So I was being my usual fidgety self the other day and somehow stumbled on a Wikipedia page that I’ve not seen before. A veritable definition of my worst addiction, ha! And one recently edited by a Baker King fan no less.
The bit that killed me was seeing the words “[citation needed]” after this claim: “King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo had hit an outstanding 50.8 with its last episode on KBS.” I thought, “Uh oh, Wiki, how could you not know that the drama’s practically a ‘national’ drama on account of its astonishing ratings? Now you’re gonna rile all Baker King fans!”
But before I fell off my chair howling at the above, I was rolling my eyes at the dry and rather soulless definition of my No. 1 hobby, as well as the string of drama titles that seemed to go on and on. Let me show you what I mean.
Korean drama (Korean: 한국드라마) refers to televised dramas, in a miniseries format, produced in the Korean language. Many of these dramas have become popular throughout Asia and have contributed to the general phenomenon of the Korean wave, known as “Hallyu”, and also “Drama Fever” in some countries. Most popular Korean dramas have also become popular in other parts of the world such as Latin America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Some of the most internationally popular Korean dramas are Winter Sonata, Dae Jang Geum, Full House, Stairway to Heaven, My Girl, Love Story in Harvard, Autumn in My Heart, My Lovely Sam Soon, Delightful Girl Choon-hyang, Yi San, Boys Over Flowers, You’re Beautiful, Brilliant Legacy, Queen Seondeok, The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo, IRIS, Personal Preference, Secret Garden, Dream High and Athena: Goddess of War. King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo had hit an outstanding 50.8 with its last episode on KBS [citation needed]. The genres that most internationally popular Korean dramas belong to are often romance, romantic comedy and historical dramas. An exception includes IRIS and Athena: Goddess of War, which are spy action thrillers.
Instead of a lively and spot-on definition, one that would make kdrama fans everywhere giggle even as they sheepishly concurred with every word, I got smacked in the face with barely disguised promos of individual dramas, all hyperlinked. Half of them titles I did not particularly fancy, too. What I was expecting was something like this:
A Korean drama is a goddamned itch that never goes away. Just ask Ockoala. Some people began watching it before they were born. Just ask Dahee Fanel. Some people’s temperaments have even been completely altered by it. Ask MisterX. On second thought, don’t ask him; you might get your head chewed off. A Korean drama is a logistical and scheduling nightmare because you’re watching five dramas concurrently and you need raws and subs and instant recall of what’s airing on what day and what’s replacing what in May and who’s recapping what and on which blog. A Korean drama will age you ten years and that’s from watching the rom-coms; don’t ask about the after-effects of watching a makjang. In short, be afraid, be extremely afraid.
Okay, that’s a pathetic example but you get the picture. I know you can do far better than that, right? So here’s the deal.
In ONE paragraph, define a Korean drama. Make your definition as funny as possible.
The funniest entry wins a US$50 gift certificate from Yesasia. There’s only one winner so try your best to impress my guest judges. Make them laugh till they pee in their pants! The contest closes two weeks from today: May 31, 2011. Good luck!
thundie's prattle 
AWESOME. I think your definition Thundie set the bar so high now. I can’t stop cracking up at your words (because they are all true, & very witty) Looking forward to read the entries!
I agree with xiaoSxin. Who’s going to be able to top that definition?! Hehe.
It’s so true…I was wondering how I got all those liver spots on my face!
A K-drama is a 16-50-hour time commitment, an Asian telenovela that usually centers around romantic and makjang elements to tug a storyline along. Oftentimes the plots are relatively simple, transparent and easy to guess at before the end ever transpires. Rich, chaebol sons, evil chaebol mothers, the alcoholic, gambling father, the jealous, boy-thieving rival, revelations of childhood trauma, family shame, meaningful-but-lost-trinkets, blindness, getting sick by episode 13 and being hospitalized when estranged from your will-they-won’t-they love, piggy back rides to foreshadow future romance, the plucky heroine, the virtuous girl — and circle lenses GALORE! (ESPECIALLY WITH THE PRETTY BOYS.) So why are they ever-so-much more popular than the shorter, more efficiently and sometimes more cleverly plotted J-doramas? It’s the emotion, stupid! In K-dramas, stories are just circumstance. Chemistry, bittersweetness, hope, trauma, humiliation, intergenerational and class conflict are the lifeblood of all K-dramas. Why? Because the roots of today’s more trendy K-dramas are steeped in the melodrama. Why? Because Koreans like to be sad. And it’s us procrastinators in a constant search for distraction who like to self-flagellate and be sad along with them.
