세상에서 가장 무서운 이야기 ° The Scariest Stories in the World

Pages: 181 . Enjoyment Factor: 4/10 . Ease of Understanding: 5-9/10

I finally finished one of my long-term reading projects. I started reading this collection of scary stories for kids last summer and finished the last story this month. The main reason I finished the book only now is that the subject matter didn’t interest me much. I expected stories about Korean legends of ghosts and mystical beings, but instead got Sherlock Holmes, ghost ships and vampires. Only one story – about a girl who turns into a thousand year old fox and eats her family – was of Korean origin.

I remember having had a lot of difficulties with the book at the beginning. I had to look up a lot of words to understand the stories. Now, almost a year later, the stories are easy reading for me and I enjoyed them more. I bought the book because I thought scary stories would help me acquire a useful new cluster of vocabulary about negative emotions and horrid things. After a few stories I started to remember repeating words and phrases, so it was definitely useful.

개미의 탑 ° Tower of Ants

Pages: 170 (≈60 in Korean) . Enjoyment Factor: 3/10 . Ease of Understanding: 5/10

Another long-due review. I finished reading the bilingual “Tower of Ants” by Choi In-Ho in February. It’s part of Hollym’s series Modern Korean Short Stories. It tells the story of a man who one day wakes up to find his apartment infested by ants. While he obsessively fights them using various methods, the ants not only continue to take over his apartment, but also his mind.

I like that the book contains two short explanatory texts. By likening the protagonist to the ants in his apartment, the story offers a critical comment on modern society. Just like the ants have evolved into anonymous, specialised labourers whose individual lives count very little, humans might be on the same trajectory through capitalism and specialisation. I can’t say that I enjoyed the story per se, as it’s rather gross, but I concede that it’s well-thought-out. Maybe it is fitting that a Korean author paints the supremacy of mass society in such a negative light. After all, Korea is said to be a highly collectivist culture. This may account for one critic’s opinion that the protagonist’s final acceptance of the ants and self-sacrifice for their nurturing is a positive gesture.

This is the second bilingual book I read in Korean and I had a more positive experience than with my first try. I always read the Korean sentence or paragraph first and then consulted the English text for words I didn’t know. I learned quite a few new words this way. As this book was my second foray into serious Korean literature, it was difficult as expected. The high rate of short, descriptive sentences are a plus, but the detailed vocabulary about a very specific topic (ants, ants, and more ants) prevented the book from being optimal study material.

김씨표류기 ° Castaway on the Moon

Minutes: 116 . Enjoyment Factor: 10/10 . Ease of Understanding: 9/10

I watched “Castaway on the Moon” a while ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It tells the story of a guy who tries to commit suicide to get away from his debts, but ends up stranded on an island in the middle of Seoul. Eventually he learns to live on the island, all while being watched by a girl who hasn’t left her room in ages and spends her days online. The movies is great at subverting clichés and being funny, but it would be forgettable without its emotional core. What makes it perfect is the way it shows a very heartwarming human connection between two unconventional, lonely people. It’s certainly one of the best oddball romances I’ve ever watched.

I had no problems understanding the movie, but I have to admit that I cheated a bit and had a look at the subtitles when I didn’t understand a sentence. However, it’s not exactly necessary to understand the movie to enjoy it. Everything important is conveyed in images.

한국의 역사문화 2 ° Korean Culture and History vol. 2

Pages: 244 . Enjoyment Factor: 5/10 . Ease of Understanding: 3/10

“Korean Culture and History” is a series of four bilingual comic books by SeSe Publishing. I read the second volume, “Medieval History of Korea”. The other titles are “Ancient History of Korea”, “The Korean War and Modern History” and “The New Community Movement and Jung-Hee Park”. The second volume spans from the founding of Goryeo (900) through early Joseon up to the Imjin War (≈ 1600) and includes the two important figures of King Sejong the Great and General Lee Sun-Shin.

I learned a lot of historical facts from this comic. Often it was impossible not to get confused with all the different people that sometimes only got a page or two to describe their life and achievements. The comics make the book a little less dry, but it’s basically just a very compressed collection of historical facts. It helped that I already knew some of the mentioned people from historical dramas. This made it easier to relate to the bare facts the book presents and it was nice to see each of their places in the bigger historical narrative. The most interesting (though least professional-looking) part of the book is the last section which gives short introductions to education in medieval Korea and the Seonbi spirit. According to the book,

“A seon-bi is a practical philosopher with knowledge and courtesy and who pursues virtue as their highest value . . . Seon-bi is not determined by one’s social status, but rather by noble pursuit of knowledge and virtue.”

