안녕하세요!
Who would have ever thought that I would fall susceptible to the charms of Korean drama serials. But the seemingly impossible has happened and pigs are flying.
For the past couple of weeks, my household went raving mad over the Korean drama serial 열아훕 순정 (Pure 19/十九岁的纯情). My mother, being very much beside herself, bought the entire serial on DVD and started a marathon during which late(r) nights became a given as we obsess to complete watching the 167 episodes.
It's not Shakespeare, that's for sure. But this quaint romantic comedy has charm enough. It narrates in the main a quasi-Cinderella tale about parochial 양국화 (Yang Gukhwa) who falls in love with 박윤후 (Park Yun Hu), the icy director son of a wealthy businessman.
Not surprisingly, their relationship is pumped full with trails and tribulations. Though it may get sappy at times, the serial is never short of comedic scenes, mainly provided by the loony 박윤정 (Park Yun Jeong) and her affection-beleaguered lover 홍우졍 (Hong Ugjung).
But Korean drama serials aside, my true attachment, having taken my maiden steps, is to the Korean script, which I find extremely fascinating - as is evident from my attempt at including as many words written in Korean script as I can manage.
The only known script to have been commissioned to tailor for need, the Korean script was invented in the 1440s. Although it has an alphabet (called 한굴), it does not string its letters in a line like most languages do, but arranges them into syllabic blocks. For someone who has always thought that the adorable human-like characters ideograms, this came as a pleasant surprise.
Korean drama serials, Korean movies (of which I've watched a few), Korean food! With my current Korean obsession, I'm sure I'll be tempted by more things Korean - and boy am I looking forward to them!! =)
