you might have shared only with very precious friends.

Your letter ch 3
Special friendships and special places 😌

Of course it raises the ever rampant issue of bullying. And I certainly am a fan of media that raise social issues or inspires one. So, it gets more points for that.

Regarding the art, the use of only 2-3 colors in each panel gives it a unique flavor in my opinion. It’s like finding happiness in really dull life/moments. And so, for me personally, the colors represent the dullness while the plot drives towards a happy ending. It gives the webtoon a dark vibe and fits really well with the overall theme of the webtoon.

As for cons, I don’t have any. It could have gone all wrong given that it’s just 10 eps but its delivery is just fantastic. By the time you even start to try to find any flaws, it gets over. It certainly gives Ghibli Studio productions like feeling. And it’s not even a 15 mins read, so I don’t think anyone reading this has anything to lose. Below is the official trailer from webtoons.com

Conclusion: It’s a really heartwarming story and while it’s a shame that it ended so soon, it doesn’t feel that bad. It was a nice ending and the webtoon truly deserves the rating it has on webtoons.com. I cannot recommend it enough. It’s just so precious that my heart warms up just thinking about it. I guess I’ll go read it again.

Final feelings: (づ ◕‿◕ )づ

Read here: Your letter on webtoons for free

Personal front: This is the first time I have finished writing the whole post before personal section, since I started it. I was perhaps dreading writing it? But right now I am going through really bad phase of my life. Without delving into much details though, I just hope it passes soon.

Anyway, a friend of mine earlier this week introduced me to two new boy groups called The Boyz and Stray Kids and OMG, I am finished. They’re such precious boys. I have officially become a noona fan (although I would be a noona fan to iKon too ;-; ).

I guess they would be my solace for now as Infinite and SuJu were in 2015? Or Exo were in 2017? Wow, I see a pattern here, odd numbered years. Hmm, that’s sad. Anyway, I’ll leave it at that.

Today’s song: Being a new fan I guess it will be songs from these two groups for a long long time. I am not going to lament on lack of songs to post now lol. Below is the song from Stray Kids which I have been listening non stop for some time now, on loop. Also, shout out to my friend who introduced me to these groups. It’s actually so much fun having fellow k-pop lovers.

Disclaimer: All the pics above are property of webtoons.com and Cho Hyeon A. Nothing here belongs to me. Today’s song is the property of JYP Ent.

K-drama Review: Terius Behind Me (내 뒤에 테리우스)

K-drama Review: Terius Behind Me (내 뒤에 테리우스)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
Terius behind me.

Hello everyone, how are you guys doing? Apparently, this was going to be my last post for 2018 but as usual, it didn’t happen. Do remember that this is a review and not a recommendation. I personally feel like I wasted too much time watching this drama. And I don’t want my readers to go through the same, even after the star studded cast.

This drama is a prime example of over-hyped actors in the drama and a haphazardly put bland plot. If you read the synopsis on the drama websites, you come across the words NIS agent, conspiracy, murder and a widowed female lead whose husband is the part of this whole conspiracy. Fans of criminal dramas like me are hooked.

But then you get 2 annoying kids who if they were my kids I would slap the shit out of them to make them understand how troublesome they are are the cause of each and every trouble in the whole drama. Basically, the whole plot rests on the fact that the two brats cannot control themselves.

The troublemakers and plot drivers

I envy them for having such a lovely mother though, they still cannot understand her plight. Some people would bash me over expecting too much from 5 and 7 year olds but trust me, you would get annoyed just watching them, imagine dealing with them in real life, ugh.

Anyway, this is a story about an NIS agent called Kim Bon (So Ji Sub) who was falsely accused of murdering a spy from North Korea, despite them being lovers. He is still being chased by some of the NIS agents so he’s gone undercover, trying to find real murderer behind his past lover. Go Ae Rin (Jung In Sun) is a normal housewife whose husband works for some big conglomerate and is killed when he witnesses a murder of some congressman happening.

That’s probably the most romantic moment in the drama?

Through fateful meetings and help of her extra nosy neighbors, Go Ae Rin realizes that her husband was actually part of a conspiracy. She also happens to start working for the same set of people who murdered her husband, coincidentally of course. Then she gets involved with actual NIS and helps Kim Bon clear his name and catch the murderers who are just a small part of a bigger chain involving all the bigshots from the government. They solve the mystery and fall in love too.