They were the classical scholars of the Joseon dynasty. Usually their goal was to pass the state exam and serve the nation in a government position, but in times of societal disorder they preferred not to get involved and instead pursued greater learning in seclusion. The Seonbi spirit seems to be an ideal in the Korean cultural imagination today, so it was interesting to learn about it.

The comic was not easy to read. The vocabulary is very specific and often historical and I would have had great difficulty to understand the book without the English translations. I just read casually, seeing how much I understood of the Korean sentence and then checking the English version. That was easy to do, but I would have learned more words if the comic hadn’t been bilingual. But in that case I might never have finished it and also would have learned a lot of rather useless vocabulary.

간첩 ° The Spy

Minutes: 115 . Enjoyment Factor: 6/10 . Ease of Understanding: 4/10

“The Spy” is the first movie I watched for the Super Challenge. It explores the premise of what happens to North Korean sleeper spies in South Korea who suddenly get an assignment after 10 years of silence. In this imaginary case it assembles a rag-tag team of people who just want to get on with their lives. The protagonist is a regular Korean Ahjussi who sells fake viagra and gets scolded by his wife for drinking too much, in front of the kids! The other team members include a single mom, a cow farmer who protests against American beef imports and a retired senior citizen who is nostalgic about his old adventures and his home country. They are forced into action by their ruthless bosses while being tracked by the South Korean secret service and madness ensues.

There is a distinct difference between watching series and movies: series give you a lot of time to adapt to specific vocabulary, manner of speaking and the scriptwriter’s preferred expressions. There are many cliched phrases and the storytelling is usually slow and not every detail counts. Movies have none of these helpful characteristics for language learners. In “The Spy” speech is more natural than I’m used to, which means no cliched drama phrases, slurring and dialect.

Fortunately all this didn’t matter much. Even though I’m still wondering if I understood the ending correctly, I enjoyed the movie. The storytelling was very visual and the acting superb and the notion of spies as ordinary people with predominantly ordinary lives and eccentric characters was intriguing enough to sustain my interest. I find that spy movies set in Korea are much more intriguing than those set in the U.S. or similar. Just recently I watched a report of a North Korean spy returning home, dragging her unsuspecting husband with her and making the community of refugees anxious about being reported to the North Korean authorities. That background makes it easier to engage in the type of ‘what if…’ scenario “The Spy” portrays and makes the movie a little more than light entertainment by raising some serious questions – even if it’s done in a superficial manner.

드라마의 제왕 ° King of Dramas

Episodes: 18 . Enjoyment Factor: 7/10 . Ease of Understanding: 8/10

I’m a little behind on reviews, so I’ll keep this short. I watched and enjoyed King of Dramas, a series about the behind the scenes of Korean Drama production, full of tongue-in-cheek meta references. I greatly enjoyed watching this series and it could easily have become one of my all-time favourites. The characters were hilarious, very human and well-acted. The directing and editing was stylish and well-done. Unfortunately the ending disappointed me severely and left a bitter taste. I don’t want to give away too much, so I’ll just say that it managed to be discriminatory in at least two different ways.

Language-wise I had a hard time to understand the drama in the beginning. Fortunately I worked on it as a subber on Viki and acquired all the subject-related frequent vocabulary in the early episodes and was able to sit back and enjoy the series for the rest of its running time, with 80-90% understanding. It was quite useful for learning TV-related and general vocabulary. My new words range from “viewer ratings” and “producer” to “comeback” and “persuasion”.

나는 나를 파괴할 권리가 있다 ° I Have the Right to Destroy Myself

Pages: 134 . Enjoyment Factor: 6/10 . Ease of Understanding: 5/10

I finished my first Korean novel this weekend. It’s called “I have the Right to Destroy Myself” by Kim Young-Ha and is about a guy who makes a living by helping people commit suicide. It was a pretty heavy, at times bizarre read. I enjoyed the book – especially Kim Young-Ha’s style of writing and the scenic presentation – but in the end I’m not sure how much I’m actually taking away from it. This might be partly because of the bleak subject matter and partly because reading a novel in Korean is still much different from reading one in my better languages.

