Are there too many foreign (especially western) models working in the Korean underwear modeling industry?

The Sports Chosun did a little . . .uh, research into the issue, and Korea Beat kindly translated it into English There’s also a discussion going on over at FeetManSeoul. The Grand Narrative has also talked about this topic in great detail, and found some research that says it’s not just underwear (PDF) that’s being hawked to Koreans using foreign faces. . .

Personally, nobody’s talking about what really interests me: Are the men in those underoos more likely to be foreign as well? Hmm, time to do some . . .uh, research.

Before UCC . . .
Before the internet . . .
Before the television there was . . .

RADIO DRAMA!

For most of the 20th century, radio was one of the most popular forms of entertainment. In addition to music, news, and talk shows there were also dramas and comedies and variety shows. It was a venue for serious works and the best known actors to show off their skills, be inventive, and connect with audiences at home. The popularity of these radio shows declined when television became popular and affordable, and the radio drama almost died.
Thanks to the internet and podcasting though, radio-style dramas are easy to make and put out there for anyone in the world to enjoy. They’re an excellent way to practice your English while enjoying fun programing. New theater companies are forming all the time and putting their work out for you to download, while others are working to preserve and resurrect classic shows.

Here’s a short set of links to get you started!

Classic Radio
Radio Lovers hosts all the best and most famous classic radio shows like, The Shadow, Gunsmoke, Buck Rogers, and Burns and Allen, as well as renowned adaptations of books like Les Miserables.

The Mercury Theater was the most famous radio theater group of the 1930’s. Led by Orson Wells, they made well-crafted dramas using the best talent of the day, including the infamous War of the Worlds.

Dramapod is one of the best resources to find contemporary audio theater programs. They have a very comprehensive listing of works produced by all sorts of companies all over the world.

Audio Theater not only lists American companies doing audio drama productions, but also has an introduction to using podcasting for making audio plays.

In Episode 9 of Bomb English, Mike and I discussed Korean fashion and touched briefly on the fact that women in Korea really feel the need to look good, all the time. While American women overall probably spend less time, less often than Korean women, there’s still some pressure to “look good” for high-profile positions.

Even for women who keep their makeup and hairstyles minimal and easy to manage, it still usually takes women longer than men to get ready for the day. This means that women have to devote part of their time each day to preparing their physical appearance, which means that men are given more “productive” time each day - they can sleep or relax or work or read or whatever, while women are socially required to be working on looking a certain way.

Think about it . . . how much time does a Korean guy spend each day getting ready to go to school or work? What does he have to do?

Now, think about an average Korean woman? What does she have to do each day before she can head out the door?
An article in the LA Times and on Slate Magazine examines this idea by looking at what it means for the Democratic candidates for US president this election, so if you have some spare time, we recommend you give it a read.

If you’re in the mood to try some really, REALLY difficult but very real English, you should try checking out Car Talk.

Not only is it my favorite radio show, but for once people agree with me, and it’s a very popular program. But what kind of program is it?

Well, do you have a car?

If so, . . . well, whoop-di-do! Even if you don’t have a car, you can enjoy Car Talk. It’s a call-in advice show for people having trouble with their cars, run by “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers” a.k.a. Tom and Ray Magliozzi. They joke, they have puzzles, they play games, and sometimes even solve people’s car problems - sometimes in very unusual ways. They’ve even gotten calls from celebrities, and once from an astronaut on the space shuttle. No foolin’!

One caveat: We’re recommending this program to more advanced listeners. Why? First of all, the hosts of the program speak very quickly. Why do they speak so quickly? Well, because they also use a VERY thick Boston dialect. If you’ve already mastered listening to standard American English pronunciation though, this is a great new challenge. Also, there’s a lot of puns and verbal jokes in this series that you have to be pretty fluent to understand. But to give you a little taste, here’s some of the cast and crew of their show:

Creative Director Drew A. Blank
Warrantee Claim Adjudicator Candace B. Rittenoff
Accounts Payable Administrator Imelda Czechs
Arbitration Expert Viola Fuss
Automotive Medical Researcher Dr. Denton Fender
Chief Legal Counsel Hugh Louis Dewey of Dewey, Cheetham & Howe

If that strikes you as funny, you will like this show. It also means you’ll probably get along well with me! Uh-oh, that means you probably need mental help (I recommend grief councilor Ariel Bummerman, hahaha!)

