Beyond Gangman Style: Learning Korean via Korean Music

by admin on May 8, 2013

An Introduction to Korean Indie Music for Korean Language Learners

Guest post by Sam Gendreau

Korea Indie Music

It’s been 5 years since I started looking for some of the best possible—preferably noncommercial—Korean bands out there, and today is your lucky day because I’ll share some of my findings with you! It’s not an exhaustive list by any standard, especially due to space constraints, and of course it’s subjective, but hopefully this will pique your curiosity and serve as a good introduction to Korean music.

By “Indie,” I mean bands or artists that write their own music and that are less mainstream than, say, KPOP and manufactured music ready-made for mass consumption. This “Indie” label is common in Korean music, and such music is often referred to as “K-Indie”. Technically, this could include genres as wide as rock, pop, grunge, acoustic, folk, ballad, and more.

For the top 10 bands, I’ve included an introduction to the band/artist, including the kind of music they play, the amount of years they’ve been on the scene, and the number of CDs they’ve released. I’ve also embedded a video for you to listen to, for what I consider to be one of each band’s “best” songs (one of their most popular, basically), and included links to additional songs that I particularly recommend.

Since most bands and songs’ titles are originally in Korean, I’ve included a loose translation for your convenience. However, this does not necessarily reflect the actual translation that the band has used, if there was ever one. I’ve tried my best to find the right translations whenever possible.

If you are studying or planning to study Korean, learning the language partly through music would be a great option available to you (which I’m sure you are already aware of, since you’re reading this on Susanna’s blog and she has written a book entitled “Language is Music”). If you want to find the lyrics for a particular song, you can most of the time simply Google the name of the band and song, and add “가사”, which means “lyrics” in Korean. If you cannot read Hangul yet, it only takes a couple of days of study to get the hang of it, so don’t be put off by these strange characters!

Otherwise, simply enjoy discovering a new culture. Believe me, Korean music is truly diverse, creative, and addictive. If you have any additional bands you think are worthy of mention, please let us know in the comments section! Remember, this list is highly subjective and only given as a means to introduce you to Korean Indie music. There are simply too many good bands to include them all in one post, so don’t hesitate to make your own suggestions and I will most likely write an additional post in the future on my blog, lingholic, if people are interested!

 

1. 검정치마 – The Black Skirts

Wikipedia page: Korean, English.

The Black Skirts is a Korean indie rock one man band founded in 2008 in Seoul.

Vocalist “Holiday” Cho (조휴일) is the lead singer and songwriter. He was born in Seoul, but grew up in New York City. He later came back to Seoul, Korea, and released the band’s first album, 201, in 2008. The album earned the 7th Korean Pop Music Award for Best Modern Rock Album.

Besides the album 201, The Black Skirts has released one unofficial album, My feet don’t touch the ground (and I am so winded I can’t sing for you today), in 2009, and a second full-length album, Don’t You Worry Baby (I’m Only Swimming), on July 13, 2011.

Most of the Black Skirts songs contain a mixture of languages – mostly English and Korean, and also Spanish (see song “Dientes”).

“Best” song: “Love Shine”:

Other recommended songs: “강아지 (Puppy),” “Antifreeze,” “아침식사 (Breakfast),” “날씨 (Weather),” “음악하는 여자 (The Woman Who Does Music).”

 

2. 짙은 – Zitten

Wikipedia page: Korean.

Zitten is an amazingly addictive one-member Modern Rock band, with Seong Yong-Uk as the vocalist and composer. Zitten’s first full-length album was released in 2008 (Zitten), and the band has released three EPs, in 2005, 2010, and 2011 respectively.

Follow Seong Yong-Uk on Twitter or visit the band’s official site.

“Best” song: “괜찮아 (It’s OK)”:

Other recommended songs: “곁에 (Next to),” “동물원 (Zoo),” “고래 (Whale),” “이유 (Reason),” “Feel alright.”

 

3. 델리 스파이스 – Deli Spice

Wikipedia page: Korean.

Deli Spice is an excellent rock band currently composed of 3 members, with Kim Min-Gyoo (김민규) as the main vocalist, guitarist, and band leader. The band has released a total of eight albums, with their first one, Deli Spice, released in 1997.

Visit their official site or their MySpace page.

“Best” song: “Confession (고백)”:

Other recommended songs: “차우차우 (Chow Chow),” “달려라 자전거 (Ride the Bicycle),” “Y.A.T.C,” “가면 (If You Go),” “고양이와 새에 관한 진실 (The Truth About Cats and Birds).”

