Star Chat: Post-Interview With G.na!!!

As many of you may have already heard on our February 20th edition of Kpop Interactive, we had an English interview with G.na. She was seriously the cutest thing ever! Not to mention, a godsend for me because she spoke English. Here's a post-interview report on how it went.

First off, she was ON TIME. I LOVE artists who are on time! LOL In fact, she was there in the studio even before I got there! This was because I had to take a quick bathroom break in between recordings (sorry was that TMI?? ^^;;). She was just so at ease, down-to-earth, and friendly. I could tell she was close with her manager and they got along very well. It was like they were good friends or sisters. I explained to her how the interview was going to go and we went straight into the studio. While my producer and engineer were setting up the cameras and what not, me and G.na got to chatting a bit.

I asked her about adjusting to Korea. She was very honest with her answers and just so...humble and real. I was immediately taken to her in the first five minutes of her conversation. She did mention that she had a lot of Korean friends, but sometimes it was hard because it's not QUITE the same as having a friend that can speak your native language. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to divulge this information, but she did mention that she had written the English lyrics for all her songs. She seemed pretty proud of herself for that so I could tell she took pride in her lyrical skills as well. She mentioned that she hadn't released those songs yet, but they are on standby! I can't wait to take a listen to them when they come out. I'm sure it'll be a totally different feel from her Korean version songs.

While doing the interview, I noticed that she had some pauses where a certain English word or expression wasn't coming to mind. I kept trying to fill in the blanks for her but most of the time, my suggestions were wrong! LOL I made a note to myself that that really showed how much effort she must have been putting into learning Korean. You see, even native English speakers start to see a deterioration in their English skills when living in Korea. This is because there are so many "konglish" (English phrases that Koreans use, but that are different from the actual English definition) phrases and we just use English a lot less when living here. I give her props for doing so well in a foreign country!

After the interview, we took pictures in front of the KBS World sign together and (I LOVE her for this...) she said to me, "how do you keep in shape in Korea?" I was like, "Uh...are u kidding me Miss Skinny Pants?? I'm not in shape!" She said, "Yes you are. You're skinny!" *sigh* I love G.na. LOL!! I told her, " I go to the gym." And she seemed surprised by that. I guess not as many girls she knows go to the gym..?? I dunno... Not all of us are blessed like her with skinny genes though. She was TINY! But TALL. Small face, skinny body, tall height. *Sigh* God's not fair sometimes...

She thanked us and asked us to invite her again in the future, and then had to hurry off to her next scheduling. All in all, a GREAT interview and just such a SWEET girl. It's rare to find people who just love what they do and are so driven yet humble, It's safe to say that she's really making a place for herself in the kpop scene and that this is only the beginning!

Good luck G.na!!

Your Two Cents: Curious About Korean Culture???

Hi my beloved readers/listeners~

How was everyone's week/weekend? Hope it was a good one full of laughter and REST! Haha I know I shouldn't be complaining because I'm still at a "young and fresh" age, but I gotta say, my body can't keep up with me like it used to. Whereas all-nighters were no problem before, now I can't do 'em anymore. LOL Rest is VERY important.

Anyways, it's the last Y2C for the month of October. MAN! Isn't that crazy? I've been doing some reminiscing about the year of 2010. I know we still have two full months left, but those months are going to FLY by! It's already been over 2 years since I came to Korea and started broadcasting. It's been about 9 months since I joined the KBS World team and started my posts on KPop Connection with DJ Young and KPop Interactive on Sundays. I've met AMAZING people, interview some very talented and sweet singers, and more importantly, gotten introduced to the international KPOP fan base (aka YOU ALL). So thankful for my life and the opportunities that come along with it. Let's all take a moment to just be thankful.

...

Okay! With that said and done...on to this week's Y2C question:

Do you have any curious questions about any aspect of Korean culture? For example, when I first started typing and texting in Korean, I didn't know what all the "ㅜㅜㅜㅜ" or "ㅠㅠㅠㅠ" were for. They're Korean emoticons for tears! LOL do you see it? the horizontal line represents the closed eyes while the vertical lines are the tears running. Another one was all the "~"''s that were used. They represent a sorta dragged out tone to something. For example, "what are you doing?" with a little "~" put at the end gives it a more "whatchaaaa dooooiiinnnggg??" kind of feel. I don't know if I explained that well, but anyways. So any questions on culture? typing methods? phrases? (i.e. what's with all the "hwaiting"'s?!) etc. etc. etc.

Throw me your questions and I'll try to answer as many as I can on this week's KPI. If you don't have any questions, what WERE some questions you had and how did you get them answered? Let me know~~~~~~~~

Next Star Chat!!! CANCELED!!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

*********UPDATES: THIS WEEK'S STAR CHAT WAS CANCELED DUE TO SOME SCHEDULING CONFLICTS WITH OUR GUEST****************
SORRY EVERYONE ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
WE'RE TRY OUR BEST TO GET ONE ASAP!!




Hi all of my beloved kpoppers!
It's almost SUNDAY which means KPI which means ...
STAR CHAT!!!!

We've had a lot of newbie groups come in lately, which is all fine and dandy, but we want some veteran artists to come in too right?! Well, don't worry because we got a very experienced singer coming in this week. Most of you already guessed it through my twitter hints, but I'll post up an official blog entry with THREE hints like always:

1. It's been OVER TEN years since he first debuted.
2. He used to be "married" to a talented female singer whose name starts with the letter "H". (He even created a not so pretty nickname for her: "Dog Poo")
3. We'll dub our time with him as the "H-Hour"! ^^

Not only do I want you to guess (it's really not that difficult...), but I need ideas for what kind of questions you all want me to ask him! Please leave your question, name, and where you're from so I can give you a shoutout. I DON'T guarantee I'll use the question, but it'll help to have some ideas to choose from! ^^ You can leave them as comments on the blog OR tweet them to me! (www.twitter.com/itsangiepark)

Thanks!!!

Post-Star Chat With 2WINS!!!!

So we had another Star Chat for this past KPI as you all know...
And just like always, here's my post-interview "scoops" on them!

I have to say, that doing these Star Chats really allow you to see the "human" side to these "celebrities". I've said this in previous entries, but there are some really NICE and GENUINE stars out there. It's just the few jerks in the industry that give the rest of them a bad name I think. Granted, to be fair, I'm probably not getting an objective look at them because they're not going to be jerks to the interviewer who can "control" the coverage these stars will get! Hehe...makes me feel...sort of powerful. Muahaha...Okay enough of the corny evil laughter and onto the nitty gritty!

As you all know, 2wins are new. They're only JUST starting to get noticed so they are still in their "humble" stage. Believe it or not, this was their first radio interview/coverage since they debuted. TopBob has done interviews before but with his previous group TBNY, not 2wins. But he was still kind of nervous because it was going to be conducted in English. He kept asking, "Do I have to talk? Am I allowed to speak Korean?" LOL Bumkey was super nervous because this was his first radio experience. Haha it was kind of cute actually.

They were RIGHT on time! (I LOVE it when stars are punctual...I've had to wait over an hour for some of the previous Star Chats...cough *SECRET* cough!) They did the 90 degree bow and everything. I gave them a translated list of the questions I was going to ask and there was a Korean spelling error that TopBob pointed out. I laughed because it was my mistake because Korean isn't my most comfortable language. He pointed it out not in a teasing way, but kind of "aww that's cute" kind of way so it was all good! We got set up in the studio and TopBob asked me how old I was. I asked him, "How old do you think I am?" He answered, "You look young." LOL So I told him, and he looked surprised and said..."Wow. We're the same age" as a joke because clearly he wasn't the same age as me. I'm guessing early to mid 30's. He refused to tell me til the end. Haha Bumkey said he was born 1984 so you do the math! During the interview, I think you'll notice Bumkey didn't talk much. I think it stemmed from his nervousness and so he couldn't think of his answers right off the bat. But overall, I thought they both did well considering it was their first experience! You could tell TopBob was much more comfortable at the mic.

When the interview ended, we're talking the second our mics were turned off, TopBob turned to me and said, "You're a great host. You conducted that very well. In all honesty, because you're so young, I didn't think you would be that good, but you're very good. You're definitely going to make it big in this industry." I was blown away by his compliment and really appreciated his honesty. And on our way out of the studio, just as formalities, I said that I hoped that they would visit us again in the future. TobBob looked at me with a very serious expression and stuck out his pinky. He promised, "The next time you invite us, we PROMISE to come again." So we pinky swore on it! In just a week's time, their song "Star" jumped over 100 spots to number 70 on the Gaon music chart! So they're on their way up. I'm going to wait until they really make a name for themselves and then invite them again! Haha

They both tweeted me a nice little message after the interview. TopBob included a really funny video of his impersonation of a lizard that you guys should check out. Hilarious.

Anyways, bottom line, I had a great time. Show 2wins lots of love you guys. They're really passionate about their music without the "fluff". They're just real. Very different from the idols out there which are more about the "packaging" and marketing, but still worth checking out!

NEXT STAR CHAT!!! 2WINS!

Hey guys!
I know it's been awhile since our last Star Chat with the lovely ladies of Davichi, so thanks for being patient with us. ^^

Usually, I like to have YOU ALL guess about who the next guests are, but this group is fairly new and me and DJ Young have never talked about them yet on the show. So rather than confusing you all, I'll just give you some info on them.
2WINS!!!!!!!!

First off, let me let you guys know how I first heard about them. It was through the guys of One Way. They had posted up some pics of 2wins through their Twitters and had mentioned them in passing a few times. Then for this past week's updates on our KBS World Artist Profile page, I got assigned to write a profile for them. So I did some digging and realized that I not only liked their sound, but also love their catchy style and take on music. It's hip hop with some FUNk (emphasis on the "FUN"!). Sometimes hip hop can be kind of down or dark, but their take on it is fresh! Or it is for their title song anyway. Check out their intro video below! Be sure to watch their "performance" of their title song "Star Guy" about a minute in.



So I sought them out, got their manager's phone number, and got Sophia to call him up! Long story made short, we have a Star Chat scheduled for this week! Yipee! If you want to know more about them, check out their KBS World profile.

I THINK one of them, Bumkey, speaks English. Or a little anyway. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed because that would make my job SO MUCH easier! Haha. Be sure to tune in to KPop Interactive on KBS World Radio this week with the first airing on Sunday. It's replayed throughout the week so check out our website for the schedule! world.kbs.co.kr (click on "Entertainment").

Star Chat With Seo In-gook! Post-Interview Comments...

Take 1



Take 2

Hope you all enjoyed our latest Star Chat on KBS World Radio's KPI show! It was with the winner of the 2009 Super Star K Contest, Seo In-gook!

He was an absolute pleasure to interview. He was there on time (I must point out that though this may seem like a given thing, it's very rare in Korea...and more importantly in Korean stars!) with his manager. He was very polite and very humble. Gave the 90 degree bow and everything (If you're wondering what a 90 degree bow is, refer to my BEAST post-interview entry!). He shared that he was very nervous because the interview was in English, but he was very friendly and just had that positive, youthful aura about him. Haha...if that even makes any sense.

Before we started, we had about five minutes of time while my producer and the sound/visual engineer was prepping the studio. I asked Seo In-gook what his schedule has been like lately. He said because he's actively promoting his new song ("사랑해U" or "I Love U"), he's very busy. He had a radio interview before ours and he had to go immediately to prep for another live performance that evening. I asked him if he had time to eat dinner and he said that he'd probably have like a gimbap or something while waiting in between performances. Gimbap is like a Korean version of Sushi. It's considered fast food for Koreans. I asked him if he could see his friends often, and he said no which was what he missed most about his pre-celebrity days. He was very mature...very TALL! Very bright and just well-mannered. Overall, I was very impressed by him. He really couldn't speak a lick of English, but the interview was still interesting (or I felt!). We were a bit short on time (not so much because he was busy, but because we didn't have much time left on the show!), so I didn't get to ask him everything I wanted to ask him...but such is life. ^^

He took pictures and signed an autograph for my mother who's currently visiting Korea and tagged along with me for the interview. Then him and his manager, left...and that was that!

For those of you who missed the interview, check out world.kbs.co.kr. Click on "Entertainment" and then you'll see "Star Chat" along the left. That has all our old Star Chats. Just to do a recap on the interviews that I'VE done: BEAST, Secret, One Way, and now Seo In-gook. There were plenty of other interviews done by previous hosts (i.e. 2PM, 2AM, Super Junior, Girls Generation, Davichi, etc.). Also, DJ Young did one for the trot singer Park Hyun-bin as well. So definitely peruse through them to learn more about some of your favorite kpop stars!

Weekend Recap: Full of "B's"! Baseball, Babes at Brunch, Bennigans

As I love to get to know all of the listeners, I figured I'd give you all a taste of what I'm about as well through occasional weekend recaps! ^^ If you're not interested, feel free to stop reading here! Haha

Well, this past weekend was a GREAT one. First off, the weather in Korea was ABSOLUTELY beautiful! This past week was really gray with some rain (and present forecasts are saying that we have more rain in store tomorrowㅠㅠㅠ). So a bunch of friends (most of them other fellow English broadcasters in Korea! You may recognize some of them through Arirang TV and Arirang Radio) and I went to a baseball game in Incheon. First off, even if you're not a baseball fan, going to a baseball game in Korea is a BLAST! Koreans are so spirited that it makes cheering so much fun...and intense! We also reserved this BBQ table area where we grilled some samgyeopsal (basically Korean style grilled bacon), ate some chicken, and had a few beers.





Here's the whole gang! We had a few foreigner visitors as well!



You see those red inflatable thingies? You beat two of them together while cheering! As you can tell, we were supporting LG Twins! *sigh*...I love one of the players: #53 Lee Dae-hyeong!




One more *sigh*...Okay I'm done. ^^;;
Well, that was Saturday. Sunday, me and a bunch of my gal pals meet for a monthly brunch session. Again, a lot of them are in the broadcasting business. As an expat in Korea, because I don't have any childhood or school friends, they're all people I meet at work. In fact, a large part of the brunch time is spent venting ABOUT work! Don't get me wrong, we all love our jobs, but doesn't change the fact that we love to just jibber-jabber about anything and everything! One of the best parts of our "Babes at Brunch" (thought up by DJ Dorothy from Arirang Radio's "Evening Groove" program! Haha) gatherings is that we like to try out new restaurants. We all LOOOOVE food and all have raging sweet tooths. Hence, our May spot was perfect. It's called "Passion5" in a foreigner friendly spot "Itaewon".



I ordered the Eggs Benedict. Was pretty good, but portions were tiny! I guess it was okay though because we stuffed ourselves with dessert!



yummmm...
Although I have to defend myself in saying that those aren't all mine! We just put them all on one plate (there were like 10-12 of us so that's just half of the group's!)

If you're an avid K-pop fan, chances are you know VJ or DJ Isak! She's the host of Arirang Radio's "Midday Break" program and Arirang TV's "Pops in Seoul" show. Not to mention, she used to also be part of the k-pop duo "Isak N Jiyeon". We're both kind of twitter junkies so we caught each other tweeting, laughed, then decided to take a picture and post it up! ^^



After brunch, some of us went to church. It was a HUGE group including some total k-pop VETERANS (such as Kim Jo-han of the 90's group Solid), some not AS seasoned but still very experienced (such as Brian Joo of Fly to the Sky), all the way to the industry newbies (such as Peter and Chance of One Way). We then all went to Bennigans for dinner where a few others met up with us (including Park Ji-bin, the child actor who played Geum Kang-san/Jandi's younger brother on the hit drama "Boys Over Flowers"). I wish I took pictures of our dinner too, but we were all too excited about the food! Haha



I kind of cheated. I stole this picture from Brian! This was post-dinner~ Jibin's such a cutie pie! He lost a lot of baby fat since he was in "Boys Over Flowers".

ANYWAYS, I'm back at home, blogging before I prepare some stuff for this brand new week of work! Overall, must say it was a great weekend! ^^ Hope you all had a GREAT weekend too!!!

Photos from Our Star Chat with BEAST!

Take 1



Take 2...although they look pretty much the same! Haha

Initially, the boys all were just posing on their own, but I made what we call in Hawaii as the "shaka" sign and told them that this was what people from Hawaii do, they all got excited and joined in with the "shakas". They were all asking "what does this mean?" and so I answered that it's carries a number of different meanings depending on when you use it. It could be a greeting, an apology (for example, when you cut in front of another driver on the road, you would flash the "shaka" sign), a thank you, etc.

ANYWAYS...so as some of you have correctly guessed (*cough* Michie, Kim, Hermin, Jacqueline, Paul *cough*), our last Star Chat guests were the ever so studly members of BEAST!

This was my first Star Chat with KBS World Radio and so I don't have much to compare this experience to...BUT I still have to say that they were a lot of fun! Conducting an interview is difficult when the people you're interviewing aren't talkative, witty, honest, interested, etc., but the guys were great! I was told to keep it down to like 5 to 10 minutes, but our interview went on for almost 20 minutes! So that should say something in and of itself!

For those of you who missed it, just click here for not only the interview but VIDEO FOOTAGE of the interview! If you're too quick for us slowpokes at KBS, it may not be up YET, but it will be uploaded within the next day or so... so keep checking! (Also, for future reference, just go to world.kbs.co.kr and click on "Entertainment" up on top, and then "Star Chat" on the left,)

I can honestly say that the guys were SO flattered and blown away by ALL OF YOU! I don't think they realized how many international fans they had! I was reading them some of the messages on my blog and on our message board. They kept saying "Really??", "Wow...", "No way!"! Haha...it was sweet.

And I remember when I would see interview clips of bands I was OBSESSED with~ Rather than the actual interview CONTENTS, I was interested in what the interviewer HONESTLY thought of the artist/band in terms of how polite they were, their little quirks, how they looked in person, etc. So I'll give you the low-down!

Honestly speaking, they were a bit late to the interview. BUT it was forgivable because they had JUST finished another gig and were trying to squeeze in a quick meal to refuel. Celebrities are always on the go so it's hard for them to eat regularly. When they got there, they gave deep bows to each person in the studio (me, our producer Sophia, our sound engineer, etc.). In Korea, the level of respect you show to someone can be measured by how far down you bow, They gave what we here call "the 90 degree bow" because that's when someone bows so deep that their backs are horizontal creating a 90 degree angle with their legs!

I could tell they were a little nervous because this was an interview in English and none of them spoke English fluently. We usually try to give the artists a few minutes to study a list of translated questions that will be asked. However, because they came so late, they only had a few seconds before we had to start.

If you watch the interview, Doo-joon was the more talkative one I think. And that's kind of how he was in person. He was the most at ease, joking around, etc. I would say Gi-gwang was next at east. The other three were a tad bit shyer. Yo-seob was the shortest of the bunch (as you can tell in the picture), but overall, I was surprised that they were a lot taller than I had expected them to be. They all had GREAT skin (all those celebrity skin treatments probably...) although some of that could have been attributed to make up being that they were wearing some eye make up, foundation, etc.

Hmm...what else can I dish out? I'm already kind of forgetting the little details! Haha...
They were busy (of course!), so as soon as we finished the interview, they signed autographs for Sophia's daughter, took a couple pics, and then their manager was already ushering them out.

Overall, they impressed me with their poise and respect despite the fact that they're IDOL stars and must've been so tired from their hectic lifestyle. And from the SHORT time I spent with them, they seemed to genuinely get along with each other.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Hmm...who should our NEXT Star Chat guest be...

What a hottie!

So I promise I'll do a better update soon, but just wanted to take the time to first off, THANK all the GREAT KBS World listeners who have been SO welcoming~

I'll be honest....
Being that Sarah was such an amazing host, I thought it would take awhile for the listeners to get used to a new voice~ And of course everyone DOES indeed miss Sarah, but many have been very warm and nice! So THANKS for that^^
Our producer was telling us Sarah had sent an email from Vietnam saying that she's doing well~ So I'm sure that's good news for all her fans out there!

SECOND, please, please, PLEASE keep all your emails, requests, messages coming in~ Me and DJ Young LOVE getting them and reading them! Also, for Korean Pop Interactive (it airs on Sundays) listeners, please email your requests and entries for CD Drawings to angela@kbs.co.kr. OR you can post them up on the message board saying it's for KPI~ For KPOP Connection song requests, you can leave them up on the message board at world.kbs.co.kr OR email them to kpop@kbs.co.kr!

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about when I say "CD Drawing", we pick FOUR entries at the end of each month where we send the winners a FREE CD...OF THEIR CHOICE!!! How great is that?! So just email me your name, address, and which CD (artist and title of CD) that you want~ And the best of luck to you! However, if you don't win one month, enter again the next month because it's TOTALLY possible you'll win then~

THIRD, so the latest KPOP news has it that Amerie (that super hot half Korean singer in America) is planning on featuring a couple KPOP groups on her album~ 4 Minute and BEAST!

To my knowledge, they'll be featured on a song that was actually already released: "Heard 'Em All"
You can check out the music video:


What a hottie!!!

It's OFFICIAL: my blog is now up and running!

Hey guys~
I can't believe I was even successful in setting this up up to this point. I'm not exactly computer illiterate but definitely not one of those gifted people that can maintain an interesting blog!




First off, I want to welcome you to my brand spanking new blog! I assume most of my visitors are listeners of KBS World... this is where I host a few shows: KPop Connection, KPop Interactive, and Seoul Calling.

I'm going to try to be good about this, but bear with me because I'm still a newbie blogger~ ㅠㅠ
I will try to update with pics from Kpop star interviews and any relevant news.







I definitely, DEFINITELY encourage you all to comment as much as possible~ Tell me about YOURSELVES! The great thing about the internet is that we can keep in touch EASILY regardless of where we all may be!



Okay, with that all said...
newbie blogger, signing out! ^^