Fandom & Work Collide – 2PM & 2NE1

The new Kids Times and Teen Times newspapers arrived for the children today and I couldn’t help but be nosy when I saw the front covers. I’ve mentioned idols in study books before, but this time I bring you editorial content. Check under the cut for full articles on 2NE1 and 2PM.

How Kids and Teen Times are Used

Just to clarify what the above publications are for and how they are used in the academy, I’ll explain a little about the classes. We use The Kids Times for the younger students. It uses simple English but still covers a good variety of topics. Teen Times is used by the middle and high school students. The English is far more complex and the topics are often a little more thoughtful. I have to say that sometimes, I think the topics are a little too difficult for the students to understand, but exposing them to it is a good way of getting them to learn I guess.

I don’t actually teach the classes myself because the Korean teacher needs to translate for the students. They listen to a recording on the computer, then the article is broken down into ideas and paragraphs. This enables the students to appreciate the entire article without feeling overwhelmed.

Anyway, I thought some of you might be interested to see how work and fandom collide for me, here in Korea.

2PM – The Hot Boys of Summer

No doubt about it. The legendary singer, song writer, and producer, Park Jin-young deserves a bio in this section. However, this week, we will deal with his hot prodigies first. There are so many hot shot stars created by Park. Who are we talking about exactly? Well, it’s no other than the boy band melting the hearts of just about everyone these days. It’s 2PM. With so much fame and popularity surrounding the boys, there’s really no need for an introduction. The group consisting of Jae-beom, Nick-hun, Jun-su, Taec-yeon, Jun-ho, Woo-young and Chan-sung branched out from the original eleven-member boy band, 2AM. Their debut song was the famous and hip 10 our of 10.

Every member of 2PM auditioned to be trained under Park Jin-young, who operates JYP Entertainment. What’s interesting is that all 7 members were among countless trainees going through JYP’s rigorous trainee program. After a series of eliminations, the 7 members were left to form a group. You may have noticed Jae-beom and Nick-Khun doing summersaults. And you may have noticed no matter how hard or physically demanding the choreography may be, they can sing live. Well, all these talents didn’t come easily.

Thanks to intensive training in dance, singing and even acrobatics, they can perform at a level not many boy bands can. Their debut album was released on September 4, 2008. The first release didn’t quite bring as much attention. However, when 2PM released their 2nd album titled, Time For Change, things were different. Just 2 weeks into promoting their single, they were number one on nearly all the music charts in Korea.

Just about anywhere we go, we can hear “Again and Again and Again.” Yup, with a simple cut melody and superb choreography, the group is currently dominating the music scene. The idol group is receiving great attention from even other countries. The topped the Thai MTV international chart with their latest single, demonstrating the group’s soaring popularity in the Asian community.

Credit for the article goes to Staff reporter Liz Ahn.

2NE1 – The Female Version of Big Bang!

“La la la la 21! You’ve got to ring the alarm!” Does this sound familiar! Sure it does. It’s part of the lyric from the famous group 2NE1. I don’t have to say much about them because you guys all know the hot group. They are considered as the female Big Bang. As matter of fact, G-Dragon from Big Bang helped the girls with their album. And they are all from the same music company called YG.

Let’s learn the names of the members of 2NE1. They are CL, Bom, Dara and Minzy. The group was formed in 2008. Fans of Big Bang have been waiting for the group. It was because there were rumors saying that the female version of Big Bang will soon come out. Before releasing their album, 2NE1 came out with a song called “Lollipop.” The song was used for the LG Cyon phone commercial. More and more fans cheered and waited for 2NE1.

Finally, in May of 2009, their first song, “Fire” came out. It was a huge success. When 2NE1′s music video was released, it was watched by more than a million people every day. Although it’s only been a short time, the group has already won an award. The award was from the famous Cyworld homepage. “Lollipop” and “Fire” were songs of the month. In the third week of June, 2NE1 won first place in SBS Inkigayo! All the members of 2NE1 are great dancers, singers and rappers. But they are also good in English, Chinese and even Japanese! Let’s hope 2NE1 continues their hard work!

Credit for the article goes to Staff reporter Dan Chun.

Considerations

I feel I should say here that I directly quoted from the newspapers and gave credit for each article. I’m not affiliated with either publication, I just have access to them through my work as an English teacher in Korea.

The articles don’t contain anything that you couldn’t find out on Wikipedia or that you wouldn’t know already if you were a fan of either 2PM or 2NE1, so don’t expect to find any inside scoops. Rather, I wrote this post so you could see how interesting some of the teaching material here in Korea is and also because it’s just nice when Good & Evil Fandom & Work come together.