Author Archives: Yuna Chong

Anyone who knows me will soon find out about my love for kpop. It has grown to become a part of my identity. I have loved kpop all my life! One of the earliests memories I have of my life is copying the dances to my favorite kpop idol groups. I don’t know where exactly to start when the topic kpop comes up to me; too many things pop up in my head. I bet I could write a research paper on the topic. Whish reminds me, I have used kpop as my topic for some assignments I have had. I analyzed an Epik High and a CNBlue song on English assignments, I explained the globalization of kpop in History and a I wrote and posted some videos about Kpop for the blog for Freshmen Smeinar class. I actually did do a research project involving kpop artists for psychology class. Kpop has even a stronger meaning to me, not because I’m Korean but because it helped me survive difficult personal times in life, especially in high school. This makes me sound crazy. No, I’m not THAT crazy about kpop as those others who seem to have a need to purchase every album and products of arists. You can say that I appreciate it quite a lot. My favorite artists are FTIsland, a rock band, and Infinite, a boy dance group. Yes, there are many different kinds of idol groups, which makes kpop easy to start. You can find the style of music from the various types of kpop songs out there. I can go on and on about Kpop. Kpop has made up parts of my memories and shaped me to who I am. Howver that doesn’t make Kpop the only thing that defines who I am. I think I can’t help being Korean. I love Korean food, Korean amusement parks, Korean street culture, Korean markets, Korean places, and Korean itself. You might think that I probably have been to Korea several times with all this Koreaness, but the truth is I only visited Korea once when I was little. I really want to travel to to Korea.

a.

The two links above are music videos of my two favorite kpop idol groups, Ftisland and Infinite. I love anything Korean, especially kpop and media, maybe because I am korean. I wouldn’t be able to express how much I love kpop. I have even incuded them into many assignments I had in high school. This video I made for my APGOVT class can introduce you to kpop:

I could compare myself to ice. At first, I’m frozen and cold because I’m shy and very quiet. This makes it difficut for others approach me. As time passes, the ice melts and more of me is revealed. So, one way to melt the ice is to talk about Korean stuff with me!
b. One of my concerns about my freshmen year is the fact that I have to commute to school. It takes less time to travel now than going to high shool but it feels longer. Since classes can end at any time for people, many of the club meetings are late in the day, which I do not like. It is also difficult to write papers for classes because it’s the first time writing anything for college. I do not know what the college professors want in my writing yet. Another concern is that I now have to pay for the transportation to school. I miss the green student metro cards.
c. The longer class time makes college differnt from high shool. Even though I had to stay in school longer and had every class everyday, the class periods were a lot shorter, which made class bearable. Another thing is that you can meet people from different years unlike in high school you only knew your grade.
d. I am changed every year I go to a new year of school. Therefore, my first year of college will change me too. How? I don’t know.