 

4. 브로콜리 너마저 – Broccoli, you too

Wikipedia page: Korean.

Don’t be fooled by the band’s rather curious name! Broccoli, you too is an amazing 4-member band originally formed in 2005. Deokweon (덕원) and Ryuji (류지) are the band’s main vocalists, with Jandi (잔디) on the keyboard and Hyanggi (향기) on the guitar.

Their debut album (EP) was released in 2007, under the name of No Encore (앵콜요청금지). They released 3 full-length albums (in 2008, 2010, and 2012), as well as a second EP in 2012.

The band won “Best Modern Rock Song Award” at the 2010 and 2011 Korean Music Awards, for their songs “Universal Song (보편적인 노래)” and “Graduation (졸업).”

“Like” them on Facebook on visit their website.

“Best” song: “보편적인 노래 (Universal Song )”:

Other recommended songs: “꾸꾸꾸 (Coo Coo Coo),” “유자차 (Citron Tea),” “사랑한다는 말로도 위로가 되지 않는 (Telling You Love Me Does Not Bring Any Comfort).”

 

5. 루시드폴 – Lucid Fall

Wikipedia page: Korean, English.

Lucid Fall (루시드폴) is a Korean singer-songwriter. His birth name is Jo Yun Suk (조윤석). He has released five studio albums: Lucid Fall (2001), Oh, Love (오, 사랑) (2005), A Night at Border ( 국경의 밤) (2007), Les Misérables (2009), and the latest album Beautiful Days (아름다운 날들) released in Korea on December 20, 2011.

Lucid Fall’s musical style incorporates folk, pop, and bossa nova. He uses a nylon guitar as his primary instrument and is famous for poetic lyrics. The tone of Lucid Fall’s music is melancholic and at times gloomy, but it’s also soothing and relaxing.

Lucid Fall was awarded the Bronze prize at the 5th Ryu Jae Ha Music contest in 1993, as well as the best pop single prize at the 3rd Korean Music Awards in 2006.

Follow him on Twitter or Facebook!

“Best” song: “And Snow is Falling (그리고 눈이 내린다)”:

Other recommended songs: “고등어 (Mackerel),” “국경의밤 (Night at The Border).”

 

6. 토이 – Toy

Wikipedia page: Korean, English.

Toy is a one-man project band of Korean pop singer-songwriter and pianist Yoo Hee-yeol. Toy is an “old school” band that was at the height of their popularity back in the 1990s. The band has released 6 studio albums since 1994, in addition to one live and one compilation album.

Toy started as a duo of Yoo Hee-yeol and Yoon Jeong-oh, but after releasing Toy’s first album, Yoon Jeong-oh left the band to study overseas. Yoo Hee-yeol has been the sole member of Toy since 1996, and he released Toy’s second album Fairy Tales for Adults in the same year. The title song Remember I Was Next to You sung by Kim Yeon-woo became a big hit and the album was a success.

Visit their official site.

“Best” song: “Whenever (그럴 때마다)”:

Other recommended songs: “내가 너의 곁에 잠시 살았다는 걸 (The Little Life I Spent Next To You),” “혼자 있는 시간 (The Time I’m Alone).”

 

7. 10cm

Wikipedia page: Korean, English.

10 cm (십센치) is a very popular Indie band in Korea. The band has two members, Kwon Jung Yeol (vocal, djembe) and Yoon Cheol Jong (guitar). The band won “This Year’s Discovery Award” at the 2010 Mnet Asian Music Awards, and “Best Pop Song Award” at the 2011 Korean Music Awards.

Since the debut release, they released one single in 2010, called “Americano,” and two full-length albums (2011 and 2012). “Americano” was an instant hit, and the melody is recognizable by most Koreans since the song aired on radio and in TV series quite extensively.

Follow them on Twitter!

“Best” song: “오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요 (Tonight, I’m Afraid of The Dark)”:

Other recommended songs: “그게 아니고 (That’s Not It),” “Americano,” “죽겠네 (I’m Gonna Die).”

 

8. 롤러코스터 – Roller Coaster

Wikipedia page: Korean.

Roller Coaster is a 3-member rock band, with Cho Won-Seon (조원선) as the band leader (vocals, keyboard). Cho Won-Seon is an extremely talented woman that has also released a solo album in 2009 (Swallow). Roller Coaster has released a total of 5 full-length albums, in addition to one live album and a digital single.