The synopsis looks pretty normal. But as I stated in the beginning, this story is just a bunch of loopholes and you end up pulling at your hair in frustration. (Another frustration filled update will be coming soon with The Golden Eyes).

Okay…

The only good thing about the drama is the acting of main leads. So Ji Sub is a veteran. This was my first drama with Jung In Sun and I really liked her acting. The villain was good too and the most comedic part of the drama. But other characters were so frustrating, especially Kim Bon’s friend in NIS.

I hate it when scriptwriters take us normal people as fools when it comes to criminal dramas. But they should understand that we viewers have so much material at our dispense, that although we obviously can’t be experts, it’s easy for us to point out flaws. I would give them though, it was hard to figure real villain out. The focus kept shifting from one person to other. But by mid of the series, that also became really obvious, so, yeah.

Me as the story progressed

Comedy was okayish too. The awkward Kim Bon with the kids was hilarious. I remember the OSTs to be good. Revisited and I actually like almost all of them.

I can’t really think of anything. Quite disappointed I was. The plot was so bad that it trumps everything. I don’t know why it’s rated so high mydramalist and other websites.

Conclusion: Watch it at your own risk. If you want something which you could watch without putting too much brain into it, and just pass time, you might give it a try. I personally would give it a 4/10. 16 eps and I was just wondering when it was going to end.

Final Feelings: (；⌣̀_⌣́)

Watch here: Couldn’t find any official release. So, here, unofficial one on dramacools

Personal Front: I went to look at an apartment today and it was really disappointing. I think I shouldn’t look at houses at all. I gotta find a new place for me as soon as I can.

In other news, the golden eyes is coming to an end and I absolutely hate the fact that Zhang Yixing would choose such a poorly written script. Or, perhaps, given that how close his character in the drama is to his life philosophy, he just chose the drama for that? That would be such a sad thing.

Also, as I mentioned in my last post that I won a few merch from this company’s prediction game. One of them was a manga portrait done by a professional artist. So, here I present my manga portrait. It would also be the first time revealing myself here lol, at least in part.

Yours truly

Today’s song: I really liked this one OST from this drama:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzEtUUKkFJs

Disclaimer: The pics and videos belong to their respective owners. I do not own anything.

Webtoon Reco: My Boo (투명한 동거)

Webtoon Reco: My Boo (투명한 동거)

by eastasianlover ♥ 5 Comments
My Boo 1

This week, I am recommending another short-sweet-love and slice of life webtoon from South Korea. It’s been very very long since I finished any manga/ manhwa/ manhua tbh.

I might review Barakamon when its last volume comes out late July. But otherwise, I’ll have to really dig out all the manga I have finished and probably read them again to review. I might actually do that someday but right now life is hectic and I will, perhaps, continue reviewing ongoing webtoons.

Webtoons are the craze these days anyway. Not only Naver’s original webtoons.com have it, but apps like Tapas and Tappy Toon have ever increasing collection. Not to mention, the Chinese webnovels being converted to colored webtoons have taken over the world by storm as well. People who’re already paying to read novels are now also engrossed in their respective webtoons, pouring in more money. *Cough Cough* Qidian is getting richer by the day… *Cough*

My Boo is the love story of a human girl and a ghost guy. When love transcends the boundary of dead and alive, that’s when you get My Boo. It’s not a new concept and I am following another webtoon these days on a similar theme called Ghost Wife.

My Boo 2
I ship ❤

Anyway, the protagonist of this story is a girl names Yuri So who can see the ghosts for some reason. She has had traumatic past with them and tries to avoid them as much as she can. She finds it hard to maintain a balance between her powers and her urge to help when she sees one in distress.

She works as a freelance translator and moves into a new house whose previous owner was our ghost, Jun Ko. He died in the house and is stuck there for past 3 years. First Yuri avoids him and outright rejects him just to not involve herself with him. But slowly she starts understanding him and herself and they become housemates in real sense, ultimately falling in love for each other.

My Boo 3
My Boo 4
I love the dialogue delivery too. Peaceful yet powerful.

What I like the most about this webtoon is how maturely it’s been written. Each chapter starts with a glimpse from Yuri’s past, especially her traumatic experience after which she decided not to involve herself with the ghosts.

