“Joy that Korean Day has come ~♬”

October, 9th, 2014. Today is the 568th birthday of ‘Korean’. It’s a national holiday of Korea which is established in order to let all the people know the excellence of Korean which King Sejong the Great invented. 

There are also idols that regard Korean special than anyone else. ‘SuperJunior’ Henry, f(x) Amber, ‘miss A’ Jia, and ‘GOT7’ Mark, Jackson & BamBam are those main characters.

The common point is that they are all foreign members. They all have their each nationality such as China (Jia), Thailand (BamBam), Hong Kong (Jackson), US (Mark, Amber), and Canada (Henry) but they all came to Korea to act as singers.

They have special stories related with Korean. They have gone through hard time classifying honorific language and crude language. They have done mistakes due to being poor at Korean. However, we ‘burst’ into laughter with those familiar words. 

‘STARCAST’ asked them.

“What memories do you have toward Korean?”

① What do you think of Korean? = Korean was an unfamiliar language to Jia, Henry, Jackson, BamBam, Amber, and Mark since they were all born in a foreign country. They learnt Korean in short period for their activities in Korea. Shall we hear their feelings of when they first encountered Korean?

Um, I will express Korean in one word. It is ‘challenge’ since not only language but also culture is included in it. It was a new world when I first learnt it.

② Have you memorized all the consonants and vowels? = Their affection and passion toward Korean was the same. However, they wouldn’t have easy time to learn it. BamBam says that he’s still difficult with spellings. Henry and Amber say they get frustrated with unfamiliar words.

People that see ‘닭’ (chicken) word for the first time would never know what it is. I swear. My overseas Korean friends all spell ‘닭’ as ‘닥’.”

③ Spellings are always confusing = Actually spellings are also difficult for Koreans too. So how could it be easy for Jackson and Henry? They say that ‘어떡해’ & ‘어떻게’ (How~) and ‘이런거’ & ‘이런게’ (This~) are confusing to them. Jia and Mark say that postpositions are still difficult to use.

☞ STARCAST: “~은(는), ~이, ~가 comes behind the subject and ~(을)를 comes behind the object such like ‘내가 너를 좋아해’, ‘나는 너를 좋아해’ (I like you).”

It’s still difficult to me. I think I cannot focus on one word since I mix English, Chinese and Korean every day. My mouth has become busy.

④ What was the most difficult thing when studying? = Jia, Mark, BamBam, and Henry said grammar was the hardest thing. Amber picked conversational language. However, Jackson said there wasn’t a difficult thing particularly.

It’s okay when I talk with close people. But it’s quite difficult when I appear in broadcasts. I’m not familiar with how strange people talk. But I’m getting better!

⑤ Are there any mistakes made while using Korean? = There are many mistakes when using it for the first time. There are many experiences of misspellings and using honorifics improperly. Especially, Henry says that there are many experiences that would make people ‘burst’ into laughter.

‘You’ may be used to anyone. However, it was told that ‘너 (You) was used to same-aged or younger people. I didn’t know this so I called everyone ‘너’ at the first time.

⑥ What is the funniest expression? = Or shall we think of a funny experience? Everyone focused on funny expressions in Korean. They all said it’s funny to express one meaning variously.

I think the expression of saying ‘머리가 작다 (your head is small)’ is funny. Someone could take it as an offense and could be rude when it is said in English. However, it is strange since it’s a compliment in Korea.

⑦ Secret of learning Korean  = a secret was learnt while ‘열공 (studying hard)’. Jia and Mark are ‘TV’-learners. They practiced Korean by watching dramas and entertainment programs. BamBam, Jackson, Amber, and Henry are real-life-learners. They studied Korean by experiencing through real life.

I think we have to just keep on using it. I use Korean more than Chinese so I don’t speak Chinese well. But when I go to a Chinese-speaking country I cannot help using Chinese, so my Chinese language improves after about 2 days although it’s hard!

⑧ Why Korean is special= We will ask lastly why Korean is special. Jia and Henry said it is a language which can be learnt easily. Jackson picked the sufficient expression. Amber said it’s good since she could commune with fans with it.

It’s good to communicate with people in Korea. Especially, it’s good since it is a language that links me to my fans!

Source: Naver Starcast