The band made their debut in 1999, and has been active since then.

“Best” song: “숨길 수 없어요 (Can’t Hide It)”:

Other recommended songs: “Love Virus,” “Last Scene,” “어느 하루 (A Certain Day),” “습관 (Habit),” “너에게 보내는 노래 (The Song I’m Sending to You).”

 

9. 몽니 – Monni

Wikipedia page: Korean.

Monni is a 4-member rock band with the amazing Kim Shin-Eui (김신의) as the band’s vocalist. They have a gift for making high quality, highly-addictive songs. Their live shows are energetic and plain amazing.

The band made their debut in 2005, and has since then released 3 full-length albums, one recent EP (2012), as well as several singles.

Visit the band’s site and follow them on Twitter.

“Best” song: “그대와 함께 (Together With You)”:

Other recommended songs: “나 지금 뛰어가고 있어 (I’m Running Now),” “언제까지 내 맘 속에서 (Anytime Inside My Heart),” “다시와 (Come Back Again),” “너 떠나버린 그 집 앞 (Me Who Walk Away in Front of This House).”

 

10. 스탠딩 에그 – Standing Egg

Wikipedia page: Korean.

Last but not least in this introduction to Korean Indie Music is Standing Egg, another addictive band formed in 2010. The band is composed of three members (Egg #1, #2, and #3), and released their first album in 2010. They released a second full-length album in April 2012. They also released two “mini-album” and 7 singles. Their lyrics are often a mix of Korean and English, and Standing Egg’s music style could be considered as acoustic and pop.

Visit their official website and like them on Facebook.

“Best” song: “라라라 (Lalala)”:

Other recommended songs: “I’m not Yours ,” “넌 이별 난 아직.”

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Alright everybody, that’s it for today’s post. I really hope you’ll have enjoyed discovering new music, and I hope you’ll find Korean music as amazing as I do! Should you ever have any questions, whether about Korean music or the Korean language, I’d be more than happy to answer them. Feel free to visit my blog, www.lingholic.com, and visit the “Contact” page to send me a message! I’d also love it if you’d drop by my Facebook page and say hi! Many thanks~

By Sam Gendreau

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The Language of Race and Gender

by admin on April 26, 2013

By Umar Alim Al-Junaid

One of the hardest things to be is an American citizen who speaks other languages, but being an African- American who speaks several languages has its own unique set of issues. For one, 99.99% of the time you feel as if you are the only person within a 3,000 mile radius who speaks another language, you find yourself searching through outlets such as Youtube for people who look like you that speak several languages, and when you do find them, you clamor like a lonely, desperate adolescent. You find yourself reaching out to them on every social network there is – begging and hoping that they will add you to their inner circle of coolness. By the way, thank you Moses McCormick, Idahosa Ness, and David Mansaray.

10 Reasons Why African Americans NEED To Learn A Second Language

10 Reasons Why African Americans NEED To Learn A Second Language


Meanwhile in real life, everyone in the community is so impressed that you speak 3 or 4 languages, but they want no parts of learning one for themselves…or maybe they just don’t know where to start. Either way, this is what inspired me to write my first book The Book on Language Learning: 10 Reasons Why African Americans NEED To Learn a Second Language.  My aim was to not only appeal to the “feel good” reasons why African-Americans need to learn a second language (i.e. enjoying diverse foods, reveling in good music, and pursuing love in other cultures), but also to the more practical reasons, such as understanding history, economics and geopolitics.  I also wanted to provide further insight on how being monolingual over the generations has been detrimental to our present and how being bilingual will be critical for our future survival as global citizens.

Ambassador Spratlen

I am a multilingual Emcee, so I enjoy producing rap music in all the languages I speak.  Naturally, when I first came across Susanna Zaraysky’s great work a few years back, I was excited and impressed that she is an advocate of using music to learn languages.  Still, I noticed something else that was a bit disturbing: I was bothered by the fact that I have not seen or met many female polyglots. In fact, when I looked around the African American community, I was even more disturbed because I noticed that there is a severe lack of female representation in the language community; so, consequently there are no women being celebrated. That’s not to say that there aren’t African American men and women in high places who aren’t multilingual. For example , we have Ambassador Pamela Spratlen -nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on January 5, 2011, and who speaks Russian, French, and Spanish. There’s also Mr. Andrew Ballen  -CEO/Founder of AVD Digital Media, who has made his bones over in China with a high command of Mandarin.

