#and. idk i was more exposed to japanese media LMAO

[lokh]

i know people complain about like. learning the rules for te-form or informal past tense in japanese being difficult but. right now swedish feels a million times worse

[uiruu]

one problem with my exposure to korean being mostly from kpop (and related content like variety shows and reality shows and vlogs) and things like duolingo is that i have no idea how to swear in korean. 

i know what some korean swears are, or really just the big one tbh (basically the stand-in for “fuck” or “fuckin”), but idk how to actually use it. and any number of other curse words too, like... at least people who pick up a bit of japanese comprehension from anime get exposed to things like that lmao.... or people who pick up like any european language from any european media... and certainly people who pick up english from english language media, especially american, are exposed to a fuckton of swears cause we swear so much that it’s essentially devalued the swear words, leaving them more or less filler words and colloquial slang used by everyone instead of words that hold a lot of weight and power.... 

but korean media is scrubbed very clean of all that stuff, and i understand why. hallyu (the “korean wave”) is one of korea’s biggest cultural exports, and the government has really made a super strong effort to promote it and cultivate it. they really wanna make it look good. i dont think thats necessarily wrong or shady of them, because i think the korean people and language are good, i think every culture and language are good. it’s not like korea is a massive superpower running a gigantic state propaganda program or whatever, they’re a country with a history of being subjected to colonization and war and i think it makes sense for them to want to promote and cultivate some art. 

i also think there’s way more artistry and creativity in kpop than people give it credit too, because sure the money from the government is just so that kpop can be sort of a propaganda and increase korea’s status globally, but the people who actually make the songs, make the outfits, make the stages, make the music videos, train incredibly hard to master their craft of dancing singing and performing, etc... like... a lot of legitimate hard work goes into this stuff. even if you dont like the music or music videos or things like that conceptually, you have to admit that a lot of the stuff is very elaborate, and people put a lot of themselves into that stuff. so i dont think its some straightforward “kpop is just propaganda made to make korea look good” thing, i think it’s just creative people being creative, and it’s the CEOs and politicians who make money from it all who want it to be propaganda. i think the performers and designers and musicians who get involved do so because they want to do their thing, first and foremost.

but yeah, one side effect of that is the fact that kpop idols have to watch what they say. it’s not that different from a lot of media in english, and an american celebrity isnt allowed to swear when they go on certain shows. but at least in that case, there are a lot of other avenues where that celebrity is allowed to swear (or talk about sex, politics, drugs, any number of other topics like that. im just using swearing as an example). korea doesnt have as much of that, and partially that’s because a lot of korean media is made with korea’s reputation to the rest of the world in mind, but another factor is that korea is just a lot smaller than a lot of people realize. kpop seems huge, and there are definitely a lot of people involved in it, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s pretty small. there are probably less than 100 currently active kpop groups who are relevant (sustaining themselves, have a decent enough fanbase, not in danger of disbanding) at any given time, and even that might honestly be a generous estimation, depending on your criteria for those things. the disparity between the top groups and the smallest groups is massive, and yet a lot the members of the top group might be friends with the members of the smallest group, because they live and work and went to one of the two or three schools of performing arts in seoul, and maybe some were trainees together at a company, or they met backstage at a music show, or any number of things like that. compare that to the american music industry... even just within a single genre, you would not be able to list all the currently active and relevant artists. it’s just too big. 

this got kind of off topic, but it’s all a single train of thought, really. i’m just thinking about why it is that i’ve never really encountered the word for “penis” despite having been learning korean steadily for almost two years. i know what it is, but only because i’ve looked it up. that’s just kinda the reality of the situation, for better or worse.

[readyplayerhobi]

I’m a new follower (idk why I just now followed you because all of my mutuals have been raving about your writing for so long???) but it was your input on the Jungkook apologizing bs that made me hit the follow button. I was happy to see your thoughts on the situation! Now....... what are your thoughts on Shadow and it’s meaning? Personally I feel like I owe Yoongi and the other boys an apology after watching and I didn’t even do anything 😂😩

Oh thank you for following! I'm always amazed when people say they love my writing cos...I've always been mediocre in life lmao

And thank you as well for enjoying my post on Jungkook, I was happy to see his selfie today!

On Shadow, I'm glad Yoongi and BTS are speaking out more about wanting personal boundaries set. Jin, Taehyung and Yoongi have all been pretty open about wishing people would leave them alone in public spaces because they're still people and I hope they continue. If the rest of the industry sees the biggest and most globally influential group speaking out like this then it will encourage them too. Jihyo from TWICE had to make an apology last week too which was unnecessary.

I dont think anyone should feel bad or upset for loving BTS and listening to them. They knew what would happen if they got big, they went in with open eyes and though its bigger than they probably expected, I doubt they wouldnt want it. They openly said they almost quit because of the stress of it all but they seem to have taken a big step back last year and not truly overworked themselves.

Yes, they did the stadium tour but it was pretty spaced out compared to before and they only released one album and one japanese album right? They had a proper break and we saw in bon voyage that while they enjoyed it, they got bored and still worked on stuff.

I don't think Yoongi is saying he hates it all or he dislikes the fame and fans because he points that out that he too is a fan in a crowd. I think that if the fans would take a serious moment to actually set boundaries, along with the media, then BTS would be less stressed about it. They're doing what they love and they're being given the platform to influence people but it comes with a negative side and I hope they expose that more so people will actually stop and think.