Because the roots of today’s more trendy K-dramas are steeped in the melodrama. Why? Because Koreans like to be sad. And it’s us procrastinators in a constant search for distraction who like to self-flagellate and be sad along with them.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
What sadomasochists we are.
F.Y.I. :
You are my hero
I don’t want the coupon, but can I play tooooo?
“A Korean drama is like this blind date that is bestowed upon you. Before embarking upon this daunting journey, the smart cats ask around and look who dated the fucker before, whether the victims still want to breathe in the same area code as his armpits, and if no. 1 on his mobile’s speed dial is aged 54, makes a mean egg roll and wakes him up every morning without actually having had sexual intercourse with him (unless that’s his thingy. Ewww). But that’s just a tiny, statistically insignificant and possibly highly elitist 1%, who like to prance around with bloated electric blue cats while quoting Shakespeare, writing teraflop-sized dissertations you could more or less sum up with a “THIS IS FUCKING GREAT,” and that sort of stuff. The rest of this microcosm’s fauna will happily go to this date without a single concern, and find out he wears a white D&D t-shirt with stains of three colors: a) red substance which is possibly ketchup, coming from his not-so-dietetic compound of choice; b) prolonged brown marks, their skid nature yet to be confirmed and c) yellowish stains, showing the extent of his self-esteem, at least with his right hand. You’ll be interrupted every fifteen minutes by incessant ringing, from which an eerie, gingerly voice will dictate our Prince Charming where to put his white donkey before he can speak again, because good boys listen to mama. He will squeal like a pig sty during breakfast at every attempt at an ice-breaking joke you throw at him, which will move him to move him to pick up his best pick up line. Telling you he never felt so happy to see someone since the first time he didn’t wet his bed, the autumn of three years ago. He’ll bring you home in his daddy’s Buick, listen to old cassettes of Barry Manilow, And kiss you in the cheek, so schweet and womantic. Because going French would mean you’d get to know his braces. And yesterday’s dinner, since toothbrush is an endangered species for him. You’d go home after all this, and with a smile on your face look at the mirror and say….
Well, that showed promise. I need to see where this is going to end. Shit man, you can’t judge a book by its cover!”
BWAHAHAHA! Oh my god, I’m dying. Thank you for making my day!
Oh, fun! I’m excited to read everyone’s responses.
Ok, also not entering the contest, but I couldn’t resist.
A Korean drama is a terrifying disease. Sometimes it comes upon you slowly, with a slight ache in your heart, a burning of the eyes, and sometimes it hits you like a hammer between the eyebrows, but it is contagious and chronic, and no cure has been discovered. Each fit can last anywhere from 16 to 50 hours. Once the fever takes you, your heart starts to pound, your palms sweat, your head feels alternately light and dizzy, and you find yourself unable to sit still in your chair. Your breathing comes faster. You find yourself blurting exclamations without warning. Tears stream down your face. You sob. You pull your hair. You stare in disbelief. You chuckle – you giggle – you laugh maniacally, uncontrollably. Your laughter turns to tears. Eyes burning, you stay sitting up in your chair long past your bedtime, muscles seizing up from your frozen posture of tense anticipation. You ignore the phone. You ignore your work/school/family/friends/pets. Once the fit passes, you lie limp, drained, unable to speak about what you have just experienced, or perhaps bursting to share your agony with those dear to you. You are devastated. You are enthralled. You cannot wait for it to happen to you again.
Love this!!!!
EXACTLY!
Korean Drama [-noun; origins: South Korea, in three goddamn companies that are run either by idiots or sadists who enjoy subjecting Previously Practical People into watching the Greatest K-Drama Ever, and therefore enslaving their minds for all eternity into hunting for another K-Drama to beat this one, and when they do, they turn into something that belongs in a cage with monkeys that have a similar obsession in searching for lice, so that these Previously Practical People are forevermore stuck with monkeys in a cage being laughed at by Regular Practical People while they become a hairy, fat, beast with a severe disposition at being disturbed when the OTP are about to kiss, or anything about Damo appears, or while reading recaps, etc. ]
1. A television series.
2. a highly dangerous drug whose symptoms include screaming, wailing, baggy eyes, severe temperaments, depression, ecstasy, heart disease (or something similar), procrastination, severe social and mental decline, physical decline from alcohol, food, lack of sleep and hygiene, etc., obsessiveness [with various actors, and occasionally actresses, and OTPs, to the result where said drug addict ventures on a bloody crusade to convert everyone she or he knows into swallowing this drug so that a similar love may be shared from a monkey cage]. this drug is highly addictive, and impossible to recover from. no cure is to be found.
