New Born

Check Check. Ha-na, Tul, Set Go~! Dedicated for Tourism, Culture & Society module. Gonna improve this blog as it progresses. ^^ Last but not least, enjoy what you read! :D

Infinitely Yours

Seoul, South Korea will be under the limelight throughout this blog. I shall explore and bring to you the cultures,traditions,society,languages,education,leisure programmes and what Seoul or South Korea as a whole is known for.

Enough about that, to start things off, here's the advertising campaign of Infinitely Yours, Seoul 2010. The Korean group sensation 2PM stars in this music video; Fly to Seoul 'Boom Boom Boom' All rights and trademarks reserved. You can find the video and more at Korea Tourism Organization

Feel the Korean vibes in the video and we'll meet again in the next post!

K-Pop

 

SNSD (Girl's Generation)

In this particular post, we shall explore the K-Pop Wave! K-Pop is the glamourised name for Korean Popular Culture in the music industry. This music culture tunes in the South Korea vibes into the genres of electronic, rock, hip-hop, R&B, pop and more, which apparently the youths are into nowadays.

Brown Eyed Girls

Internet is a major contributor to the success of K-Pop. Pages such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and others allow their music and profiles to have a greater reach and closer to the global market than previously. I can say that the K-Pop wave is one that will keep on getting bigger and bigger in times to come. There is a possibility that this culture could threaten youth's local culture by taking its place through its wide reach especially around Asia although I feel it hasn't occurred to that extent yet.

MTV's programme Asian Takeaway: JK (Japan, Korea) extended it's screening timings from half an hour to a full hour, showcasing the upcoming and popular songs streaming in the JK music industry. This shows that MTV is acknolwedging the rise of such music culture and welcomes them into their programming that the fans would definitely appreciate.

Now there's even news of K-Pop vibes collaborating with Western flavours. According to J!-Ent & Soompi, Korean group JYJ did a collaboration with Kanye West & M. Yusuf and planning to collaborate with Timbaland on their next album. This shows that the K-Pop agencies are outsourcing and being opportunist in terms of record label partnerships and talent collaborations in trying to value-add their music in the presence of globalization.



The K-Pop Pod : Take on the instrumental side of the K-Pop music and you can really see that the beats and rhythms themselves have an competitive edge that make it ever so popular as it matches the youths' cup of tea in music,apart from awesome choreography and hot looks. 

In case you are wondering what songs The K-Pop Pod is playing, here are the artists and their famous songs!



2PM

2PM- Fly to Seoul

SNSD- Hoot

SHINee- Lucifer

Kara- Mister

Super Junior- Sorry Sorry

Brown Eyed Girls- Sign

4Minute- I My Me Mine

Super Junior- Bonamana

JYJ- Ayyy Girl Feturing Kanye West & M.Yusuf

The K-Pop Wave certainly did reach to the shores of Singapore. Some die-hard Singapore youths take a step further by having nametags of their favourite artist on their bags, having lanyards to their handphones, printing out pictures to stick them on their files and also to the extent of creating fansites. Amazed? Check out SHINee's fansite in Singapore.

The last K-Pop concert in Singapore was held on the 14th of Novemeber 2008 as part of the Korea festival 2008 celebrations. This year, an even grander concert was promised by Proof Label to top that in 2008. 2010's epic concert was held just last month on the 23rd of October. Big names from the K-Pop world will make their appearances such as SNSD (Girls' Generation), Big Bang, F.T Island, just to name a few. Groove on and read more at AsianBite References: K-Pop Singapore 2010 & K-Pop Live

Interested to know more about K-Pop? Be a K-Pop Fan!

Already a Fan? Read more about your idols! The K-Pop Wiki

Culture and Traditions: Religion & Beliefs

According to Kwintessential along with references to Wikipedia , approximately 46% are free-thinkers, and out of those with religious preferences, 2 major religions dominate others which are Buddhism and Christianity, with Buddhism having a greater fellowship by a slight margin. The minority religions comprises of Confucianism, Shamanism and others.

Although Confucianism does not really seem to affect the Koreans in terms of religion, it still does affect them in terms of philosophy and way of life. In fact it can be regarded more to a set of ethics. It can be said that Koreans have the confucius midset. Confucianism basically emphasizes on loyalty, honour and duty, amongst other attributes in the society and sets up a kind of hierarchy in their social system.

In this sort of hierarchy, it suggests the place of an individual in the society. This can be observed through their relationships and different obligations to different set of people in their lives for example between the individual with the parents and between the partner.

In the way of Confucius, the family is regarded highly in their lives. They take into account their actions as it reflects the overall image of the family; the individual need is put to second. The father is the head of the family and carries the responsibilty from providing food to approving marriages of his sons and daughters. Having said that, the eldest son holds special obligations in the order of towards his parents, then to his brothers according to age, then to his own family with his sons coming first before his wife and finally to his daughter.

The Social Philosophy; Confucius : General Trivia

• Obedience to seniors is crucial. Never get in arguements with your seniors,not just parents and elder siblings in family but also with teachers at school and bosses at work. Although seniors get to enjoy such respect, they'd still help out with the younger ones.
• Being successful is not enough. One needs to be highly educated as well to be highly regarded.
• Men and women have separate and distinct roles which do not intertwine. Men do not do household duties.
• Be modest and avoid being extravagant.

