LanguageCast in Hongdae

A place for you to practice the language you are learning. People are very friendly, but of course you have to watch out for those who are only interested in hooking up. They are every where.

Dance style….

So…Yesterday was my Korean Pop singing class and it was not what I expected it to be. I thought the Professor might split us into several smaller groups based on song genre and have us learn a songs that way. Nope! We got something even better than I could have imagined. The class was split in half one group (the one I am in) goes from 10a-11 and the other from 11-12p. I am quite excited about this because we get to choose our own songs and he said it will be more like private lessons. I’m not exactly sure how the time would be split though, there are probably 18 people in the class and less than 10 minutes a person is not good enough. I already chose my song…well at least I thought I did. I was going to do G-Dragon’s “That XX” because I really enjoy love that song, not really the words of the song, but the flow of it. Now after really thinking about it and listening to more Korean music yesterday I realized that I should try to sing a woman’s song. I always try to stick to male songs because of the ease of transition, but I think I may do a song by Lyn or IU. I love both of their voices and they each have some great songs. My throat has been better and I think I can do it, but I will really have to take care of myself and work hard. 

Korean Dance Style? Only because someone asked me about it…and Yes, it’s definitely different. I apologize in advance for this poor explanation…

So I went out last night to Itaewon for a language exchange meetup which was held at a bar. I really wanted to try to capture some video of the people dancing at the club so you can see what I am about to tell you, but I realized how strange that may be. Plus when I tried on my phone it was too dark and there was no way I was going to turn my camera light on because that just seems super creepy. Anyway, there is no real way to say this except they dance really strangely. I feel like a horrible person because all I can do is laugh and it’s not fair to them because that’s what they know. I was actually told that shuffling is very old here, but that’s what we still do in the states. They now say they do “sexy” dancing, but what I have seen would not fit into my mind for that word. I really want to put up a video of me doing the types of dances they do, but I know I wouldn’t even be able to do it right. How do I know? Because I already tried! HAHA, I wanted to bring it to you and show you some how, but I can’t even do it right. They do a lot of interesting movements with there legs and arms. There is this one thing that I just started calling body bobbing because it reminds me of a fishing bobble going up and down, but as much as I try to do it…I can’t! It’s some type of Korean magical dance that looks really amazing, but I can’t do it. It’s the one move I see that I want to learn, but it just must be a Korean body thing. Oh something that has kind of bothered me here is that guy friends….dance on each other. I have seen it first hand! I was really shocked and I even went the next step to ask the guy if that is normal and he said yes, a lot of guy friends do that. I don’t know about you, but if you are a guy and started trying to dance on your guy friend in the states you would probably get beat up. This actually makes me love Koreans more because they have a completely different view of sexuality and I sometimes wish that my mind wasn’t so skewed from the US way of thinking. 

What about the girls Ren!? How do they dance?

Glad you asked me…I’ll talk about it next time….

 

 

Just kidding! 

The Korean female style of dance consists of swaying with friends. You will rarely see a Korean girl alone and if she is alone that means that her male counterpart just went to the restroom or to get drinks. Some do have more moves than just swaying, but it mostly consists of that, fist pumping, and jumping. Both sexes really enjoy singing really loudly to their favorite songs just like us Americans. Now if there is a couple you will see your typical “grinding” dance moves and you will probably see more PDA than you bargained for. I’m not the biggest fan of PDA in club setting especially since drinking is involved. I don’t know about you, but I always worry about other people and if they will be okay. I’ve seen guys grabbing girls and dragging them around with the girls trying to push them off. In the US I would stop the guy, but here I see it so much that I don’t know what to do. My brain and heart are not communicating the same in that situation so I don’t do anything, but watch and make sure that nothing strange happens. I have asked several girls if they were okay before and one of them did say they wanted to get away from a guy so I helped them. 

I want so badly to bring you a video of these dance moves so I will try to see what I can do. 

Tips:

Learn some dance moves: I noticed that Koreans pick up dancing so quickly and a lot of times if you show them something new they will do it with you. You should just practice some basic things and if you have no rhythm it’s okay as long as you move around. 

Prepare your mind: I don’t really know what I meant while typing this, but I guess I’m trying to say that you will see and hear a lot of things that are not in your realm of “normal.” I think the best way to combat this is to be very open to new things. Try new foods, listen to new music, explore, and don’t be afraid to get your feet wet. Traveling to a new country would not be worth it if you didn’t try to take in as many new experiences as possible. Yes there may be challenges along the way, but just take a deep breath and you can make it. 

 

Until next time…