3. fucking crack, dude.
4. You want to know what a Korean Drama is? Okay. Fine. Your funeral. Seriously though. In no way will I take any responsibility if this definition tempts you to step into that dark abyss where you’ll stay trapped forever. Anyways. Let’s say you were living in a primitive village somewhere in the heart of Africa. You’ve never encountered “regular” civilization before. All you know is war paint, wild whooping, and giant-ass wild tusk roasted boars (or something of the like, anyways). Then one day, a white man comes to your village. He acts like an idiot and enjoys poking your people with a stick, but he comes with a gift. It’s an ugly brown thing that’s square and hard, but turns into this soft melty brownish puddle of goo when left in the heat too long. It’s remarkably similar to the stuff that comes out of your ass when you ate something wrong. Anyways, he offers it to you. You take it. You look at it. You turn it over in your hands. You ask, “What the hell is this?” You give it back to him. He frowns, and forces it back to you. You become more curious. Why is he so insistent in having you take this?
He motions for you to bite it.
At first, it’s like, “Hell no. I’m not eating any of your white man crap, you idiot. What’s wrong with you?”
Then he takes it. Bites into it. His face relaxes, and it tells you that this man thinks the brown stuff is something good. Food? Good? Your instincts scream for you to stop, but it’s too late. You’ve bitten into the brown thing. Your brain starts to whir. It stops, then whirs again. Your heart pounds like the war drums you hear when one tribe leader’s slapped your tribe leader.
holy fucking mother of god.
you ask for more. he gives you more. you eat it greedily. for several months, the strange white man supplies you with the brown stuff. you can’t stop eating it.
then he runs out.
first, you continue to ask for more, in denial. there has to more, goddammit. how can there not be more? it sinks in. there is no more. and what’s more, you’ve now gotten fat from having done nothing all day except eat the brown stuff. you live in mothereffing africa. you can’t get fat. your tribe makes fun of you. all of your potential mates have run off. your parents are disappointed. but you don’t care. YOU NEED MORE OF THIS STUFF. so you embark on a quest to search for more of this brown stuff. you say goodbye to your village. then you walk, hand in hand with the strange white man, to his country, where there’s a whole city made out of this brown stuff.
at first, it’s heaven.
you can’t stop eating. some of the things you eat don’t taste as good as the first brown stuff you ate. some of them are remarkably close to shit. but you eat. and eat.
eventually, you start getting depressed. most of what you’re eating doesn’t taste too good. some of it IS shit. then you see another block of brown stuff, labeled Godiva.
you’ve sunk in again.
this is the cycle you live in. you will live in this cycle for the rest of your life. it doesn’t matter if your family is gone or you’ve become the fattest human being on Earth.
you have what you need. and that thing is the brown stuff.
or what the white man calls chocolate.
so, symbolism understood? A Korean Drama is chocolate.
[end definition.]
[holy shit. that’s long. i’m sorry. was there a word limit to this?]
Laughed till I cried, man!
bwahahahahaha… bloody hilarious!!
nailed it!
Like our Girlfriday from Dramabeans would say, this is the shit, man, THE SHIT. I laughed till I cried. Alice, X, Laica and Jae, you guys are totally priceless.
MOAR, MOAR!!
“The shit” summarizes er’thing.
Can I just say the caps for this entry remind me that I really need to watch those last 4 eps of The Woman Who Stills Wants to Marry! That’s gotta one of the goofiest kdrama couples ever right there. 😉
Aigoo , Jae ! You ‘ ve put the bar too high ! Who would be able to be so hilarious ?
May I say only that I don’t feel at all k-dramas the same way as yours ? For me it is neither ugly neither brown , it is brilliant and warm . But we have all the same addiction …
Waah, how are we supposed to top you, Jae? You were frickin’ hysterical.
Now I’m going to go look for some of that brown stuff…
Hi Thundie! What fun! Certainly not as clever as others, and definitely more than a paragraph, but here my definition of a Korean Dramas from a newly addicted American without a drop of Asian blood from suburban USA…
Korean Drama: A unique and highly addictive form of serial entertainment that relies on rollercoaster-like twists and turns and cliff hanger endings to shamelessly hook the audience.
Kdrama Addict: Diverse but creative people with ability to make up excuses for hours of lost time and accomplish a day’s worth of work in the 20 minutes before their husband/boss/mother/roommate returns.