It also gives the POV of both Yuri and Jun and how their feelings change for each other. With just 47 episodes, the story is fleshed out so well, I can just feel all the feels again. The emotions in this webtoon are so real and so relate-able, I just can’t. I ended up binge reading it again.

As I said, you can just feel it all with just two characters. Like the whole 47 chapters is majorly with just two characters. OMG, I have whole new level of respect for the author Jeongseo. How can they make something so good with just two characters? You can feel Jun’s helplessness when he can’t save Yuri from falling from stairs or when he can’t drive her to hospital like her ‘human’ friends or when he can’t touch her or when he can’t hold her.

My Boo 5
I feel so helpless just reading this one dialogue, dammit!

Same for Yuri, she can’t save him. She can’t bring him back. She can’t help falling for him either. But fate has something else for them. Their interaction is so fluffy, so awkward initially and turning into sweet moments later. Anyway, I’ll warn beforehand, this webtoon has a bittersweet ending, one which would make you cry and smile at the same time.

And the next best thing about the webtoon is art. Realistic, simple, cute and just amazing. I wish I could draw like that. There is also a 3-D effect about it. The author has real understanding of angles and perspective. Since Jun can pass through objects, most of the scenes need to be presented from unusual angles and I personally feel that Jeongseo-nim has done an excellent job regarding that.

I don’t really have anything negative to talk about. I loved the webtoon to the core.

Conclusion: Giving this like 110/10, highly highly recommended from me. It’s max 2 hours read and is so very engrossing. It has a rating of 9.77 at webtoons.com!!! So, it’s just not me lol. Also, forgot to mention earlier, it also has cute cats. Now I want a boo of my own.

Final feelings: (❤ω❤)

Read here: My Boo on Webtoon for free

Personal Front: I had a very rude awakening this week. So, I was telling some juniors of mine how since they’re in college, they should not be wasting time like how I did and they really have golden opportunity right now and of course I was rambling on and on. It’s actually become a habit to be lecturing those people because I thought I cared and didn’t want them to repeat the mistakes I did but well. And one of them really opened my eyes.

So, if I, as a person who’s like perhaps 6 years senior to those kids, tell them stuff like this, I am acting like their parents and lecturing but if another person who’s just 1-2 years senior to them says exact same thing, they listen. I realized two things then and there: the power of peers vs. anyone else and plight of parents.

We listen to our peers because we think that they relate more to us and understand us better while blaming our parents for generation gap yada yada. I do admit that parents’ way of telling us about adulting might not be the nicest and their advice might not really be suitable for the current economy and circumstances and times etc., but we can always mold their advice to suit ourselves. I guess I would be paying more attention to my parents’ teachings and try to understand them more from now on. Thanks for the valuable lesson whoever the person was.

In other news, I might have to update my last review for the Golden Eyes because the plot went downhill way too fast. After 18th episode, I am so frustrated but I cannot drop it because I have seen further trailers and they’re yet to tell the secret behind the power. Aarrghh, such decisions in life, I tell ya!

Today’s Song: I don’t remember if I have posted this song before but I am back to listening to this song since I have been watching Lay’s drama:

Webtoon Recommendation: Super Secret (슈퍼 시크릿)

Webtoon Recommendation: Super Secret (슈퍼 시크릿)

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment
Super Secret Webtoon

This post was supposed to be the first post of 2019 but I somehow ended up reviewing a webnovel first. So, although I had written this post in the first week of January, I had to change the whole intro again, (basically write everything again). Oh well. I have moved some parts of my intro to the personal section of the post, if anyone’s interested

Anyway, today I bring this super cute 4-panel webtoon for you guys. Completed just a month back, it’s one of my favorite webtoons, kind of. I feel so happy for the characters. But damn, I’ll miss my Wednesday update every week.

Written by author by the name of “eon”, it is a rather short webtoon with 144 chapters only and a webtoon rating of 9.82!! So I guess it comes highly recommended from webtoon readers?

It is a heartwarming slice of life romcom (interesting combo tbh but I am seeing this combo popping up again and again these days) about a clumsy girl called Emma Ji whose parents live abroad and her childhood friend Ryan Nam who has been taking care of her, performing all duties of a mom, a dad and her best friend.