Reference: Robinson,M.,Bartlett, R., & Whyte, R. (2007). Korea (7th ed.). Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd

I feel that although the moden contemporary Koreans tend to not show the Confucius way in the fast pace way of life nowadays, the confucius mindset will stay strong and deter,if not control new upcoming mindset brought about with new age thinking due to the global culture brought about through gloablisation. I feel that the elders in the society plays an utmost important role in ensuring such mindset and way of life is passed down to the next generation as to me it is the unique social system that represent them. Having said that, such mindset may be allowed to evolve to suit the times but I belive the principles will stay strong.

Culture and Traditions: Heritage Sites

Seoul, South Korea also has a lot of its cultural and heritage assets listed under UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)

Here are two of several sites where visitors can be awed by Seoul's cultural tourism attractions.

Jongmyo Shrine

•  First built in 1394.
• Added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1995.
• Confucian shrine for spririts of Korea's Royal ancestors (Joseon Dynasty).
• Still practices the original annual ritual of sacrificial gifts of food and drinks with authentic costumes, dances and music ensembles.

Read More:  Visit Korea / Jongmyo

Changdeokgung Palace

• First built in 1405.
• Added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997.
• A principal place for the Joseon Kings
• Known for cultural architecture and harmonization with the natural settings. Most of the trees are indegenous, with one more than 300 years of age. Acknowledge for its superb preservation

 Read More: Visit Korea / Changeokgung

Learn More About Jongmyo in this video with Jenny Popes! All copyrights and trademarks reserved respectively.




With all the reknown heritage sites in Seoul such as the attractions mentioned above, Seoul can leverage on them for cultural tourism. There are tours into the sites readily available for tourist. I can see that the management is taking great care for the preservation of the sites by having time slots for the tours and closing some areas during peak hours. However, it may be a challenge as the tourist may want to go deeper and into restricted areas of the sites. The management may want to make the entrance fees for such priviledge higher so as to make it more exclusive and people may be educated before entering to ensure minimal degradation of the site.

Culture and Traditions: Taekwondo

Sweet Sweeeeet "To the Face" Kick

What is culture? In short, it is a multidimensional term, that comprises of both tangible (buildings & artefacts) and the intangible (values & attributes) that reflects a society. Tradition on the other hand, is the passing down of these cultures from one generation to the next.

A short take at Taekwondo: a martial art which originates from Korea.



Jump Kick Variation


Tae (태) means "to kick" or "to strike with the foot."

kwon (권) means "to intercept" or "to strike with the hands."

do (도) means "the way of the art"

 

The translation simply means that Taekwondo focuses on the art of kicking and punching. However the kicks in this particular martial arts made it very distinct apart from the others. Taekwondo is also known for its fast footwork routine and incredible kicking reach and speed.



Axe/Downward Kick

 As per how other martial arts started to be, taekwondo originated as a self-defense art against the enemies, for example against Japanese during their harsh propaganda campaign and ruling previously.



Nowadays, taekwondo is taught in martial art schools all over Korea including the military. Taekwondo has also become a sporting event and is listed in the Olympic Games. There are several doemstic competition held annually as well. There is a Taekwondo Federation in Singapore also.

I feel that Taekwondo, Korea's martial art can act as a great tool to use for cultural preservation. Taekwondo martial arts schools and the military academy can continue doing their best to uphold taekwondo as their preferred and unique martial arts to the generations to come. This can also be a medium to pass down discipline and knowledge about the martial art from the Korean perspective to the disciples. Hopefully, the culture of taekwondo itself will stay true as per how it originated and would not dilute or replaced with foreign martial arts in the future.

 
References: http://www.barrel.net/history.php
                  http://www.learnkoreanlanguage.com/taekwondo.html

Talk Like A Korean

The Official language in South Korea is Korean. English is also taught in schools. Korean language is also spoken in parts of China, Australia, Brazil and Japan. The Korean vocabulary comprises of native korean and sino-korean words and also lend words from other languages including from English. The history of the languages dates back into three diffrent eras that is the Old, Middle and Modern Korean eras in which the language has developed and evolved. There language is divided into three common dialects;

• Seoul dialect; lightly stress on words
• Standard South Korean; very flat intonation
• Gyeongsang; very pronounced modulation

Reference: http://www.spainexchange.com/guide/KR-language.htm
                 http://www.foreigntranslations.com/page-content.cfm/page/korean-language

Let's take the time to learn the Korean Vocabulary!

Hello (formal)                       annyeong hasimnikka

Hello (informal)                     annyeong haseyo

Goodbye (to person leaving)  annyeong-hi gaseyo

Goodbye (to person staying)  annyeong-hi gyeseyo

Yes, No                                 ye/ne , aniyo
Please                                  juseyo
Thank you                             gamsa hamnida
That's fine/You're welcome      gwaenchan seumnida
Excuse me                           sillye hamnida
Sorry                                    mian hamnida

How are you?                      annyeong haseyo?

I'm fine,thanks.                    ne. jo-ayo

My name is...                      je ireumeun...imnida

Numbers          Days                             Months
1 hana            Monday      woryoil         January    irwal            August       parwol
2 dul               Tuesday      hwayoil         February iwol             September guwol
3 set               Wednesday suyoil            March    samwol       October     siwol
4 net               Thursday     mogyoil        April       sawol           November  sibirwol
5 daseot          Friday         geumyoil       May       owol            December  sibiwol
6 yeoseot        Saturday      toyoil            June       yu-gwol
7 ilgop            Sunday        iryoil             July        chirwol
8 yeodeol
9 ahop
10 yeol

Reference: Robinson, M., Bartlett, R., & Whyte, R. (2007). Korea (7th ed.). Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd.