Things I wish I knew when I first got into K-Pop

1. How to speak Korean

OK - This might be a bit dramatic, but for real. Aside from listening to the music and enjoying the fun new words and beats, it would be great if we could instantly read all their tweets and understand all the K-Dramas without spending hours looking for English subs! I'm sure there have been moments where you watch the show without subs anyway and when friends ask if you understand you respond like the gif above.

2. Korean Drama Sites

Before the video streaming site like dramafever existed, some of us had to download torrents or even watch it on random sites like mysoju.com (which no longer exists). The worst was downloading it with either poor quality or no subs - the sacrifice you had to make when you just had to watch it immediately. But it was always great watching our favorite shows!

3. Korea's time difference

For some people, the time difference might not be so dramatic, but in the U.S. (specifically the East coast) that 13-hour difference is a killer. Not only do you have to set your alarms for work and school, but you gotta set one for the random 2 in the morning release of your favorite groups MV.

4. Korean Lingo

While we all know daebak (awesome/amazing), there are some words like Hul (ugh) and Aigoo (Ouch/Oh) that get your head spinning back and forth trying to keep up! Thank God for the K-Pop Dictionary! Where was this in 2010?!?!

5. Intensive Korean skincare

Once you listen to K-Pop, you notice the idols have perfect skin and start delving into their extreme and excessive skin routines. If I knew about bb creams and face packs, my face could have dodged the acne-prone puberty bullet like nothing!

6. Too many groups

Is too much of a good thing really a bad thing?? I wouldn't say so in the case of K-Pop, but if someone warned me that there were an endless amount of groups, countless biases to choose from and so many idols to love, I could've had few sleepless nights wondering whose poster I should buy and put on my wall.

7. Too many members

OK - if you thought there were too many groups, try counting all the members! Girls' Generation may have been a handful with 9 but there are groups like EXO and Super Junior who would leave our heads spinning trying to remember all these new Korean names.

8. Fan meetups and online forums

At first, we all think we might be a little strange if we are addicted to K-Pop (especially for international fans), but like an alcoholic searching for an AA meeting, there is a support group - on the internet! Believe it or not, there are people out there just like us who have a wall filled with Siwon posters, K-Pop backpack and lunch sets, and endless computer/cell phone wallpapers for you to go ga-ga over!

9. Fanwars

Fanwars exist and they absolutely blow our minds. They suck but are sometimes unavoidable - especially if someone is talking $hit about your bias.

Me typing away when someone talks about my bias:

10. That everything Korean is so addicting

It starts with the music but then it ends with us traveling to Korea, buying face masks after we finish eating spicy rice cakes and Korean BBQ in a restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul that is playing K-Dramas on their TV. Oh! Taekwondo looks so cool and I need to get the newest Samsung Galaxy phone. We have suddenly become addicted to the culture and everything about Korea seems wonderful! Who knew we could fall in love with a country so easily? I guess paradise is on Earth, after all!

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