Super Secret funny 2
Lol, Emma admits it herself

As *two childhood friends who fall in love with each other but the girl doesn’t have a clue* cliche as it sounds, what sets it apart from other stories like this is that Ryan and his family have a secret. They’re supernatural beings. Ryan himself is a werewolf, his two sisters are witch and a nine tailed fox (Trust me, it’s not a spoiler! It is just a secret for Emma, not the readers XD XD). These guys helping Emma with her normal life while trying to keep their super secret a secret from everyone including Emma and her friends create real hilarious situations.

More than that, you really feel for Ryan. He is hopelessly in love with her. While our airhead Emma tries to just live her life, she’s totally obvious to Ryan’s or her own feelings. Added to the mix are problems that arise from Ryan’s secret, since in this universe, humans are not allowed to know about the existence of the supernatural beings.

There are of course ways to evade that rule but it involves so many complications that it often poses danger to Emma and her other hooman friends. Her friends also get involved with other super beings.

Super secret funny
Like you’re ever gonna do it >.>

What I really like about the webtoon is the art, which is super cute and fluffy despite being based majorly on humans (super beings in the form of humans, but you get my point, right?). And the author has really not bound the story and characters by any boundaries in the sense that even Ryan’s family contains all kind of beings, which is interesting in terms of procreation (Can you think of a Frankenstein and a Korean spirit/ Goddess with children who are nine tailed fox, witch and a werewolf? Unless they’re all adopted? No information there). I mean, it’s fine, don’t wanna go into nitty gritty stuff.

I also liked the comedy part. It’s not laugh out loud kind of comedy but just funny. You feel good reading it. I wouldn’t comment on character development because it’s not really a plot driven webtoon. I mean there is an overarching theme of how Emma discovers Ryan’s secret and their feelings for each other. But it’s not like you get to see people grow beyond their flaws and stuff.

Super secret 5
From the author’s postscript…

What I don’t like about the webtoon is that it wasn’t originally supposed to be this long. Near the end, there was a lot of stuff in the plot which seemed unnecessary to me, and the author admits it in the last chapter. They had planned it only for 50 chapters but it went on to become almost 100 chapters more. They’re not unbearable and I won’t know how it would feel to binge read it. Perhaps it would make more sense reading it all together?

But somewhere I did get lost in the plot. It seemed to be like every Korean drama where a point comes and you just want to skip to the end. It was not possible for me because I was obviously following it while it was publishing and reading one chapter per week.

Super secret funny 3
Uh, I might be slave to this cutesy art too XD

Conclusion: Personally, despite my reservations about the unnecessary additions of characters and plot to keep the editors happy and just for the sake of it, I really like it. In my weekly schedule, for months, this was the only webtoon that I followed that updated on Wednesday (I have started 2 new webtoons now, so Wednesdays don’t seem empty anymore). And I really looked forward to it every week.

So, I would still recommend my readers to give it a try. It’s not that long that you would feel that you’ve invested too much time reading it anyway.

Final feelings: (o˘◡˘o)

Read here: Super Secret on Webtoons.com

Personal Front: Well, as I mentioned earlier, this post was to go up in mid-Jan as I came back from India to US after a vacay of 3 weeks. I was feeling a bit of non-belonging-ness to either US or India, although I have lived some 23 years in India and 2.5 years in US (time indeed flies!!).

Like you know, I have mentioned this before but I don’t really get attached to places. Not my undergrad college, not Thailand, not my previous place of work, not here. And Pittsburgh is actually the place where I have spent 3rd longest time of my life at one place. It all seems very interesting to me.

Anyway, there is nothing much to tell on personal front otherwise. I am 1/5th through this book called “Common Stocks, Uncommon Profits” and I am loving it so far, more so because I finished those 60+ pages in 2 hours, thanks to an online friend.

I asked her to work for an hour on some project without getting distracted and being accountable to each other for the work we decided upon. It actually feels good to be accomplishing something like that. I see myself using this technique of productivity more often in the future.

Today’s song: Somehow got hooked to Taemin’s new song. Although I don’t like how changed he looks with regards to body (too thin and a bit shorter compared to before? I feel like he doesn’t have bones in his body anymore!), I am loving the sound. It feels okay putting on repeat and listening at length, plus the lyrics are so narcissist, that it inspires some confidence in otherwise under-confident me (Today I realized that the meaning of the song could be quite sensual as well):

Disclaimer: All the images used here are property of author eon and webtoons.com and have directly been taken from the website. Nothing belongs to me or the blog.