It was certainly challenging to read this novel and it reminded me of how many fairly basic words I still need to learn. But my reading skills quite a bit throughout the book. At the beginning I was often lost, having a hard time to understand some scenes in their entirety. I had to read most paragraphs twice or three times to really understand them. Then I started to get into the story, got used to some words an expressions and looked up more unknown words. I was able to understand some paragraphs without any look-ups – usually those with a lot of dialogue. Some of the descriptive and philosophical passages were the most challenging and I looked up a lot of words for them, because I wanted to understand what the novel is about apart from the rough plot.

I’m glad I took to leap and started reading literature and I’m looking forward to more of it. “I Have the Right to Destroy Myself” is not a bad choice for starting to read literature in Korean. Although literary, thhe language is rather straightforward and the sentences aren’t too long and complicated. It’s not historical, so the words are quite useful. There are also quite a few foreign terms from English and other European languages – part of the story takes place in Italy. That made the book a little easier to understand for me, although there was some guesswork involved with the Hangeul rendering of words I know in their original.

내 마음속의 보배 ° Find the Treasure Within

Pages: 52 . Enjoyment Factor: 7/10 . Ease of Understanding: 7/10

I casually read “Find the Treasure Within: The Teachings of Seon Master Daehaeng” over the past week. I got this free Buddhist pamphlet at the Frankfurt book fair. There’s a short preface explaining Seon Master Daehaeng’s biography, a short explanation about Buddhism and the “true self” and eight questions about life in general and Buddhist practice which are answered by the Seon Master.

I only read this pamphlet for language practice and because I got it for free, but it was still quite interesting. I find it hard to understand beliefs about rebirth, but even without believing in Buddhism I got some wisdom and interesting cultural lessons out of the small book. One of the basic principles Seon Master Daehaeng teaches is that it is important to first acknowledge and then let go of any positive and negative feelings, ambitions and sorrows, and let life take its course. She says that only by doing so can one attain true freedom and alter the course of one’s destiny, because everyone forms their destiny by the way they react to things that happen to them and by the thoughts that occur to them (and has been doing so throughout many rebirths). There is certainly some wisdom in this. Resisting change is usually not only futile, but can easily become harmful and even devastating. It is best to accept things for what they are and go through them without resisting the negative when futile or trying to cling to and artificially prolong the positive. But I think there is some danger in this philosophy as well – maybe only when interpreted with little insight. If it becomes an excuse for not trying to change something negative that could be changed, if practiced without compassion, I think this may well be harmful. I also think the idea of inheriting the karma of earlier lives unnecessarily complicates things and could be used to justify someone’s misfortunes. Whatever is happening in this moment is the most important (but this is also emphasised by the Seon Master).

The second idea I liked is the idea of being one with everything, which from general knowledge I infer is central to Buddhism. I suppose to really believe and implement this concept in one’s life must be a powerful experience. There would be no reason to feel inferior or superior to anyone or anything. No reason to fear anything, to covet anything, no possibility of not being empathetic. It is this idea which is really interesting culturally, because collectivism and saying “we” and “our” rather than “I” and “my” seem to point in the direction of this understanding of everything as one. Jeong 情, an important East Asian and specifically Korean concept of affection and connectedness, also seems related:

“Jeong is difficult to define.  One Korean-English dictionary defines it as “feeling, love, sentiment, passion, human nature, sympathy, heart.”  Although it is complicated to introduce a clear definition of jeong, it seems to include all of the above as well as more basic feelings, such as attachment, bond, affection, or even bondage. . . .

One of the important characteristics is its “location.”  Jeong seems located not only inside of our hearts but also outside.  In other words, the location of jeong is between individuals.  It can be difficult to understand an emotion as being seated outside an individual’s heart, yet it may be related to the idea of collective emotion.”

from “Significance of “Jeong” in Korean Culture and Psychotherapy” by Christopher K. Chung & Samson Cho

“Finding the Treasure Within” contained some of the most complex Korean sentences I have read thus far. However, I was surprised that with concentration I was able to understand the book, almost without a dictionary. While some concepts remained in the dark for lack of vocabulary, I think I fully understood the teachings. The key vocabulary related to Buddhism and Seon Master Daehaeng’s teachings repeats again and again and is quite limited, so the pamphlet was easier to read than expected.