And along the way, you might even learn how to fix your car . . .

우리 FMS하면 길거리 패션이에요, 뭐가 hot한지 말이에요. 그렇다고 우리가 서울 패션 위크를 빠져먹을 순 없죠, 안 그래요? 우리는 런웨이 쇼들에 가서 패션의 원산지를 봐요. 하지만 우리는 주로 어떻게 런웨이의 하이 패션이 길거리 패션으로 해석되는지에 더 관심이 있죠.

We here at FMS are about the fashion of the street, what’s hot right now. But we can’t miss Seoul Fashion Week, right? We go to the runway shows and keep up with fashion at its source — the runways of high fashion — but we are mostly concerned with how this will eventually translate into the styles of the street.

우리가 패션 위크에 참석할 때, FMS는 런웨이 쇼만 보는 것이 아니에요. 우리는 패션 리더들을 보고 무엇을 입고 있는지 봐요. 뭐가 길거리에서 인기인지 벤치마킹 하는 데에 패션 쇼 만큼 좋은 장소가 어딨나요? 그래서 우리는 관중들 중에 튀는 패션과 스타일을 가진 분들의 사진을 찍기 시작했죠.

When we attend fashion week, FMS looks at more than just the runway shows — we look at the fashion leaders and what they’re wearing. What better place than a fashion show to benchmark what’s hot on the street as well? So, we started taking pictures of members of the crowd whose fashion and style caught our eye.

우리는 주차장에서 홍석천도 만났어요. 그는 쿨하게 쉬고 있었죠.

We also bumped into Hong Seok-cheon in the parking lot, who was taking a short break from being absolutely cool.

If you would like to see many more pictures, as well as other cool street style and fashion news, come to www.FeetManSeoul.com!

In English, a movie “trailer” is a “예고편.” It’s called a “trailer” because decades ago, the previews for new movies came at the end, or “trailing” a movie.

Oftentimes, movie trailers in Korea for American movies come out far, far later than they do in America. For example, the trailer for Indiana Jones #4 came out a few weeks ago, and many people are looking forward to that film. Sometimes, a trailer or a “teaser” (a preview that just “teases” because it doesn’t have any actual shots from the film to show) can come out more than a year before the movie will be show. Needless to say, you can say there is a culture of movie trailers in America, especially for larger movies.

KID: “You’re a teacher?

INDY: “Part-time.”

Great line. Hehe. Perhaps you didn’t know this, but Apple’s movie trailer website is famous for having the largest collection of the most recent trailers, many of them available in HD (high-definition), and also available to save on your computer. Also, there are many, many films every year that do NOT come out in Korea. Apple’s site is a good place to learn about them.

I go there regularly. Perhaps you should, too?

Mike has already recommended some great shows and podcasts to listen to, so I thought I’d put in my two cents as well.

I love A Prairie Home Companion!

This show has been an NPR mainstay for years now, because it has a little bit of everything, all done well. The host, Garrison Keillor, is great for non-native speakers to listen to because he speaks very, VERY slowly and deliberately, so he’s easy to understand. The show is based on his stories about a fictional town in the American Midwest called Lake Woebegon (the little town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average"), and gives listeners a unique and frequently funny view of culture and daily life in America. In addition to his stories and "news" podcast  from Lake Woebegon, Keillor also travels all over America to interview interesting local people and listen to local music. It’s the best way to hear the best of Americana, folk, and traditional styles of American music.

So go check it out!

prairiehome.publicradio.org

Jennifer가 한국의 최초의 FeetManSeoul이란 스트리트패션 잡지에서 글도 쓰는데 이번에 그 잡지의 기자로써 영문신문에서도 패션 컬럼해요. 몰랐죠? 가끔씩 Korea Herald의 Expat Living 부분에서 컬럼도해요. 밑에는 신문을 직적보셔도 되고 그리고 밑에 텍스트도 나와요. 다른 여러가지 사진을 보고 싶다면 FMS으로 가시죠?

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Here are two interesting radio/print stories about “bhangra,” a traditional Indian dance, which has become surprisingly popular in American colleges (no transcript) and dance clubs (transcript). Click on the “Listen now” link at the top of the articles.

That was a YouTube video of a bhangra performance at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). No wonder it’s popular! It looks like traditional dance + aerobic exercise + hip hop. At some universities, it’s even an official competitive sport. Now, I want to go learn bhangra!