But, in my own personal life – within my wide circle of friends from all walks of life, different places, and different social economic standings – I am hard-pressed to encounter a Black woman or man who speak more than one language. I literally know of ONE: Ms. Whitney “Phylliz Sophikal” Boyd, a native of Miami, Florida currently working in Atlanta. Ms Boyd is worth noting because not only is she bilingual, but she is also a brilliant educator, artist, and scholar holding a Masters in Pan-African Studies.

So when I asked Ms. Boyd about the importance of African-American people – and particularly African-American women – learning languages, she remarked:

“As a high school Spanish teacher, it is immeasurably disparaging to hear students complain about the uselessness of learning a second language. What many people of color fail to realize is that knowing a second language is as important for one’s personal development as it is for job security. As a people, we are overdue for a paradigm shift toward global thinking and global citizenship, and because women are statistically more present in the lives of our children, it is up to us to expose them to language skills and the beauty of cultural diversity.”

Now as you read this you may be asking yourself “Why is everything so Black and White?” or  “Why does everything have to be about race?” or even “Why does it always come down to the ‘gender war’?”  Well, the simple answer is…because this is the good ol’ US of A and at the end of the day it is about race, color, and creed; it is ALL economic, and African-Americans are getting left behind, yet again.

While writing this article, I read a recent post, What Facebook executive’s new book tells about women, success & foreign languages on Susanna’s site. This post highlighted the accomplishments of Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook who also made the cover of TIME magazine.  In this very informative article, Susanna had mentioned how she was upset with the article in TIME magazine because, as she puts it, “The article reinforced what I was already suspecting was the explanation for why we don’t see more female polyglots being public about their foreign language successes.”  She goes on to explain that “women’s success is not appreciated by [her] peers. Men’s success is appreciated.”
Now I have noted all throughout my book that the lack of bilingualism is a national issue, but I do keep it real with the reader because – like everything else in this country  - when it gets broken down into simple terms, White men sit at the top, White women are second, “everyone else” third, Black women fourth, and Black are men last. In other words, if America as a whole is doing poorly at something, African-Americans suffer the worst, and when America is doing well at something, African-Americans usually get little to no share of the spoils.

As I read Susanna’s article (from an African-American perspective), I could not fathom any issues arising from being the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook because we rarely see that type of success in our community in the first place, whether it be male or female. Nonetheless, her point was well-expressed and well-received.

In addition, I made sure to write the book with the youth in mind because America needs to start raising a generation of bilingual citizens. As a kid growing up in monocultural America, I was always interested in other cultures.  I can remember one of my early crushes – she was a beautiful Filipino girl who I played chess against, and who was always by my side when we played the “Oregon Trail.”  Now, being in middle school, “by my side” meant that the teacher just sat her next to me in the circle along with 14 other students, but you get the point.  And it was in the early 1990’s that my obsession with Hip-Hop, African history, World history and Rick Steves:European Travels that would encourage me to eventually learn other languages. The educational system here in America has done an extreme disservice to its youth by not implementing a serious foreign language learning matrix into its curricula. It took me a long time to get back to my dream of learning a second language –yes, I said dream. That is how bad it is.

As it was then, so it is now that learning a second language in school is an exception, not the rule.  And because it was not the rule, we have created generations of Americans who are averse to learning foreign languages and usually point back to school as the reason why they stopped learning them in the first place.  Thus, the cycle of monolingualism has, in my not-so-humble opinion, perversely affected the society to the extreme that, even with the World Wide Web, America’s youth are light years behind children in other countries who already speak English as a second or even third language. Not to mention the parents of these monolingual children who may, themselves, need to pick up Spanish to earn better pay at their jobs.

Still, everything is not gloom and doom because America, with all its cultural diversity, can turn this around. African Americans in particular are capable of achieving this well.  I am the proof of this fact. See, I did not start learning a second language until my early thirties, and since then I have learned five languages and written a book about it with the hopes of being a positive contribution to both the African-American and language communities as a whole.

Many in the African –American community may ask “How can I learn a second language when I can’t afford Rosetta Stone?!”

I have never used Rosetta Stone. But, I do know that it’s expensive so let me give the readers a few suggestions on how to learn a language on a budget:

YouTube- FREE! Look up your language and you will find so many awesome people around the world who have given their time, and knowledge to help the viewer learn a foreign language.

Library- FREE! I believe it was Andrew Carnegie who once said that “libraries are the poor man’s university”.