세상 어디에도 없는 착한남자 ° Nice Guy

Episodes: 20 . Enjoyment Factor: 9/10 . Ease of Understanding: 8/10

I’m usually rather wary of Korean melodrama series. Cardboard cutout villains, misunderstandings galore and horrible cliches like mistreated children, memory loss and deadly diseases are a given in this genre. Nice Guy is no exception. However, the great acting by Song Joong-Ki and Moon Chae-Won, the great directing and soundtrack, as well as the swift story-writing made it a very enjoyable viewing experience.

The story is all about obsession, revenge, love and redemption. Although the usual cliches abounded, the writing was a little more thoughtful than is often the case. It often left me guessing who was scheming and who was sincere. Despite all the horrible things that happen, Nice Guy was rather heartwarming and the love story had some epic scenes and dialogues.

The dialogues are what I loved best in this drama. They are usually delivered in a measured pace and the leads all have a very clear enunciation. I think this may be dependent on the genre. If the acting wasn’t so great, it would seem artificial, but with such great performances it was somewhat like watching a play. The best thing about this is that it’s perfectly suited for study purposes. I was glad to notice that I understood complete dialogues. With this drama I never felt the need to read recaps. I didn’t miss any important information, although some of the conversations about Seo Eun-Ki’s company went over my head. Actually, this is the first time I watched a drama and was perfectly satisfied to watch without subtitles. It was more enjoyable without subtitles, because I was able to concentrate on the acting and delivery of every line of dialogue. I very much recommend this drama for Korean study.

콩쥐팥쥐 ° Kongjwi and Patjwi

Pages: 101 . Enjoyment Factor: 7/10 . Ease of Understanding: 8/10

As my fourth book for the challenge I read “Kongjwi and Patjwi”, a Korean fairytale that bears a similarity to Cinderella. The book was published by 예림당 and is geared towards primary school children, evident by the comprehension and writing exercises in the back.

It was quite interesting to read this book and compare it with the versions of Cinderella I know. Kongjwi is basically the Cinderella-character, who is a long-expected only child. Her mother dies at her birth and she grows up with a very loving, concerned father. Of course she’s a model daughter and learns to care for her father early. But she is concerned that he may be lonely once she gets married, so she supports his second marriage with the widowed Bae Ssi, who brings her own daughter Patjwi with her. Patjwi is not as pretty as Kongjwi, so she gets jealous. Bae Ssi is also jealous on her daughter’s behalf. They conspire to make her do all the hard work and put additional obstacles in her way. Kongjwi’s father is of no help, because he is so enamoured with Bae Ssi that he doesn’t believe his neighbours when they tell him of his daughter’s maltreatment. So Kongjwi, because of her virtuous character and unjust treatment, is helped by several mythological characters and animals. One of the helpers is Jik Nyeo, who sews a pretty dress for Konjwi so she can attend a party at her uncle’s house. On the way there a newly-transferred high official’s carriage passes her and in her hurry to make space she loses a shoe, which the official finds. The shoe seems magical and so he goes on a search for its owner. When he sees Kongjwi’s beauty and gets to know her good character he marries her.

Thus far the story is similar to Cinderella, but now it becomes both more cruel and more supernatural. Patjwi pretends to be sorry and visits Kongjwi to give her an apology. Kongjwi, being the good-natured dummy she is, doesn’t see through the ruse and Patjwi ends up drowning her. Patjwi then takes her half-sister’s clothes and pretends to be her. The husband is astounded that she suddenly looks so ugly and that her character has changed for the worse, but doesn’t get too suspicious. In the end, Kongjwi first becomes a ghost, confronts her former husband, and is later resurrected. Patjwi is killed and eaten by her unsuspecting mother. I also think it was interesting that this particular retelling of the story explained why the step-mother was so evil – she had been made responsible for her former husband’s death and suffered for it. I once read a book that in Eastern thinking it is more common to see and explain people’s behaviour in context and this may be one of those occasions. As far as I remember the evil stepmother in Cinderalla was purely evil without reason. I also only know the timeless fairytale version of “a long, long time ago”, while “Kongjwi and Patjwi” is dated to have taken place in the middle of the Joseon dynasty.

“Kongjwi and Patjwi” had quite a few words I wasn’t yet familiar with, but it was still not too difficult to read without a dictionary. The words repeated often and became somewhat clear through context. I liked the exercises at the back of the book, especially one for revising several onomatopoeic words. All in all, I don’t think I made much progress by reading Kongjwi and Patjwi”, though.