Storyline: Typically a variation of one of the following themes: rich, immature guy meets poor, feisty girl from unfortunate circumstances, or older, frumpy women captures heart of hot, young guy. Most stories contain unrequited love from third wheel (guy), beautiful bitchy ineffective third wheel (girl), parental disapproval, strong grandmother figure, annoying friends and possibly life threatening disease.
Common Locations: Alleyways where drunk girl is piggybacked, trendy batchelor pad with large shower for male lead to show off body, airport for running scenes, and hospital room with vaporizer for person suffering from stress or exposure to rain.
Occasional Use of Magic: Entire population of guys blinded to the fact that the person they are attracted to is a girl, suitcases the size of a lunchbox that hold a vacation wardrobe consisting of 20 outfits, 10 pairs of shoes and 5 coats, and the sobbing woman who still manage to look stunning while turning viewers into disgusting, runny nosed messes.
Why People Watch: To get to “ THE KISS”, usually so chaste it makes viewers ponder why the characters didn’t get more of their parents’ genes (who obviously were all sluts and slept with each other, resulting in questionable parentage issues.)
Visual Clues Writers Use and Their Meanings:
The clenched fist = “If I wasn’t so emotionally stunted I’d beat the crap out of you”,
Hand over mouth of gagging girl = “Holy immaculate conception, I’m pregnant!”,
Car abruptly making a u-turn in the middle of busy 8 lane highway = “Wait! I do have feelings, and right now I’m feeling like driving with reckless abandon!”,
Girl standing like dead fish with eyes popping out as guy kisses her = “Duh, so that’s what all the verbal abuse meant!”
KDrama Inspired Signs of True Addiction: Sleep deprivation, the sudden urge to answer the phone with “yobsayeo?” and numerous unnecessary trips to the nail salon in the hopes of picking up enough Korean to alleviate the torture of waiting for the subtitles to be posted for the new episodes.
How to Withdraw from Korean Dramas: Impossible! Just grab some snacks, a bottle of wine, a box of tissues and hunker down and enjoy!
From one suburban American without a drop of Asian blood, to another: That was hilarious! and yet so true!
Glad to know there are others out there. As I’m rather alone in this obsession here, I continually question my sanity and am forced to seek camaraderie through sites like this. I’m currently looking for a Korean language class and am betting I’ll find some Kdrama addicts there. Nice to meet you!
wow! i’m suprised! me too! i have not one drop of Asian blood and i (sadly) have not one korean friend. i have learned korean by teaching my self. i just looked up the korean alphabet and the sounds the letters make and the korean dramas did the rest for me! but i thougt i was alone in my love!
That is so funny yet so true. Am nodding every step of the way and smiling, close to laughing… at work.
I am Asian though but living away from home. I like to call my friends chingu and dongsaeng and I motivate my son with ‘Aja… Aja.. Fighting!’ 🙂
One of my new favorite expressions (she says while pumping fist!)
LOL so true!
I especially love “Occasional Use of Magic”. If only I could pack with such efficiency! (Don’t forget homeless, poverty stricken female leads who yet somehow always appear in new clothes and with salon-fresh hair.)
Exactly! And is it a God given right for everyone to own a cell phone with unlimited texting in South Korea? Just wondering….
Not a drop of Asian blood either ( maybe ten thousands years ago ? ) I do like your description ; so true about K-drama addicts . I am claiming my addiction everywhere and my love for Korea ( without telling it has started with k-dramas …) but no one understands really and people think it is over some greed that I am learning korean ( alas being lazy as apart to my yobo I can’t speak this language to anyone ) and bragging upon Korea . Thank you for your post .
Would I say again that my total addiction now is for New tales of gisaengs and for Song Hoon ? Well it is said .
So bad is my addiction that I first check to see if for the newest subs for shows are out, then check this forum, then the Korean word of the day, then my email! Have no time whatsoever to read the news now, even on the internet! I am totally hooked on NTOG and Best Love – WHERE ARE THOSE SUBS?!!!
news is that still on?
Oh, I die… from my innards splitting in laughter.
Kdrama Addict: Diverse but creative people with ability to make up excuses for hours of lost time and accomplish a day’s worth of work in the 20 minutes before their husband/boss/mother/roommate returns.
Totally! Just pulled this only this afternoon. I would feel ashamed had I not managed to exploit kdrama addiction in my work itself.
