Going South Korean - a post for my girls latest passion.

This is Min Yoongi, called Suga. He is in the Rap line, looks sweet but is rather fierce. I think he is one of the most popular boys in BTS. He is a thinker. Sometimes called Grandpa. The others have great respect for him, both his temper and his mind.

Dear friends and blogreaders!

I am planning a row of posts about experiences you have when you share the life and interest of your children, and they get to share some of ours from childhood and teens. These posts will come into life every now and then, when I have gathered enough material, pictures, lyrics and translations perhaps.

In the middle of the chaos we are having and the sad farewell we had to say to grandfather, I have to create something positive. The funeral will be next week and we are all rather tense. The girls are very sad and a bit lost and keep together in their common interests, mostly on internet.  Those of you who have followed my blog knows that we went to Stockholm in december to see a show with two british You tubers; Dan and Phil

  http://thebadhipperspective.blogspot.se/2016/12/the-tatinof-experience.html 

Park Jimin, called Jimin, is a dancer and singer. He can do ugly faces, he is shy and very kind but on stage he moves like a cheetah and his voice is very good. Girls love him.

 These two pictures are the same boy, Kim Namjoon, called Rap Monster....or Rapmon. He was in the band from the beginning, he is the leader and speaks english. He taught himself by watching tv-shows and You tube. He is clever, easily embaressed, he is in the rap-line but sings too and dance. He has the sweetest personality and is my personal favourite. Here you can see the change of hairstyles. They come in all colours, Namjoon mostly white or silver, the others blue, purple, pink, orange.....My oldest girl loves his dimples, they are rather cute!

But this post goes way out, because the one topic that is discussed mostly in our house right now is K-pop.  Yes, sounds like some kind of crackers, but is actually the South Korean version of entertainment, bands with boys or girls, singing, rapping and dancing, different haircolours every month, makeup and jewellry on both genders, hysteric fans, hardly anyone in those bands speaks any english. 

Jeon Jungkook, Kookie, is the youngest in BTS,
he is in the vocal line but he dances also. He likes to tease and do imitations of his hyungs.
He loves his camera, takes good pictures and lives in his Timberlake boots.

Kim Taehyung, called V, is a dreaming boy with the softest
voice you have ever heard. He dances too and his personality
is full of surprises and sunshine. 

Here is the girls favourite boyband ;
BTS or the Bangtan boys. These beautiful boys are right now the centre of their lives so I will share them with you  and some thoughts about being young in South Korea, especially if you are talented.
Now, if I have understood the situation in Japan, working overtime is expected, hard pressure on students to get highest grades possible. In South Korea it seems to be the same thinking. Good education is vital, so the pressure is high.  I heard some young women interviewed about the reform the government have, they need more children to be born. But she said South Korea was no place for children,  their experience was that they hardly ever had any time with their fathers and since the girls now are eager to get well educated there is no room for children.

If you are talented in other ways, there are plenty of artschools, but they also have a very strong impact on the students. You must work very hard to become someone in showbusiness, K pop especially. Competition is tough. So you work, practise, study, work, practise, study and finally get to be backup for the established groups, in the videos, on stage. Once you are chosen, there is hardly any space for normal teenage life. If you are good enough, some producer will choose you and maybe you will become member of a band. The boys in BTS didn't go as a group from start, only one of them is left from start, but eventually all seven were solid. This means leaving home and living together in a dorm. They have lived that way for more than five years now, their whole life focused on practise, touring, tv-interviews and concerts. The company cares for them and they hardly do anything normal,  just visits family once in a while. 

This is Kim Seok Jin, called Jin. Vocal liner, dancer and oldest. They call him mother because he watches over them but his jokes are bad Dad jokes and he laughs mostly himself. This boys laughter can heal any dark mood.

Everything they do, almost, is taped and made public. Internet is packed to the brim with all sorts of filmclips, cute moments , jokes, interviews, hairstyles and smalltalk with the fans from a webcam on the hotelroom after a show. You can't believe how they love seeing one of the boys eating noodles and talking nonsense to them, in korean...mostly.
I've seen some liveperformances as well, from You tube. 
BTS fans are called armys. 

I have set up a small guideline to this passion that our girls are having. Think how different it was when you had to wait for ever to hear something new or perhaps get a poster from the pop- magazines.  Today these young artists share almost everything, but Koreans are formal, so there are no personal things, nothing showing bodies or anything controversial. They reveal as much as they think is proper but on internet people are on them like hyenas, smelling blood.

This is Jung Hoseok, he is in the rap-line and is one of the best dancers. He is called a ray of sunshine and his artistname is J-hope. He is a sweet, a little mad boy.

So why do I even write this post?
Well, young people interest me, especially when they have to fight their way through. I also love dancers, classic , jazz, street. I loved and adored Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Our daughters danced for some years and Oh, what shows they had!! But boys rarely dance and I like when they do. And I love music, classic, folklore, jazz, choirs.....
Last year the youngest started to listen to these boys, strange, enervating music, hip-hop, rap, all the same to me. They looked the same, sounded the same, videos where strange, music unbearable and the clips on Youtube showed 7 childish and noisy boys with pink hair and makeup.
However, being a mother that never had boys, my heart went soft when I realized how they are treated by the company, living together, pampered and bossed, watched and superviced.
Korean young have the greatest respect for older people, especially important people. These boys adore their manager and the staff. But they don't live normal lives, I think even more so than other idols in music and theatre. Kpop is demanding, you have to look good, sound good, be in good shape, so diets, exercise, healthy food and endless procedures around face and hair is their daily life.  On internet, the fans - armys - follow their every move and give comments, not always so nice, about looks and personality.  BTS have won several awards, they write their own music and can both act and sing, sometimes they do parodical theatre out of their own biggest hits and make fun of eachothers soft spots, or their own.
Now I can tell them apart, even their voices and I have some favourite songs, but again, being a mother makes me want to adopt them because they seem so lost and vunerable, but also I have taken interest in their work and in the South Korean ways. We try to learn some of the language, it's like nothing else.
And we try to enjoy films where the boys are natural, without makeup and with t-shirts and jeans, doing normal things, working, playing, cooking. The best was when the company invited them for a ten day vacation in Norway, Sweden and Finland, giving them, for the first time, a chance to have a budget, buy tickets, find their way, asking around, living in hostels and trailers, doing what other people in their twenties do. Very surprised Yoongi and Jimin comments on this, being 24 year old children, not able to do anything on their own before and now having to manage everything. We get to know them closely, they try to forget the camera, they take pictures, buy souvenirs and are amazed by the beautiful scenery, the people, the food, the fact that they are walking freely around, sharing a leisure
day with nothing but taking ferries , shop food and enjoy being together without having to do much. Like normal people .   These boys, young men, will stay in the dorm until something changes, a relation perhaps or solo project. They are all between 20 and 26, family should be an interest.  Their company cares for them and I hope it will continue with respect and a change to grow and change.
Here is a musicvideo, not very typical Kpop or even BTS, I wouldn't dare, but to show how they work. It's a song about friendship and support. They considder the band as their family.  We have followed our girls on theatres, concerts and shows, me mostly. If these boys shows up close by, I will be there, with our girls, being embarassing, but happy.