Welcome Back! 잘왔어!

Well, hello there.... Long time no see.   As usual my life has taken some odd turns.  In the last year and a half, I have gone through a bad relationship turned good breakup... I left the school and spent  six months looking for a new job AND I moved in with my parents.  I also, lost a loved one and sent my brother off to get married.  2016 was a year of ups and downs and unfortunately during the heartbreak and joy, I didn't have time for learning Korean, or even for watching dramas.
But, NOW it's a new year...and new years are a time to refresh and jump start into things you have been missing or planning.

So I thought, maybe it was time to get back into the Korean language...back into watching things I love and back into writing/blogging.

I look back on what this blog was... and what I wanted it to be, and I see that I may have not made all my goals, but I enjoyed the process and a grew as a person, in the learning.  Let's face it, you knew and I knew that I was never going to learn a language in one summer... But I also knew it was more fun trying than not.  That I would know more after the summer than I did before and that shooting for the stars is worth the flight risk.




So what now? That summer is over... I "wasted time" and didn't keep up my studies and now I remember very little of this language that I still love.  Maybe it's time to start another adventure... And maybe you would like to come along with me again?




There won't be any rules or expectations this time, and I may not remember to blog about it...but if there is one thing I have learned from this past year...it is that you need to live right here and right now...and stop waiting for the perfect moment to come, because maybe this is the perfect moment and you are missing it by waiting for something better.  Don't wait so long for your life to start that you miss out on the living of it.

So here we go... One little baby step out into something that I want... To speak Korean better today than I did yesterday. Maybe, for now, that is enough.

My Adventure in "Korea."

I recently went to Korea... Oklahoma.  

So, basicly...  I was watching a Ftisland video with my nephew (who is 7), and I meantioned that I really like Lee Jae Jin, for his beautiful voice and because he is so pretty.

Examples:

This conversation went back and forth and grew, resulting in a very grossed out 7 year old boy and crazy Aunt saying "Fine, I will go to Korea and find him and if he is not married... I will marry him."
Now this was a joke, but since I was going to stay with a friend over night... I thought that it would be fun to make some photoshop pictures and have a little adventure "in Korea."  Something  to show him and his siblings, to let them know I was thinking about them while I was gone.    I even made up a Kdrama-ish story to go with my pictures.  I thought that it would be fun to share those pictures and my little story with you guys.   So enjoy!!

Since we had been watching You are Beautiful together, I promised my niece and nephews to bring back pictures of the cast... My first meet up was with Yong Hwa:

He was nice, but not really interested in me.

But he did introduce me to Lee Hong Ki, (Jeremy):

Who brought me to lunch with the other cast members.  Unfortunately, when Hong Ki took the picture he caught me when I was mid-sentence.

Hong Ki then introduced me to his band mate, none other than Lee Jae Jin...

But Jae Jin liked my friend more than me... :(  (It's okay, because I would later realize that is a picture of Hong Ki, NOT Jae Jin... Sshhh  don't tell the kids... Or anyone that will take my fangirl card away.)

But it was okay that it didn't workout for me and Jae Jin, (Or rather Hong Ki)...  My mission wasn't over yet, my 7 year old nephew had asked for a picture of his favorite member of EXO, Baek Hyun:

Baek Hyun was really nice, but he insisted on putting his arm around me... which made my feel nervous.  

When I was hanging out with Baek Hyun, another memeber of EXO showed up... And I think Chan Yeol was taken with me:

Really taken:

Really, really taken:

We went on one date, but aren't official because I had to go to America... But in 1 to 5 years, I am sure I will see him again and everything will be perfect then.

The really funny thing about this story is my nephew was really confused by the end and had to ask a few times if I had really been to Korea... Or was I just kidding.  :)   That made my day.


Oh!  And I did find Pig Rabbit's ancestor:

(Pig Rabbit is a stuffed animal from You are Beautiful, and a favorite with the kids and me.)

So, there you have it, my summer in Korean ended with a wonderful "trip" to Korea... Maybe one day I will have one for real... then, my fake Korean boyfriend and I can finally be together.

Vlogs 7, 8 and 9!!

Sorry it took so long to get these up!  Here you go! 

How this all started, Part 3: KPop? Wait...You like this?

I believe that the Korean language is beautiful... I think it can sound rhythmic, smooth and romantic; and at other times choppy, hard and cool.  For you to really understand how I have begun to fall in love with a language you have to know more about my new deep burning love for its music.

Introducing... KPop:

Now I do not claim to be an expert on any level... I can really only tell you, like with most of this, about my own experience and how this music touches me.  Like most of us, US fans... I found KPop while looking up actors names from my first drama.  I realized that two of the actors from You are Beautiful, were in actual bands in real life.  

Jung Yong Hwa from the band CNBlue:

And Lee Hong Ki from the band ftisland:

I decided to try the music... Never expecting to really like it.  I had tried french music before and didn't like it that much... and I had tried a few other languages and their music but I would quickly get bored not knowing what they were saying... But when I listened to what was available on Pandora... I found that I actually really liked the sound.  I will admit that in the beginning it might have been more about the oddity than the music itself at least until one fateful night... When I looked up the music videos.   I thought that a song on Pandora sounded kind of cool... it was by the group VIXX and the song was called Hyde... Mind you this was my first exposure to what Kpop can look like.