Your decoding of visual language. Excellent stuff!
after reading the comments here, I suddenly want to express my k-drama addiction thru joining this contest although I bet the other entries are more fun to read. 🙂
korean drama is a stress relieving form of entertainment or maybe sometimes the opposite
because you wanted to slap the face of bitchy girl/mother in-law that always make the lead
girl’s life miserable or thinking of which of the two actors you want for the girl to be
with at the end of the story, the leading man(spoiled chaebol son, jerk) or the second lead
(the super perfect guy that love the girl very much). It also brings you into tears without
knowing until it drops on the floor and at the same time it gives you a warm smile and a
loud laugh that some of your housemates thinks you’re going insane. It also gives you
uncurable desease that many called it k-drama addiction with a very noticeable symptoms
like the following; eyebags, watching the drama in straight 16 hours or more it depends on
the number of episodes of the story, answering the phone with a ‘yoboseyo’ greeting,
surfing the net in searching for your next k-drama marathon title, making your ipod
playlist full of OST of the k-dramas you already watched, humming korean drama OST while
riding in a public transportation, looking for some korean food items while in the grocery,
wanting to make a conversation even you only know a little a ‘hangul’ if you passed by a
korean national.
i am not alone ,omommomomomoo
I haunt my hair store for the cute guy who smiles so beautiful,but he gat yelled at by the disapprinf elder
be still mmy heart am i to star in my own kdrama
don’t forget catching ones self slightly bowing in gratitude or thanks!
Great job everyone! Here’s my version of a definition…
Korean dramas (also: kdramas) are TV series with typically 16 episodes (although the number can vary depending on factors like “pan“ devotion or sageukiness). They offer great lifesaving advice in many instances. Some examples include: You should be aware that 95% of men are brooding chaebols who have unresolved childhood issues. If a boy behaves like a girl (acting cute, crying all the time), it is safe to assume that he is one. And if you’re starting to spend time with a girl/boy and you don’t end up in a dating or marriage contract, then there’s something seriously wrong with you. Unless you’re a girl and he bought couple cellphones/rings – or at least a hair pin. A typical kdrama story is told from the girl’s perspective and can be broken down as follows:
Episode 1: I’m the plucky heroine
Episode 2: You’re the arrogant chaebol and I hate your guts
Episode 3: But unfortunately we keep bumping into each other
Episode 4: And we both find that a marriage contract would solve our problems
Episode 5: Which doesn’t please my best friend who’s secretly in love with me, or your bitchy wannabe girlfriend
Episode 6: But we start spending time together
Episode 7: And you open up about your childhood trauma
Episode 8: I realize that maybe you’re not a jerk and you deny that you’re starting to care about me
Episode 9: Although everyone around you sees how jealous you are and witnesses our first real hug
Episode 10: Bitchy wannabe girlfriend is not pleased and decides to separate us
Episode 11: Which inititally doesn’t work because we’re waiting for
Episode 12: THE kiss
Episode 13: But then one misunderstanding leads to the next
Episode 14: And we cry and suffer and cry again
Episode 15: Until someone finally pities you and tells you the truth
Episode 16: And you come to find me, we make up, but I have to leave for 3 years to work/study abroad, and you wait for me, and then I come back and we are happy
Love it – spot on definition of a typical story line! Episode16’s summary really had me laughing!
K-Drama – redirected from Dangerous Controlled Substances –
taking the form of episodic television programs, these are extremely addicting drugs that frequently cause users to become pushers. These “programs” usually air twice a week, generally in one hour intervals, causing just enough of a reaction to make the user compelled to obsess about their next fix.
Subject matter is varied enough to attract users of all ages, genders and nationalities. It becomes particularly dangerous when the user feels compelled to either learn Korean to understand the “program” live (not withstanding the rationalities of timezones), or to learn to subtitle in order to allow distribution to those not fortunate enough to know Korean.
Severe addictions to k-dramas include “marathoning,” purchasing of director’s cut DVD sets, and the desire to go to fanmeetings with “Hallyu” stars, as well as logging on to computer sites to discuss the show and ferret out any information about the next fix.
K-dramas should be handled carefully, as merely glancing at an episode has been known to cause vulnerable individuals to sit transfixed before their monitors for hours. The K-drama industry, dominated by 3 cartels, has determined several particularly addicting items to inject into their “programs.” The “kiss,” the “chaebol heir,” and (in the more hard core historical “programs”) the “turning point battle” are all extremely dangerous to the unwary viewer.
The quality of this substance varies wildly over time, however many users are willing to suffer with poor quality “programs” just to get the slightest bit of K-drama, while other users are likely to start using the slightly less addicting C or J drama.
The prognosis for the K-drama addict is not good, as new “pragrams” are constantly being produced, and they must be carefully weaned away while k-dramas are in a lull, otherwise a relapse into “marathoning” older shows will occur.
