Posted on 10/13/2014 7:15:13 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
A SOUTH KOREAN saying claims that a stone thrown from the top of Mount Namsan, in the centre of the capital Seoul, is bound to hit a person with the surname Kim or Lee. One in every five South Koreans is a Kim—in a population of just over 50m. And from the current president, Park Geun-hye, to rapper PSY (born Park Jae-sang), almost one in ten is a Park. Taken together, these three surnames account for almost half of those in use in South Korea today. Neighbouring China has around 100 surnames in common usage; Japan may have as many as 280,000 distinct family names. Why is there so little diversity in Korean surnames?
Korea’s long feudal tradition offers part of the answer.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
NGUYEN - very common Viet Namese name.
Lacism.
LOL. I share your Dutch heritage and have found the derivation of last names quite interesting.
Is “Grant” common in North Korea? That could be a clue.
Next article: Why so many Indians are called Patel. Then why so many Americans are called Smith.
Like Robert E. Lee?
If you paid the clerk a bribe, you got a nice name like Rosenthal, “valley of roses.” If not, you got Grossman or Lender or Afterduft.
I just re-watched Running Man “It’s okay, we’re heirs” again yesterday. It still boggles my mind how the biggest stars in South Korean entertainment can go on a zany show like that and put aside their public image to “win the mission” at hand.
As a whole, I don’t think you could find a more competitive group of people anywhere on the planet than Koreans. It also doesn’t hurt that, at least in the entertainment industry, most of them range from very attractive to downright gorgeous, plus, they’re quick-witted and funny.
Until I tried it, I never would have thought that I could enjoy watching TV or movies where I had to depend on sub-titles, but that hasn’t been the case. I’ve found that not only don’t I notice it anymore, my retention of what I’ve read and heard is much higher than it ever was with listening only. It also forces me to pay close attention to what I’m seeing, rather than letting my mind wander to think about the crappy things that are going on in the world that I’m watching TV to escape from.
Last but not least, Koreans haven’t been force-fed the idea that multiculturalism is a good thing. Their entertainment industry embraces Korean culture, rather than trying to destroy it. It really makes me long for the days when one half of America didn’t hate the other half of America.
Next weeks/yesterdays episode is sort of a superhero theme, their take on our (not all western) superheroes I guess.
and I want some bimbimbap and jjangmyun now.
I doubt I spelled those right.
He was South Korean wasn't he?
Knowing the family-clan background is still important, if only to try to be sure someone is not marrying someone who is too closely related to them; and so many still go through the process of checking their own and their prospective spouse’s genealogy as best as possible.
Is it true that Ah Chu is common in the medical profession?
I’ll be sure to watch it, but not as enthusiastically as when they have female stars and idols on. I hate to admit to being sexist, but I was first drawn to K-Drama by the hot women, and they certainly have enough to keep me interested, with new ones coming along all the time.
I thought I had already seen the cutest thing ever, then I saw Heo Youngji. I can’t look at that girl without smiling. I predict she’s going to be a huge star in a very short time.
Younji - isn’t she now on Roommate (ep 21 and up)? She has that strange silent laugh? She is definitely cute.
5.56mm
That’s her. I haven’t been following K-pop all that long, but even the teenage girls, who are normally so vicious seem to love her too.
South something or another.
On the KBS World Youtube they put up a ton of their shows with subtitles. Quite a library of them and new ones pop up 2 or 3 weeks after broadcast with the subs in place.
You can find lots of the cute Korean girl idols on “Infinite Youth” (1 & 2) from a couple of years ago, including Sunny. It is also a very funny show.
Pay close to attention to the start of ep 1 in season 1 and see how badly some of the “idols” are living. cramped shared aparments and all that.
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