Free Language Classes in Pittsburgh

Free Language Classes in Pittsburgh

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Hi dear readers,

It’s been a while, as usual. This time, I have been actually really very busy. As I stated in some previous post (or did I at all?), I have taken some 5 grad courses, I have research to do and then I have a part time job for which I have to pull all-nighters twice a week. So, I am pretty busy. I have been unable to keep up with new anime even. However, I do find time to go to anime club every week. I have missed only twice this semester. I have been to quite a few movies as well and meet friends not from my department at least bi-weekly. Now that I have written it down, I realize I am really enjoying this sem. And then, I have joined these free language classes which will be the main focus of this post.

One of my Chinese friends knew how interested I was in languages (she herself is a big fan of Big Bang and hence is interested in learning Korean) and she took me to these free language classes that are held in Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (by volunteers I think, not sure). I have joined Korean, which is held every Saturday, Japanese which happens every other Monday and the Russian which happens every alternate Thursday. There are options for Chinese, French, German and Spanish as well. I wanted to join Spanish but had already missed number of classes so gave up on it.

First of all, let me review Korean classes. I joined Korean classes when they had already done 8 weeks of work, out of which 4 weeks were spent in learning the alphabet supposedly. Thank God for that. The best part about these classes is that there is structure, there is review and there are buddies to practice with. We have learnt the general stuff in Korean till now: Where do you go?, Your family, What do you like?, making verbs out of nouns etc. etc. This time, the grammar sticks! Because we’re continuously using it in practice. We form pairs and try to talk. The teacher is really helpful and cute as well. And since she is not actually a teacher, we get to learn from a commoner’s perspective: the commoner’s language. I have been to 2-3 classes and enjoyed them thoroughly. This is the most fun class out of three.

For Japanese, since it happens once in two weeks, I have gone to only 2 classes. They were teaching very basic stuff: What do you like, time etc. I was planning on dropping this class because I thought my level was definitely above than that. However, yesterday, when I got to know that minutes in Japanese are ‘ふん’ and not ‘ぶん’ which I had thought was the case all along (for like 5 years! Gosh!), I realized I have never really paid attention to the details. I was also struggling with numbers greater than 10 somehow (THESE ARE SUCH ELEMENTARY THINGS!! No wonder I don’t pass my JLPT exams ;-;). Well, it gave a huge blow to my confidence but after the practice session, I did get a little bit of it back. So now I am planning to go through it till the end. And if I end up interning in summers in CMU only, then I’ll have access to the new semester of classes, so I can join Spanish and French and second level classes for the ones I am learning already.

Third is Russian. The first class for me was a disaster. Not because the classes were bad, but because I had missed more classes than I had thought I had. I joined them in probably 5th class and though the class was small (like 8 people) all of them were proficient with the alphabet. I had learnt their alphabet 2 years ago, so obviously I didn’t remember anything. But the teacher was quite patient with me and let me attend the classes. I promised her to learn the alphabet before next class and I did well with reading in the next class (a small yay!). I have no clue what happened in the classes I missed though. The one I attended, we talked about family, pronouns and gender. I have also started with duolingo for Russian. Russian is totally alien to me except one song I hear in Ukrainian which is distantly related to Russian language including similar alphabet. But I am enjoying learning it thus far because the teacher is interesting as well.

Here is a link for if you’re in Pittsburgh and interested in attending the free classes: Pittsburgh Free Language Classes
They will start new ‘semester’ of classes in summer, May I think. Check their website for more info.

So, this is what I am doing apart from all the academic stuff. I would have loved to post pics of worksheets but it might be copyright violation so I won’t do that. I’ll post the song I talked about above.

First Step Korean: A Beginner Coursera Course from Yonsei University

First Step Korean: A Beginner Coursera Course from Yonsei University

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Hey peeps! This time I am going to review this course which I took up in their last available session. I hope, most of you are aware of Coursera, a platform for free and paid open MOOC courses. I have been a student there since they started (although I never came around to complete any of their courses because laziness).