This is so true it’s scary! Especially like the part about users becoming pushers – even though we may try to hide our addiction, we need someone to share in the fix!
is there a way not to sound like a nut when you try to get others o join you in the world of kdrama addiction
once you kdrama you never ever watch anything else. my tv has not been on in5 months some was complaing about summer tvs , i just said its may and i have 5 ew shows i am watching
so i set 4 the next 8 weeks
a lull never i go back and watch my favorite shows again and relive each stiff kiss, hand grab, and swoon over the moment the say i like you nan dangsin-eul joh-ahaeyo ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
gosh, that happende to me, too. i am not up-to-date with the english tv series anymore. and not keen to watch hollywood movies, too.
Just wanted to add to your definition…turf wars between ‘distributors’ of said ‘programs’ aka subbers/uploaders have been known to occur on a dangerously normal basis.
really ? like a true addict i just want my stuff i get mad when i cant get at the regular dealer , and have to use a sa poor substtuie
Kdrama
Is good, legal crack. It entices you with the promise of learning about a new culture a new language. When you start its slow and you are intrigued by the news of a different language. You might pause a an episode to go and google Seoul , Korean language , pictures of Actors the you decide to look for recaps.
Down the rabbit hole you go you have entered the world of Kdrama and you are at the door . Sanity and life call you but the world of kdramas pull is too strong. You turn your back and dive into dramabeans where you find a world full of stories recapping what happened on the kdrama you are watching. Recaps are calling read me you are now a zombie and you read. Epiode one , two , three, four . Phone rings its life saying hey you got to live me. Sadly you leave , but get energized at the thought that on your return Kdrama will be here. Three hours later you return and go for another hit of the engrossing recaps you read about the entire show. Then you remember you were still watching the first eoisode of the new strange world of kdrama. An entire day has gone by but you have spent 5 hours reading recaps and then you watch the first episode , stopping several times to read the names and recap again. Two hours pass you finally finish the first episode , then you start episode tow , three, four , five. Oh no its morning and you have not slept but now have a strange desire to eat ramen noodles and drink soju. Soju what’s that? Off to google you go. Life dares interrupt you again reluctantly you go
spend the day jonsing for this new language and another hit of kdrama. You get invited to dinner you turn it down eager to return to you new friend. You get home and its off to episode 6,7 8 9 , 10 11 and you are fighting sleep. You take a power nap . 2 hours later its 2 am but you are up again. 12 , 13 ,14 15 16 and your first drama is done . What have you learnt ? Soju is a Korean drink, Korean men brood in showers , piggybacks are sexy, skinship and you have a Korean popsing in your head. new favorite word is Sarang and Omomomo. So instead of walking away you go back to that dramabeans and read recaps to find the next fix. So you spend the next4 hours reading recaps and finally you chose a new drama , but because you are new you find the crappiest sites to watch it on. But its a repeat of the first kdrama but this time you sit there for 7 hours straight with only bathroom breaks. You call in sick to work I have to know what happened . Two days you finish another kdrama. Now evertime some say Sarang you know what it meas and oh my Korean men are brooding in the shower, cellphone batteries being taken out. You take a grocery shopping trip and you buy ramen noodles and try to get Soju . but you dont even drink. You get a call from mother , she is upset you missed a family dinner. you call her omeoma. You tell her you are studying Korean , she is happy you have a new interest. Kdrama fix needs to attended to.You take your notebook to work you have to know which nre drama to watch . Lunch time is an hour long and you will ear ramen noodles at your desk , but you cant not finish that episode man. You read recap instead of doing your work. But you have a deadline so you do it. Day ends you rush home , but decide to stop at Starbuck free wiifii, so you can finish you kdrama. buy buy a triple shot lattee finish your drama . hours later you relise you are hungry. You go buy the chinese restaurant its the closest thing. go home eat too tired sleep. Repeat pattern for the next two days. You finish drama 2 . Dramabeans again you discover dramafever and hehold a meladrama with 50 episodes . 5 days marathons. Noone hears from you and you are gainig weight from all those ramen noodle. You hav now mastered a few Korean words and are driving people crazy by trying to speak in Korean to them. You are studying a new language. Then you stumble your first live drama you read the previews and work out time differnces and you do the next crazy thing of kdrama adiction watching a drama raw with no subs and understanding what they are saying. Recaps by dramabeans. thundie and others confirm that you know what you watched. Notice that none of your friends will talk to you for long because every other word is Korean and you are always telling them about your favorite Korean Actor. After a few months you get back to life somewhat. Noone still get you but they call you by your new Korean name. Your omoema tells you that she Sarangs you and Appa thinks its cute but he wishes you had beeen this serious about school. Kdrama is good adiiction aside from being sleep deprived and have an aversion to kissing you want a piggyback and one side hugs and have a crazy crush in your favorite kdrama leader , no one in your life gets why you watch it but there is a world to raw no subbing watching , marathoning,recap reading junkies and i dont want to quit
So funny ! I do like it !
