The K-Pop Group TWICE Disarmed Me with Their Loveliness
I have been working on a post about why I started learning Korean and it started really stressing me out, so I decided to write a different post for now and put that one on hold for a little while.
I talked about how writing stresses me out in my first post. But I’m trying to find a way to keep practicing, otherwise I will just stop altogether.
I’m trying to find ways to reduce the stress. So I decided to write about something really light and fun.
So here is a post about TWICE.
Before I started learning Korean, believe it or not, I had never listened to any K-pop. I mean, I had heard some clips of some Blackpink songs and maybe some BTS songs in movies. And who hasn’t heard Gangnam Style by PSY? But other than that I had never heard anything.
It’s not that I had anything against K-pop. I just don’t really like pop music in general. Korean, American, or any kind of popular music. So it never appealed to me and I never tried listening.
But when I started learning Korean, one of the first things I did was to jump on youtube and start watching Korean content. At first I think it was like hidden camera prank channels (몰래카메라). And then, as youtube works, they started suggesting more Korean content to me.
And eventually a video of TWICE popped up on me feed.
And I decided to click it.
Why? I don’t know. Probably because they were really pretty. 아마도 트와이스 멤버들이 진짜 예뻐서 그비디오 봤어요.
And I was pretty much hooked from that moment on.
I think this was the video in question:
They were just so charming.
Lovely.
Funny and cute.
Of course so beautiful. But it was more than that. There are a lot of beautiful women in the world. They were also sweet and genuine.
They were down to earth and wholesome.
I was not expecting that.
American celebrities are not like that. If I had to describe American celebrities, the last thing I would say is that they are down to earth or wholesome. I truthfully can’t think of a single American celebrity I could describe that way.
Actually that’s not true.
Keanu Reeves.
Keanu Reeves is down to earth and wholesome. He’s kind and approachable. He doesn’t think he’s better than anyone. He doesn’t even want to be better than anyone.
That’s how I saw TWICE.
It was disarming.
I was expecting something else. Like I said before, I hadn’t listened to any K-pop before, but I had sort of been exposed to a little bit of Blackpink and BTS. And in my mind, Blackpink especially had a really hard image. Like really cool and chic and tough. More like American celebrities.
So that’s what I was expecting from TWICE.
I have since come to see Blackpink slightly differently as I’ve watched them on Korean variety shows and on Running Man. But still their public image in America I think is a lot edgier.
But TWICE was different. They were so warm and friendly and I was pleasantly surprised.
I’m not sure how to say it in Korean. How to describe them. It’s a little hard to describe them in English even. The best way I can find is to say they are down-to-earth.
Does a similar idiom exist in Korean?
It’s like the opposite of pretentious. It’s someone who is genuine, who isn’t trying to put themselves above other people. It’s someone who you could actually connect with because they are being honestly kind. They aren’t just pretending to be nice or open to connection. They mostly mean what they say.
I just found two Korean words that might fit.
겸손한 — humble
속이 깊은 — deep hearted
I really like deep hearted. That’s a beautiful concept.
And I think I would describe TWICE as deep hearted.
트와이스 멤버들은 속이 깊은 사람 이거 같아요
I really like deep-hearted people. Or kind-hearted people. People who are genuine and sensitive and considerate of other people. I like people who don’t think they are better than others, or aren’t trying to be better than other people. It’s exhausting to be around people who are constantly in competition. I like to connect with people, and that requires vulnerability, humility, and sincerity.
After I watched that first TWICE video I pretty much binged all of the Time To Twice videos and a bunch of other clips or interviews with them.
But interestingly enough, I still didn’t listen to any of their music for a long time. It was probably a couple of months before I ever listened to any of their music. I’m not totally sure why, but I just really liked them as people, so their music wasn’t really the connection point for me.
I’ll probably write another post about their music, so I won’t give my opinion on it here. Stay tuned for that.
But I really like them as people.
They are pretty easy to cheer for.
I don’t really love celebrities in general. But TWICE showed me that there are some kind-hearted ones.
Although I think it has a lot to do with Korean culture, too. There are a lot of Korean celebrities that I have come to like since I started learning Korean. Maybe some of them are just putting on a show. I don’t know. But it feels like many of them are genuine.
And that is refreshing.
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