I have been waiting like crazy for them to introduce language courses, and I have always wondered that they have courses from so many non-English Universities, why these universities wouldn’t introduced beginner level courses for their languages. There are a ton for English language!! Well, this just goes to show how much learning languages is unpopular (or that universities are busy enough to not make any elementary school level course?) Things are certainly improving though and I found two language courses there apart from English: Korean and Mandarin

So, since I have been neglecting Korean for quite sometime now, I decided to take up this absolute beginner level course from Yonsei University. It turned out to be easier than I thought (at least initial levels), for of course, my level was a little above than the level of material provided here (WARNING: this was written before I reached 4th week). But for a beginner who is confused as to where to start, or a person who has been able to acquire some words from the dramas, this is a great head start. I, at least, learnt a lot from it.

The professor Seung Hae Kang seems to be very sweet and gentle lady and her lectures are like she is teaching a live class before her. It does excite one to take Korean classes from a Korean professor. The TAs are very helpful and prompt in the forums. The course is divided into 5 weeks and each week takes up one topic and introduce grammar points based on that. The topics covered are Korean Alphabet, Greetings, Family, Time and Date and Daily life. Through these lessons, grammar portion covered is Hangeul, Particles, Verb conjugation in present tense and both types of number systems in Korean.

What I like about the course is that it’s self-paced. Within the given time frame of the course, you can complete your assignments any time you want, even after the weekly deadlines (but before the final course deadline). There are dozens of new words in each lecture. You get to listen Korean conversations, in context, directly from native speakers (although a lot of Korean language resources use that) and the lectures are quite interesting. The content covered in 5 weeks is really exhaustive.

Which brings me to the cons of the course that it might seem overwhelming to absolute beginners to do so much in so less time. But rest assured. They have new sessions coming up regularly and if you rejoin any subsequent session because you were unable to complete previous session in time, your progress from previous session will carry over to the new one (I have done it for another course, so it definitely works, but please do check, just in case).

Another thing I find a bit sad is really easy quizzes. I scored a 96.6% in total just because I committed 2/3 silly mistakes. Otherwise quizzes are way easier than the course covered. Nonetheless, they give a good practice of particles (I am finally able to differentiate the ones taught in the course, yay!!!).

The thing I absolutely disliked was that to get a certificate I would’ve to pay 29$. 29$!!! Coursera seemed awesome when there were at least free statement of accomplishment. I mean, for an Indian 29$ is not that big an amount but not that small either. If I have to pay such amount for each and every subject, then…. Although financial aid is available for most of the subjects but anyway, I gave up on the certificate for every course, and just focus on learning. Which is not that bad either. I also don’t like their verification thing before every quiz either. But, it’s not the course’s fault, so it’s alright. Also, I do understand why Coursera has to take such measures, so I have made peace with it.

Hence, I would recommend this course to people looking for a head start in Korean or brush up their concepts a little!! You can go and have a look for yourself at: First Step Korean

In the end, the story of me neglecting Korean studies is that, I have been trying to start with TTMIK again. Or start the books I have, though they might not be the best out there (but I learnt a lesson about books in my last post, remember?). But all in vain. I am putting Korean on hold after I completed the course. I will continue with the vocabulary though (don’t want to absolutely cut from it, since no good drama coming either. Weekly idol after format change has become a little boring as well 😦 )

Heck, I have even been thinking of taking up Thai again and at least finish the notes my senior in Thailand (who was provided with the material by her company itself) gave me. I am a lazy ass after all (That’s something you must have definitely observed given that I try to make a proper schedule of posting blog posts ultimately abandoning it in two weeks or so. I even forgot to put up my blog’s third anniversary post).

Height is that I have JLPT in two months and I just can’t seem to develop an interest in Genki 😐 Guess, I’ll lack in grammar again this time….

46th TOPIK Registration Open In India

46th TOPIK Registration Open In India

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Just to inform that registration for 46th TOPIK to be held on 17th April 2016 is open in India now and the due date for the forms is 16th Feb 2016.

Need to gear up for the exam!!! 화이팅!

More info here: 46th TOPIK 2016

The form is available for downloading on the above page itself as attached file, in case of any confusion.

