안녕! It’s Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder 🎉 Today’s newsletter is about an easy jjajangmyeon recipe, the world of super fans, and a song about social media jealousy. Let’s start!
🎧 You can listen to me read and chat on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or others.
The Easiest Jjajangmyeon To Make
If you’re a K-Drama or K-movie fan, you must’ve seen this black noodle a lot. Jjajangmyeon is a Korean noodle topped with a thick black sauce made with soy and flour. This food is deeply related with Korean modern history and culture. It’s one of the cheapest dishes you can have in Korea which only costs about 5 to 7 USD. When the country was poor, working class people enjoyed this food. There’s a long tradition of having jjajangmyeon on the day of moving into a new house. It usually takes a lot of effort and time to make this food in a traditional way. But with the help of instant jjajang sauce, you can make a decent jjajangmyeon in less than 10 mins. Watch the cooking video above and try for yourself!
Pro tip. Prepare kimchi for a side dish and thank me later 😎
Extraordinary World of Super Fans
Extraordinary Attorney Woo, a big-hit K-Drama series, came to an end last week 😥 However, for fans of the series, it’s just a new beginning. The script books of the drama including merch ☝️ will be released next month. And its Blu-ray pre-orders are open. The release of script books and Blu-ray wouldn’t have been possible without love and hard work of super fans. Extraordinary Attorney Woo’s super fans made a community of over 9,000 people for the release of Blu-ray. They did demand research on their own and contacted the studio that produced the series and Blu-ray producers. After about a month, the series’ Blu-ray pre-order sales started. This is a typical example of Korean series or movie super fan culture. They’re much more than just consumers or fans. They’re like the producers.
Another recent super-fan example is Decision to Leave (2022), an award-winning romance movie which will hit US theaters on October 14th. It has many super fans who visit a theater multiple times to watch the movie over and over. Its script book was recently published and its storyboard book & Blu-ray release is in progress.
Actually, books and Blu-rays are just a super-fan beginner level. One advanced-level example of super fan culture is The Merciless (2017), a crime-action queer romance movie. When the movie was first released, it wasn’t a success so it quickly started VOD service. But its loyal fans brought it back to theaters buying tickets for an entire auditorium in theaters throughout the country. Since they did this for over a year, the movie had been in theaters for more than a year, technically 🙃 Every year on the date of its first release, The Merciless Squad they even have a fandom name! rent an auditorium to watch the movie together. Even after five years!
Just like K-Pop fans stream their idol’s songs over and over, movie super fans go to theaters multiple times to watch their favorite movie over and over. This culture is called “N차 관람” and according to CGV, the biggest theater chain in Korea, a 30-something woman watched The Handmaiden (2016), whopping 111 times 😱😱
Super fans’ passion always amazes me! Are you a super fan of anything or anyone? Or a casual fan of a lot of things & people like me? Let me know in comments :D
Mic Drop 🎤
Today’s line is from Envy None (2022) sung by Jang Ki-ha, a Korean singer-songwriter. This song is really unique. It sounds like a drunk man talking to himself rather than a song. He said he wrote this song hoping it can help people cope with jealousy which is widespread these days.
야, 너네 자랑하고 싶은 거 있으면 얼마든지 해. 난 괜찮어. 왜냐면 나는 부럽지가 않어. 한 개도 부럽지가 않어. “Hey, if you want to brag about something, feel free to do it. I’m fine. Because I’m not jealous. I’m not jealous at all.” (Translation credit: diarrhea queen)
Words in the list,
야 Hey
너네 You (plural, casual)
자랑하다 To brag about
괜찮다 To be fine
왜냐면 Because (acronym of 왜냐하면)
부럽다 To envy, get jealous
👄 Practice speaking the line with my podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or others. Don’t forget to record your voice and send me your voice message 👇 If you send it by 4 pm Wednesday, August 31st ET, your voice will be on the next podcast episode!
Last thing I want to share is my new night ritual. I started reading NYT articles and writing down sentences and expressions in them on my iPad 👇 I do this to improve my English writing skills so that I can write a better newsletter that I can be proud of myself for and, most importantly, that you can read better. For example, in this article written by a 45-year-old K-pop fan, I learned that “mask” can be used as a verb which I completely didn’t know 😱 and expressions like “caught Covid” and “social media trolls.”
Thanks for reading! I always appreciate that you read my humble newsletter 🙏 If you liked it, share with your friends or 💖 leave a tip 💖 to support my work. It’ll be very much appreciated! See you next week. 안녕!