Monday, February 5, 2007

Kimchiman - Arirang Canada Guy

This is too funny...

A man who goes by the name of Kimchiman has uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube where he speaks and sings Arirang.

Now Koreans seem to think that foreigners just can't comprehend their culture, so when you speak two words of Korean you get "oh, you speak Korean very well." To which I say I don't. Then you go back and forth with the person because they say you do.

Anyway, here is some info lifted from Wikipedia on Arirang just in case you don't know what it is.

First, "Arirang is arguably the most popular and best-known Korean folk song, both inside and outside Korea."

And here are the lyrics:

Hangul (Korean)

아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요...
아리랑 고개로 넘어간다.
나를 버리고 가시는 님은
십리도 못가서 발병난다.

Romanization

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo...
Arirang gogaero neomeoganda.
Nareul beorigo gasineun nimeun
Simnido motgaseo balbyeongnanda.

English

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo...
I am crossing over Arirang Pass.
The man/woman who abandoned me [here]
Will not walk even ten li before his/her feet hurt.

In the first one he just speaks Arirang:


In the second one, he speaks a bit and then sings a really bad version of it with his wife (not sure but probably wife since she addressed him as "yobo"/"여보" - the Korean equivalent of "honey" or "darling" which is used between marrieds):


Short translation by me -

Kimchiman: Hello. My name is Kimchiman. I am Canadian. I speak a little Korean. Therefore, I want to sing a Korean song. I will sing the song "Arirang"*

Kimchiman and woman sing Arirang (see above)

Kimchiman: Thank you!
Woman to Kimchiman: Thank you!
Kimchiman: You're welcome
Woman to Kimchiman: Honey!
They kiss...
*The last two lines of the part before the song I needed someone to verify if I was right or not (I was close, but not completely right). I'm so lame. Thanks Michael.

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8 comments:

  1. hi jane! thanks forcommenting on my blog, i've listened to your podcast at least a dozen times now, you remind me that i am sane. i actually already am on the korean blog list as "the black american esl teacher," b/c i didnt have a cute clever name for it at the time i registered. i'll be checking out the metropolitician.

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  2. Cool beans!

    Ain't that Kimchiman a hoot?

    I gotta stop using weird words and phrases.

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  3. It's completely silly. I gotta say I just love the Internet because of stuff like this.

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  4. Just been surfin' around looking at where the Arirang thing has been going. I'm glad y'all enjoyed my 22 seconds of insanity.

    Maybe one day I'll manage to get my brain into gear and come up with something new - or maybe not. Thanks for posting my vid on your blog, Jane. Cool beans indeed!

    Kimchiman, over and out!

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  5. Wow! I'm honored THE Kimchiman found my post and left a comment!

    I'm serious...no sarcasm there at all.

    Thanks for stopping by and letting me know the search engines are indexing my posts ;-)

    Please come up with something new, please! It will give me inspiration to write something. Both work and school will start for me next week and when that happens I don't blog much at all.

    BTW, what inspired you to learn Korean? Have you spent time here or have you gotten to know Koreans in Canada?

    Of course, you'll only know that I've asked you these questions if you come back to my blog and how likely is that?

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  6. "Of course, you'll only know that I've asked you these questions if you come back to my blog and how likely is that?"

    Pretty likely. Lived there from '85 to '87.

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  7. Cool! You came back, but now I'm 2 years plus out of Korea. Glad I got an answer though.

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Hey there! Thanks for visiting my blog. It's my first blog, and I'm glad folks are still stopping by even though I'm no longer living in South Korea. Feel free to comment. If you want a personal answer, leave your email, and I won't publish the comment. Nasty comments and spam links will not be tolerated.