Me on a Korean internet show

Open Forum in English
1

Hey guys,

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a great opportunity to appear on a Korean internet TV program. It’s a cool concept, where it’s almost like a TV show, but it is on the internet. I’m taking part in a little contest they put on called “K-POP을 배워요” (Let’s learn K-POP). The premise of the program is that there are two non-Koreans who come on the show and compete against each other to see who is the better singer. Each week we are assigned a new song to learn that we have to perform the following week.

Because of the time zone difference between Vancouver and Korea, every episode but the first is filmed around 2-3am Vancouver time. It makes for a pretty sleepy Friday, but it’s a cool opportunity and I’ve been enjoying it a lot.

Of course, I know what you all want to see are some links to the videos, so here you go:

1st appearance: Introduction, asking questions about me, why I learned Korean, singing a song, etc.
http://bit.ly/SMaoXs

2nd appearance: Meeting other contestant, singing another song, etc. I should note that Hyunwoo Sun from www.talktomeinkorean.com, a friend of mine, is one of the judges on the show. Don’t worry, there’s no conflict of interest :wink:
http://bit.ly/SMaBtH

3rd appearance: Singing first assigned song, results for the first round. This one is special because I asked them after week 2 if I could mention LingQ on the show, and they were more than happy to comply. If you fast forward to around 23 minutes, you’ll see me talking about LingQ, and also Hyunwoo Sun (who is a member here at LingQ) explaining a bit about the site as well.
http://bit.ly/SMaP47

There are two more challenges left, one on Friday the 27th of July and the final one on Friday August 3rd. If you’re interested in the upcoming episodes, I’d be more than happy to post links to those episodes as well when they come out :slight_smile:

2

That was very impressive, Alex. I’m not easily blown away, but I have to say that your fluency in Korean (arguably the most difficult target language for English native speakers) is simply amazing.

It is truly an inspiration to all language learners to see that someone could achieve this kind of level without having lived in Korea for many years. Well done!

3

WTG Alex! I didn’t understand a bit but both the language and the song sound really great :slight_smile:

4

Alex, a young man with language skills, there is no limit!!! I am sure a majority of foreigners in Korea have not achieved the fluency that Alex has although he has never lived in Korea. Great stuff!!

5

Inspirational as always, Alex. Great work!

It looks like you were having a lot of fun on there as well! :slight_smile:

6

Alex this is super! I skipped to the 3rd appearance because I wanted to see you along with Hyunwoo-Sun and the LingQ plug-in. Your Korean is excellent–such an inspiration! ^-^ And Nadia was great too. It looked like you were all having such fun! ~~Alex, fighting!

7

I just looked at the LingQ plug . Great!!
I must add that Alex has real talent when it comes to singing, something that I have always admired in people, perhaps because I have always had trouble singing on tune. (Ask my wife)

8

Nice Alex! All at 3 am, too!

9

Very impressive Alex. I don’t know any Korean, but it appeared as you were having no problem following and responding. You looked like you were having a good time and after all, isn’t that what’s it’s all about anyway. It was very enjoyable listening and watching you sing. I can see that you have a passion for singing as well as for language learning. I hope you are sharing both of those talents with others. It was a pleasure watching these shows and kudos for getting the plugs in for lingQ.com. I hope you will post the links to the other two shows yet to come. I would be interested in watching them. Again, great job Alex.

Gary Henderson

10

Great stuff, Alex! Impressive.

11

Thanks for all the positive comments :slight_smile: I’ve really been enjoying my time on the show, and will be sure to post the remaining couple of episodes up as they are recorded and uploaded.

12

Here’s the most recent episode: http://bit.ly/MQfq4y
It also continues on for a bit in the next part, but probably not worth watching the second part unless you understand Korean: http://bit.ly/MQfocR

This time around, the challenge for me was as follows: Entertain the hosts with song and dance. The song I had to sing was Gangnam Style, which is a brand new song by a Korean artist named PSY. The video has gone viral and can be seen here: PSY - GANGNAM STYLE(강남스타일) M/V - YouTube
Warning, the video is kind of weird and I’m 99% sure you won’t get it, but basically he’s making fun of a certain type of people from an area called Gangnam, one of the wealthiest districts in Seoul.

Enjoy!

13

What’s next after this, Alex? Look forward to seeing where you take this :slight_smile:

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Who knows, wherever the wind takes me haha

15

Only this morning was I able to catch up with your exploits on Korean TV.
I saw the most recent episode. What a hoot!
Not only did you entertain me, and I have no Korean at all, you also entertained the Korean entertainers.
An inspiration to every language learner at LingQ. Thank you!

16

엘리베이터안의 노홍철 카메오 출연도 있네 ^^