Boys Over Flowers

Well, it's back to real life now. I just finished the last episode of the Korean TV show Boys Over Flowers on Netflix, and now I'm resurfacing . . . and going through withdrawals. I'll admit, it wasn't just watching, it was binging. I started watching the show after a friend recommended it, and, in the beginning, I started to wonder what all the fuss was about. Some of the first episodes were filled with such cartoonish expressions and sound effects, and I almost stopped. (Let this be a lesson in not judging a series by the first few episodes. Just power through.)

But after I got over the somewhat silly beginning, I was hooked. The story drew me in and I couldn't get enough. Apparently the show is based on a Japanese comic book, and it made me chuckle when I would open it on Netflix and see that it was recommended to me based on my interest in Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South and My Little Pony. That's probably the most apt way to describe this show.

It was very melodramatic (imagine a depressed boy playing the violin in slow motion in the snow), a little bit of a soap opera, and sometimes ridiculous. It's a cinderella story (rich guy falls for poor girl), and the main girl gets about 10 makeovers, she gets rescued multiple times from various dangers (including two muggings—in the same episode), and a boy asks his friend to break his arm so he can get out of something he doesn't want to do—and they all seriously consider it. Despite all of that, I almost embarrassingly devoured all 25 hours. I think the extremely repetitive soundtrack put me in a trance, or something.

Korean culture is not something I am super familiar with, so it was interesting to see family dynamics, unusual food (the main girl works at a porridge restaurant?), class system issues, schooling, the clothes of the fashionably—and sometimes femininely—dressed rich boys, etc. (I also read somewhere that this show led Korean males to start dressing more like "pretty boys" and wearing cosmetics. Yakes!)

But the thing that fascinated me the most was the language, more specifically their use of English. I think there was some English in every single episode. I was surprised both in the amount and in the words they were using. It made me think about how we use words from other languages in our everyday speech. Sure, there are words like "fiancée" that are totally French but we use them as our own. (The Koreans use it too, by the way.) And I guess it would be sort of normal to hear someone say "adios muchachos" or "capiche," or something. At least if you were in a mob movie.

But Boys Over Flowers was more than that. Their English usage was frequent and full of catch phrases and pop culture. And because I'm a giant nerd (especially when it comes to words), I started making a list. And yes, I'd be happy to share what was on it:

Hey, buddy
play ball
shopping
family (this was interesting because they obviously have their own word for family, but they used both)
Hey man, whoa, whoa
double date
lipstick
chocolate
fighting! (used as a cheer before they did something challenging)
fan
star concept (a weird one from an episode with a male model)
bingo
IQ
hurry
baking powder
OK
let's go
don't worry, buddy
check out (as in leaving a hotel)
goodnight
game
What's up, man?

I started the list only partway through the series, so you can imagine how many more there were. Anyway, it was interesting stuff. It kind of reminded of me of this post about how easy it was to find Neutrogena facewash and other American products when I lived in Poland, and I'm still not really sure about how I feel about this. Is it cool that Koreans use a lot of English phrases, or is it weird? I dunno.