Meetup.com-FREE! These are excellent places to not only learn a foreign language, but also to practice with other people who are doing the same thing.
Motivation-FREE! Find your reason (I give 10 in the book) on why you want or need to learn a second language and the rest will fall in line.

Since I have learned foreign languages, my world has literally burst open. Now, I have more friends from around the planet than I have in the States. I have been able to meet wonderful people like Susanna who inspire me to keep at it daily.  As a Hip Hop artist I find it stimulating to find my voice in my languages. Also, having a foreign language gives me the ability to switch cadences in the rhyme flow and pattern, and I can flex my lyrical dexterity as I go in out of languages while rhyming.  Outside the booth I have found a new professional passion as an interpreter (community, court and conference)  and an ESL teacher as well.  In the near future I would like to use my experience and skill to mentor and train low income and at-risk youth and adults in these two beautiful professions.

So, in the end, even when I feel like the lonely African-American, when it comes to language learning, I know that I’m dropping a jewel for future generations of young Black boys and girls who need to know that through foreign language learning, they can be more than just dancers, singers, rappers, or athletes.  Through enlightened cultural influence, the 3,000 mile radius of looking for youths like them who speak other languages will shrink to every corner of the planet, and they will become true global citizens.

How to find Umar Alim Al-Junaid:

Book: http://thebookonlanguagelearning.weebly.com/

Music: https://soundcloud.com/d-o-gogettersunion

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GguInterpreters?ref=hl

Twitter: @getatme1on1

 

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Why you should care about endangered languages

April 22, 2013

Endangered species. Endangered whales. Endangered languages? What’s an endangered language? About half of the world’s 6000 languages will be extinct in 100 years unless we act to preserve them. In this video, I explain why you should care about languages, how linguistic diversity enriches your life and brain health and what we can do to [...]

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What Facebook executive’s new book tells about women, success & foreign languages

March 11, 2013
female polyglots

Sheryl Sandberg, cover of Time Magazine The TIME Magazine “Confidence Woman” cover story on Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, and her new book, Lean In, about women, success and careers made me very angry.  The article reinforced what I was already suspecting was the explanation for why we don’t see more female [...]

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Accents matter. Which one to choose?

March 10, 2013

Learning a language with various regional varieties or dialects means choosing which accent(s) to learn. In this video with Richard Simcott and Luca Lampariello, we talk about how we chose which accent to learn in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

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Russia through French

Russia through French eyes: Experiencing life anew in a different language

February 1, 2013

Rare is the book which envelops my attention, delights me in its prose, makes me re-read passages both for the joy of the flow of the sentences and for the content and strikes a chord with me personally. Le testament français (UK edition)/Dreams of my Russian Summers (US edition) not only had all of the [...]

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Polyglot dreaming: In which language do you dream?

January 23, 2013
Thumbnail image for Polyglot dreaming: In which language do you dream?

I have heard on several occasions that the sign of fluency in a language is when one dreams in the language. That can’t be true. Or else I’m fluent in Arabic without being aware of it! I briefly studied Arabic but I don’t speak it. However, sometimes I have dreams in Arabic, or in what [...]

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Ladino saved my life in the war

January 16, 2013

At long last, I am posting the demo to Saved by Language, the documentary I’m co-producing about how the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) language saved a boy’s life in Bosnia in World War II. Ladino is considered to be an endangered language. For those who want to make a tax-deductible donation to help with editing and post-production [...]

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Ladino and the beauty of Sarajevo, Bosnia

January 11, 2013
Thumbnail image for Ladino and the beauty of Sarajevo, Bosnia

“Sarajevo has a soul. It has a heart.” My passion for Ladino/Judeo-Spanish is no secret. In this video, Richard Simcott (the hyperpolyglot extraordinnaire) and I speak in Bosnian/Serbo-Croatian (or whatever else you like to call this language) about the beauty of Sarajevo and how the Ladino language saved a boy’s life in World War II. [...]

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MTV, here we come! 17 polyglots redo “Call me Maybe” in 30+ languages

December 7, 2012
Thumbnail image for MTV, here we come! 17 polyglots redo “Call me Maybe” in 30+ languages

That’s right. Seventeen Internet polyglots came together, under the tireless direction of Benny Lewis of Fluent in Three Months, to create the first ever polyglot music video. There are over 30 languages in this video doing a remake of the song, Call me Maybe. I helped Benny create the script and contact various polyglots. Benny [...]

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