Glad not to be alone !
Thanks.
“Soju what’s that? Off to google you go.”
“oh my Korean men are brooding in the shower, cellphone batteries being taken out.”
Hilarious!
Omg somang- that was hilarious – cracked up when you wrote “appa thinks it’s cute but wished you were this serious about school” Hahhaha. Hope this story was embellished for amusement purposes cuz if you really did all that – you should win. Jeju is pretty this time of the year, but make sure you are staying at a nice hotel with great views like the drama sites. 🙂
that is the sad tale of my addiction to kdrama , I have cancelled dr appointed just so i can watch a drama live now that is nuts.and my collection of phrase books is growing.i go to borders once a week and when they see me coming they clear a table for me at the cafe for me and Pinkie my netbook and korean phrase books.I approach complete stranger who are Korean and they happily talk to me , but how long before they complain. and i have my own Korean crush J who i thought was Chinese buy when he smiles i melt my first words to him were mianhayo to which he said kinchana.
His uncle was not happy he was talking to me (omomomo I have a kdrama on my hands now just to tear myself from live raws and chase those hussies away from him .Do we have a karoke bar intown?
forgot to add ‘Kdrama makes you so aware of time difference that you know that at 3pm eastern time you will be able to find raw kdrama crack which just aired in korea, which has some ask me why are you on a chinese website. serious it compelese you to take potty breaks with you netbook in you bag so much that they think you have the runs or a really heavy period
Krochi ! I am now perfectly aware of time zones , always clinging to Joonmedia like a sick pig to follow my favorites raw .
And your compulsive way of writing tells so well our behavior towards k-dramas !
Here goes:
A K-drama is the love of your life. If he looks cold and unappealing on the outside, don’t worry. No matter how much your family hates him, you will fall in love with him eventually. He wears skinny pink trousers. You don’t care because his hair is so pretty. He will piggyback you, wrist-grab you, and get insanely jealous. You don’t care because he engrosses you completely. He’s going to change you. Instead of doing things, like…say… sleeping, you’ll be up all night with him. If you show up to work with bags under your eyes and skin ashen grey, you won’t care – because he was so good, you’ll do it again tonight. You’ll be a sack of nerves every time he leaves, counting the seconds till he returns. Sometimes you lose hope. You have flaming rows where you scream and throw things. But he always manages to surprise you. You swear to leave him forever, but you always come back. Your neighbors will desert you. Your former life will desert you. Your family will put up with him only because they want to inherit from you someday. You will follow him to the ends of the earth. Sometimes some misguided family member will try to tear you two apart (“For your own good”). This will lead to problems. You will cling hysterically. You will try to run away with him. Eventually, you will win. You will not be able to imagine life before him or without him. Suck it up. You can’t get rid of him, and you won’t want to. He’s got you now.
Oh my God. This is so true. I AM IN A CODEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP!
Please don’t rescue me.
(Love the metaphor.)
Dang, I should have read the entries before starting… wouldn’t hv wasted my time :p but since the milk is spilt and the egg is fried:
“Korean dramas are Earthlings’ telescopes into K-dramasphere, a realm in the x-th dimension which is governed by certain distinct laws, not unlike how the Earth is bound by the law of gravity. In K-dramasphere, its citizens are believed to be mostly Korean judging from the language that they speak, although they bear little resemblance to their alleged ancestors – the ladies often have altitudinous nose bridges and double eye-lidded eyes which occupy half their faces, while the men generally tower over 1.8m and have torsos of Roman sculptures. The women wear irremovable make-up but never wear the same clothing twice, regardless of their financial situations. Men are often clad in outrageous clothing, though they prefer to be topless e.g. when they are troubled and taking showers. K-dramasphereans spend most of their time indulging in romance and affiliated activities; all other undertakings related to work or daily life is peripheral and inconsequential. In terms of the law of attraction, K-dramasphereans are usually attracted to polar opposites of themselves e.g. the rich to the poor, the reclusive to the gregarious etc. Due to this phenomenon, K-dramasphereans who end up as couples tend to loath each other in the beginning. When they overcome this initial abhorrence, the hate is often transferred to a particular in-law that will consequentially oppose the relationship. Love is most often communicated through the act of kissing and piggy-backing. Apart from amorous activities, K-dramasphereans also like to shout, cry, threaten each other and eat white rice. In K-dramasphere, the most common illnesses are cancer and amnesia. However, K-dramasphereans are relatively hardy despite their staple diet of soju and ramyun; many are able to withstand (multiple) car/truck accidents and still survive. The predictability of K-dramasphereans’ lives offer Earthlings much joy as they spend hours on end peering into the telescopes, proudly forecasting the inexorable sequence of events. Frequent users of these telescopes bemoan (often collectively and to each other) the addictive effect of these telescopes. But like the Truman show, “the World is watching”.
