“Blackpink in your area”!! The world’s top girl group’s iconic saying. In every concert and almost every song. The South Korean girl group, Blackpink, that debuted in 2016 is one of South Korea’s many cultural music bands. Even though they started in South Korea, it didn’t take long for them to climb the ladder of the world’s music industry. Blackpink is one of many examples from South Korean culture. The wonderful things about South Korea, like food, music, language and other cultural things will be unveiled in this article. Read along as we dive deep into the amazing South Korean culture.
K-pop is now one of the most famous music genres, with BTS awarded band of the year for 5 years straight, and all the work the K-pop industry put in. Another thing about K-pop is that it’s not just the tunes that people love to listen to, but the sophisticated and intricate dance choreography. K-pop soloists and groups work so hard to perfect each and every step of their performance. Idols' shows and concerts, all these things make K-pop so so successful.
K-pop isn't South Korea’s only music though. The traditional music, gugak, is classical. It’s very lovely if you appreciate that type of music. It involves instruments like flutes, fiddle haegeum, and many more Korean instruments. Gugak is very calming and beautiful. If you have time, maybe you’ll listen to it. It may not be your type of music, but it's great to always try something new!
Music isn’t the only wonder of South Korea, though. One of the most amazing (and delicious) things about South Korea is their food. Spicy tteok-bokki, which are rice cakes with a spicy flavorful sauce. Salty chapagetti jjajang noodles, a type of ramen. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the AMAZING Korean BBQ. The flavors are incredible. The crispy, salty Korean fried chicken is just heaven. This article would be at least ten pages long if I named at least a third of all the delicious Korean dishes! And these are all foods I’ve experienced firsthand!
Since this is about South Korea, why don’t we learn some Korean? Just some basics. The Korean alphabet is called the hangul. The hangul is based off of sounds, not letters. For example, to spell your name, you would not see which letter is which and stuff, but which sound is which. My name, Laila, is spelled like this:라이라. The sound for L is the same as R, l is ㄹ, then the ah sound is ㅏ. Between vowels in Korean there is a place holder:ㅇ than there is the i sound, ㅣ, Lastly, L (ㄹ) and ah (ㅏ) are repeated to make la. So together it makes Laila. In Korean hello and goodbye are the same. Annyeong or Annyeonghaseyo (안녕) means hello and goodbye. Yes is ne (예), and no is anyo (아니요). That’s just some basic Korean, though. Just like all other languages, it has its own grammar and complicated rules.
Something else about South Korea that’s beautiful and intricate and so, so unique is their clothing. The traditional clothing of South Korea is called hanbok. Hanbok is translated exactly to ”Korean clothing”. It is similar to the Chinese and North Korean traditonal clothing, but they're called choson-ot. It is worn by people all over Korea. They have been worn for years and years since ancient Korean times.
Another cultural South Korean item is called a baetssi. A baetssi is a hair accessory worn by young Korean girls. They wear it typically in their hair daily or regularly. It is one of those little parts of culture that are oh so special, but you never realize it. Culture is so important.
We’ve talked about South Korean culture today. Including food like tteok-bokki, and chapogetti, a simple ramen with soybean paste. I almost could taste the spicy, chewy tteok-bokki as I described it. The first time had it was pure goodness. I remember every bite, every sip of water to cool down my tongue. It was fresh and warm, just cooked. What do you think about K-pop? Not everyone likes it, but it’s the pop music of Korea. As probably the most popular Korean meeting, it felt appropriate to use that example. The traditonal Korean hanbok might not be what I’m used to, but it is certainly an amazing aspect of culture! I hope you learned something from this essay. Who knows, maybe someone will take up learning Korean! Well then, goodbye, or should I say, 안녕!!!
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