K-poppers

A friend of mine recently asked me about Korean men, and how they rate :) Well, here's a pic of one of my students' favourite bands at the moment, Super Junior - a good example of Korean pop music (or k-pop), and of the ideal Korean man:

Yes, they are all boys, believe it or not! There are 13 of them in the band (biggest boyband in the world, apparently) and playing their song Sorry Sorry during a class will get at least a couple of lads up to the front doing a step-perfect rendition of the dance from the music video.

K-pop is absolutely massive here, and not bad as pop goes, I guess - if that's what you're into. It influences everything from fashion to hairstyles to language. Just like the west, really - but it's good to see Koreans having their own popstars and not just turning into mini-Britneys! The "sorry sorry necka necka" line from Super Junior's latest song has passed into popular lingo and is one of my colleague Michelle's pet hates - our first encounter was telling a child off in our homeroom and having her and her clique, rather than a simple sorry, launch into a 5 second rendition of the song complete with dance moves!

Korea's biggest k-pop band is Big Bang and I learnt within my first two days of being in Korea to always have the name of a favourite singer from the band on hand for enquiring students - the rivalry between G-Dragon fans and those of T.O.P. is intense!


If you want to torture yourself, here's a link to Super Junior's video - check those moves!!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QO6SjMsmY8&feature=PlayList&p=60311011BEC4EDBF&index=0