Studying Japanese from Genki + Time management

Studying Japanese from Genki + Time management

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So, I managed to grab an e-copy of Genki Integrated Elementary Japanese I and II from a friend and I’m glad I did. I probably haven’t given any time to a textbook like I’m giving to this one in my four years. It is a good practice for me. The workbook covers everything taught in the book extensively apart from the exercises in the book itself. I am printing and practicing everyday. Thus my reading, writing and listening skills are getting better.

The best thing is, it is providing a definite shape to my Japanese studies. I had always been clueless as to where to start from, after Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji has always been an obstacle for me. But now I’m finally starting to grasp the things. Loving the book totally!

I wish to get a Korean book like this too. Although I do own a lot of e-books and I’m doing what I can from Basic Korean – A Grammar and Workbook, I don’t have much to practice my writing with. I need some workbooks for that but I’m broke nowadays to buy any book. Ah! I need some money or some source of free e-books.

Now, the time management thingie. I’m pretty much satisfied with the pace my Korean and Japanese are going on. I’m at least giving time to them daily (excluding Sundays since very less time is left for me to give to Thailand). Now that my mentor has gone to Japan and I don’t have many projects at hand, I have a lot more time. But sometimes, I feel that the time is just flowing by and I’m not able to do much productive work. I’ve been neglecting my blog too.

Only one month more to go and I’ll be in India. My stay in Thailand is coming to an end and I think I am getting depressed about that. If only I had the books, my new phone for awesome apps and GoGo Korean Beginners course from Pegasus Society and very inspiring fellow bloggers who are learning languages themselves earlier, I would’ve been one level up by now in both the languages. But I don’t want to regret and fret over the things, hence I’m trying to accomplish more in the given time. But even then, the time is flying too fast. In a blink of an eye, it is lunch time!

***After Lunch***

Ah! Why do we need to eat food? Why was this thing called stomach given to us? If only, we had the power to make food from sunlight like plants. Wastes a lot of time! This is going to happen again – I’ll become sleepy – then sleep for probably half an hour and it will be 3! Then in last two hours, I’ll study some Korean and waste some more time considering the body becomes so sluggish. I don’t have concept like Power Nap – a big tragedy in my life. Better chug down some coffee again and not sleep at all. I wonder, what I will do in my college if I get addicted again here…….

Side Story 1 – Day before yesterday, we went to the Platinum Fashion mall (This particular mall in Bangkok is just full of clothes and anything you name. I call it heaven for girls) again for probably 5th-6th time. There was a shop with traditional Chinese dresses that I saw for the first time yesterday. Those red and black beautiful dresses! I wanted to buy but I was running low on cash, so I had to postpone it. ㅠ_ㅠ

Side Story 2 – I’m sure, from my talks about money in this or other posts, you may think I’m stingy. I admit to the fact, I am. I tend to be very careful while spending money. But my friend here managed to convince me that, this whole trip of mine is being sponsored by me myself (credits to the company of course). Hence I should not think much. Moreover the clothes and accessories have far greater variety here than in India and are cheaper too. I have collected a lot now.

Side Story 3 – Now that I’ve mentioned in above story, clothes and accessories, I feel like writing about the fact that I’ve completely changed with regards to shopping attitude. I was never even interested in accessories, let alone buying them. But my friend has made me such a shopaholic that I want to take whatever I like including bags, earrings, lockets etc. etc. I shouldn’t become that spendthrift but when she says – In India, these are very expensive and you’ll need them when you start your office, even if you can’t use them in the deserted isolated college – BITS Pilani, of yours – I get allured by it.

Today’s song – Since, in my last post I said, I was listening to OSTs, I’ll post one again. In my school related dramas post I mentioned this anime and I just love such a peppy song. Again there are TV size and full size versions. Hope you enjoy this one –

TOPIK dates for 2014 confirmed

TOPIK dates for 2014 confirmed

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I need to keep these in mind this time and prepare accordingly….

Mai's avatarkoreanstudentblog

The dates for next year’s TOPIK tests have been confirmed!

제33회: January 19 – scores announced February 10

제34회: April 19 / 20 (Both Korea and abroad) – scores announced May 30

제35회: July 20 – scores announced August 5

제36회: October 11 / 12 (Both Korea and abroad) – scores announced November 10

제37회: November 23 – scores announced December 10

Please remember that the sign-up period varies from country to country so keep an eye on your local test organiser’s website.

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