 

I was so creeped out by the video I wondered if I should give up on Kpop all together...but for whatever reason I looked up one more video, To the Light by FTisland...





And that my friends is when I fell in love with  Korean music.

This video, song and band would lead me on to finding out that I loved Korean Music... That I loved the sound of the Korean language... And through it I would find other groups that I loved, such as, CNBlue, Shinee, EXO, Tablo and so on and so forth.  Ironically, the song that started all this... "To the Light" is sung in Japanese.

So... Maybe I am learning the wrong language?  Naw....

I guess, now you might be wondering why I even like to listen to this music that I can't understand... That can creep me out...given the right music video and that might sometimes be in Japanese, even when the band is Korean.
Well... I think that this meme sums it all up:

I just like it..  I love the music...the amazing voices of the singers, the awesome rappers... And it really helps that they throw in a lot of English here and there so you can figure out what the theme of a lot of the songs are... On top of all of that Kpop has a culture all of its own... filled with crazy costumes, even crazier stunts and adorable performers that just make you smile and ask... Why?

As I delve more deeply into the music I learn more words, more culture and a deeper respect for the people of Korea... Music is something that transcends culture, language, time and space.  Music can touch your heart without you even knowing why.  When I heard the FTisland song that night... I didn't  know what it was about other than it was something to do with reaching the light... but that song gave me hope and it inspired me to find out more.   I can now usually tell if one of the songs is in Japanese over Korean, and I like the Korean versions better, but To the Light will always have a special place in my heart.  

So there you have it... How this all started... is hopefully just the beginning.  

6th Vlog

Just a little Update: 

Fighting!! 화이팅 (Korean for "You can do it!!")

So,  you haven't heard from me in awhile... Bet you are wondering, what the heck happened to Bekah?

Well, the truth is, I think that I have or had lost my way a little...  Or a lot.  How do I begin?  First let me just say that this will be a little more serious than some of my other posts.

I don't actually think that I can do this.  I don't feel that I can actually learn a language, I have never thought of myself as a smart person... In fact I thought that I was dumb most of my life.  Learning a language that is not even close to my native language?  Why didn't I just say that I was going to walk to Korea in one summer... LOL... I am drowning either way.

So, let me back up...  I started to doubt myself about two weeks ago...  Depression hit me...and  this has been affecting multiple parts of my life.  Here's the thing about people who struggle with depression, we struggle with it.  It's not something that we overcome and then it is gone...it's the monster under the bed that keeps poking its ugly head out.  And we that fight with it, fall down and we have to find the courage to stand up again.  This is normal. It's normal for me to have down days or weeks or months...  But it's about what I do with those times that matter.  It's about whether I let that get me down or if I stand back up.  It's about whether I let that draw me away from God or get closer to Him.   If I let it take me away from my dreams or fight harder for them.

Why did I get down?  A lot of reasons... I am moving.  I am not looking forward to this... My apartment is WRECKED right now... It looks like a large explosion has happened as I am trying to pack.
The world has gotten crazy around  me and I am not sure what to do with it.  I have had some personal issues with some friends and I am really just super scared about the future... I want to go to college and I want to become an actual librarian...and  I am so scared to even begin to believe that I can do this... I mean I am 27 and I have never gone to college... Why start something if I am not going to be able to make it...  I think that it all comes down to fear.  Things are changing so fast around me and this has gotten me down and that made me slack off on things like my Korean lessons and THAT made me feel like a failure...  Because good, perfect, pretty people don't struggle with depression?  Right... They don't have times when they fail and fall down, they don't ever slack off on commitments?  RIGHT.....

So...  the truth is I have failed to blog and/or work on my Korean for two weeks...  I have been down and  I have let the future and even the past dictate who I am and what I am doing..  This can't be the end of the story... I have to at least try to get back up again.

In Korea, there is a saying it's, Fighting!! it means "You can do it!" This is a huge one for me, because I am always saying "You can do it!! You got this!"  to the people around me, even strangers.  I have also been known to say "You can do it!" in my sleep... when a friend was pulling an all nigher on her paper.

  

Maybe it is time for me to say, Fighting!  (Or rather, Hwaiting! As it is actually pronounced.) To myself.   Maybe it will be messy and maybe I will make mistakes and maybe I won't even make it...But I will have tried.   Maybe I will fail but as one of my favorite bands SuperChick says, "Failures are flyers who've touched down, only they know what it is like to leave the ground."  
I can't do this on my own...  But as another favorite band, FT Island (a kpop band) says, " So I won't lose my way... I'll pray, I'll pray, I'll pray..."  That's the ONLY way I can make it.

For those of you that are struggling with something... Who want more or need to get back up... Who feel like the fight is lost and you can't make it... Take it from someone who has failed A LOT.  You can make it... You were created in the image of a good and great God... And He hasn't given up on you.  And neither have I. Right now I am at a coffee shop with a friend who is also trying to get back into her art... We made a coffee date to work on our own things...together.   So if we can do it so can you!!   Fighting!! 화이팅

So let's get up and be awesome... Failure or not.. That's what we all are... Awesome.

Fighting!!  To be continued... 

5th Vlog: What I have actually been learning...

 Okay, let's get serious....  What I have actually learned about Korean culture: