꽃보다 남자

Ah, where do I begin.  The title, of course.  꽂보다납자.  Pronounced "Kgoat bo-da nahm-jah", The best English equivalent is "Boys Over Flowers" or "Boys Before Flowers".  It's a Korean teen TV drama that took the nation of Korea like a plague in January, February, March, and April.  It ran for 2 short seasons (25 episodes total), and finished last week, but has still not let the public out of its clutches.  And I am one of its most affected victims.

I started watching it online with English subtitles about two weeks ago, after I read the synopsis and thought, "Hmm.  That sounds kinda fun.  Watching it might be a good way to relate to my students."  Little did I know.  Here's the official synopsis:

Jan Di is an average girl whose family owns a dry cleaning store located near the luxurious and well-known Shinhwa High School.  Jan Di meets the four richest and most spoiled boys known as the F4.  After saving a boy from jumping off the roof of Shinhwa High School, she is admitted into the school on a swimming scholarship.  Jan Di tries to avoid confrontation with F4 at all cost because she knows what happens to those that stand against them.  However, when Jan Di's friend, Oh Min Ji, accidentally gets ice cream on the leader of F4's shoes, she's forced to declare war on the leader of F4, Goo Jun Pyo.

Okay so first of all, Gu Jun Pyo actually declares war on HER because she stood up for her friend and wounded his pride.  Secondly, all that stuff happens in the first two episodes.  It's not that much of a spoiler to say that what of course ends up happening is that stubborn, quick-tempered Gu Jun Pyo falls in love with caring, spunky Jan Di, as does his best friend, quiet and musical Yoon Ji Hoo, who her friend and rescuer from the beginning.  Jan Di unearths Jun Pyo's tender side, and Jun Pyo, Ji Hoo and the other two members of F4, Song Woo Bin and So Yi Jung, become her best friends, and they have all kinds of adventures and love triangles and drama together.  :D

The show is admittedly cheesy, and the acting is kind of weak, especially at the beginning (but it gets better!), but the characters make the show completely addicting.  And not only middle school girls love it.  I meet adult women and even some guys who watch it.  It made the show's actors the most recognized and sought-after pop culture stars in Korea.  And even though the show is over, the actors are still appearing in commercials, on posters promoting everything from cell phones to donuts, and on the covers of fan magazines.

As for me, it was fun to go nuts over this show.  Not only is it packed with Korean culture and words that I can pick up as I watch, I have been able to relate to Koreans on a whole nother level, simply because we can start a conversation when they notice my F4 cell phone charms.  I can instantly engage my students in class by using the characters' names in example sentences.  And the obsession is cheap!  My cell phone charms, postcards and socks were less than a dollar each, my fan magazines were 35 cents apiece, and I got my posters for free from some guys I made friends with who work at a cell phone store.  :P  Have you gotten the picture yet?  I am in love with F4.

For a quick little video introduction to my boys, please click here.