Introducing R

Today I would like to introduce my fellow K-drama addict R to all of you. After years of sharing our favourite K-dramas and K-pop songs, she agreed to officially join this blog in early 2019.

Since than she has been chiefly responsible for the media portion of our posts and I am so excited to finally officially introduce her to all of you.

Well, actually, I’ll let her introduce herself. Take it away R.

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Hello everyone, this is R trying to write a decent introduction. Just know that writing isn’t my forte, so bear with me here.

This introduction is to let you know how I was first introduced to the world of K-Dramas and K-Pop. I was but a young lass when I first learned about the existence of these magical series.

It was through a Skype chat with my older Sister. She had stumbled upon some nice series, watched them herself and proceeded to tell me to check them out.

Her first recommendation was for me to watch a Korean movie called ‘He was cool’. Being raised to always listen to my elders, 😉 I quickly obliged. Needless to say, I loved the movie and I wanted more.

At the next chat with my Sister she shared with me a site that I could visit and it would show me all of these series with a little summary of what it was about. I was then to click on a series that spiked my interest and be able to watch it.

We did not, however, take into account that I lived in an unpopular country and that said country was restricted to access the videos. I was able to read the summaries though which helped me choose my first Korean Drama.

The Girl who still chose K-Dramas

‘Personal Taste’ aka ‘Personal Preference’ was the first drama I chose. Now all I had to do, was to find a site to watch it at. With the help of my sister I found one quickly and thus the joy began.

The internet speed back than was another obstacle all on its own. But I had a purpose; a destiny to fulfill – so to speak -and I was not about to be stopped by slow internet.

Growing up watching Telenovelas (Spanish Soap Operas) and the unending episodes of drama that come with that, I was pleasantly surprised about how short this drama was. I loved how it didn’t linger on one problem too long and how it tugged at the heartstrings just enough to keep you falling for all the characters.

If my memory serves me right, I watched ‘Boys before Flowers’ afterwards. I wasn´t as thrilled with the drama as many of my co K-drama fans. What got me through it was the So-Eul Couple. I´m watching fan videos of them to this day.

So it should come as no surprise that my next drama would include Kim Bum. I picked ‘The woman who still wants to marry’. After that it was just pretty much one drama after the other.

So beautiful my K-Pop

My K-pop addiction was another thing. I started out listening to the OST of ‘You´re Beautiful’ after having watched the drama. Little old moa back then thought that was it. “That is as far as I´m going down this rabbit hole.”

Good thing for me back then, I still had no idea of the existence of this fore mentioned rabbit hole. So, I went in full speed and just slid down deeper and deeper.

Starting with Ft.Island (or should I say Lee Hong Gi), Lee Seung Gi and then the first Boy group I stanned. (Mind you, stan was more of a name back then and not the term used to describe you rooting for someone, but we gotta go with the times here.) Ahem… B2ST or Beast if you´d like was the group of my choosing. I came in right at the ‘Fiction’ era. What a time to be alive!

As all good K-pop stanners do, I started forcing all my Korean playlists into my friend’s ears. I didn´t get any of them to become as immersed into the genre as I am. (Blame me for my overflowing excitement that probably scared them away.)

I did succeed on some level though. All of my close friends have at least one folder among their playlists named ‘Korean songs’. It’s the little victories that count. 🙂

Do you know Annyeonghaseyo?

Another thing that soon spiked my interest was the Korean language itself. I have always been fascinated with languages.

After looking into the Korean alphabet one afternoon, I was surprised how straightforward it was. With a little practice, I was soon able to read sentences and even scribble some of my own.

Sadly, to this day, I still can’t understand everything. I blame myself, since I haven’t taken the necessary steps to learn more. But I am hopeful to one day being able to hold a full conversation in Korean.

That was it from me, for now.

-R