I laughed a lot reading your post ( after doing the chores and not allowing myself yet to watch theK – dramasphereans ) . Now waiting eagerly for this afternoon , next episode of NTOG …
no dont spill the beans they a tracking me .I want to nit to watch. i am on a drama free doet.but reading recaps is making me want my fix. aigoo no drama fighting !
Omomo ! With NTOG , you will get an enormous amount of absolutely pure fix !
Ottoke ?
Define a krama…
She’s addicted to NTOG as much as I am… 😛
So lucky you ! I am alone in love with NTOG !
Wow, some of these ‘paragraphs’ are rather long. Here’s my definition of what a K-drama is, in a sentence…or two.
At the end, you say to yourself, ” How the Hell did I end up like this?!”, yet your fingers are ten steps ahead because you’ve already pressed the download button for the next series. It’s like a dream; only it’s not, because you haven’t slept in days.
Korean drama is a type of addiction by which your private and professional life is severely affected. And it only takes one episode and you are sucked in without even becoming aware of it. After watching 10 or more you may start to think you have it under control but that will only last until you come across one that’ll urge you watch “just one more episode”. Effects on users include but not limited to sleep depravation, lousy love life (one can’t help but compare Korean drama male leads to regular every day guys), intense emotional mood swings and developing a weird fashion sense.
Depending on the character of the user a drama can also cause collateral damages on unsuspecting friends and family who will sometimes be subject to the obsession with relentless updates on the convulated storyline.
So far there have not been any recorded recoveries from this addiction.
do we want to recover
just made the annoucement that my honeymoon is going to be at Jeju Island , it better look like it does in the dramas ala SG Playful Kiss , My Name is Kim Sam Soon and many others
do we want to recover ?
just made the annoucement that my honeymoon is going to be at Jeju Island , it better look like it does in the dramas ala SG Playful Kiss , My Name is Kim Sam Soon and many others
I’ve been bowled over by the entries so far. CRACKTASTIC!! Thank you, everyone. 😀
The contest will close at midnight on May 31, US Pacific time.
when do find out thundie
I’m struck by the witticisms displayed by fellow kdrama addicts when they give their own definitions of what kdrama is. And while reading one entry, when the writer comments how she’s been able to do some jobs at the last minute just before the husband/mother/roommate returns, I looked at the watch and realized it was 2:30 a.m. and I hadn’t cooked the chicken dish my poor doctor son must take for his lunch today (Saturday) — and so rushed away to pop the chicken into the microwave to defreeze and, like a good Asian mother, managed to prepare a dish from scratch for the son. Kdrama addiction is a serious problem for me as I must be sitting in front of my laptop at least 10 hours a day, never bothering to make calls to friends and family, and even failing sometimes to check the mailbox for a day or two. Some of the dramas are so gripping that I just can’t stop at 4-5 episodes per night, and I usually go to bed bleary-eyed at 5 in the morning. Thank God the hospital feeds their doctors lunch on weekdays and so I have to be careful of preparing lunch only on weekends for me and my son. On weekdays, I usually have wontons or dumplings with vermicilli or noodles with some veggies thrown in as lunch — in front of the monitor. Of course, when the son comes home from work, I have to sit down and watch the pretaped American movies (so short and so bland). I’ve been wondering how did I ever come to adore American and British actors in my pre-kdrama days when they look so insipid and asexual to me now. Right now I’m watching Lie to Me, Best Love, Baby-faced Beauty, Drunken to Love You, Manny and The Duo concurrently. And I religiously read Thundie’s Prattle, Dramabeans, Rebelssoul, and Ockoala too, not forgeting the various Soompi forums. I neither smoke or drink or do drugs, but this kdrama addiction must be as bad as being addicted to alcohol or nicotine. Wonder whether there’ll be a cure someday???
I think I recognized a friend from my other favorite blog (Yoguturu,which sadly no long exists)…How’s my friend from my Mom’s homeland(Burma)? As for the cure for kdrama addiction..*blissfully answer*There is none 🙂