다행이다 is not a complicated word. It's commonly used in daily Korean in a number of situations. And yet, that's exactly what gave me pause.
Relieved
Category: Translation/번역
Interview with Jung Yumi (Elle Korea 2018)
I've liked a lot of projects that Jung Yumi has been in, but the one I can't forget is Que Sera Sera, her first TV drama. It's possibly one of the most horrifying and hard-to-stomach (i.e. amazing) melodramas I've ever seen. I've seen it 2.5 times myself and the opening song still always gives me goosebumps. That said, I [...]
Interview with Gong Yoo (Elle Korea 2018)
Gong Yoo is one of those actors who consistently takes me by surprise and I'm not really sure why. He's good and he picks pretty solid projects. I've seen (ahem!) five of his dramas and three of his films over the years and every single time I've found something beautiful and moving in his performance. I'll [...]
One Million Roses
My heart feels sliced in half today. I have been removed from the idol scene for a few years now, but there was a time in college and graduate school when SHINee's music meant a lot to me. I bonded with two of my closest friends over their music; no matter how far-removed we were [...]
That poem in ‘Because This Is My First Life’
There are a lot of reasons I loved Because This Is My First Life. Like, a lot. One of them is Jiho's penchant for making literary allusions and using extended metaphors to express her complicated thoughts and feelings. This was a nice bit of character development, I thought; even though Jiho doesn't work as a [...]
Interview with Lee Min-ki and Jung So-min (Marie Claire 2017)
So 이번 생은 처음이라 / Because This Is My First Life wraps up this week. This interview came out in October, right before the show started airing so it's kinda old news at this point, but I needed something to occupy me between episodes and it's been ages since I've translated celebrity news anyway, so here [...]
Translating Korean relative clauses
Ahhh, Korean prose. It's so amazingly different from its English counterpart.
Interview with Park Yoochun (Marie Claire 2015)
Given that I know zilch about what's happening in Korean entertainment these days, it came as a mild surprise to learn that Park Yoochun (of K-drama & K-pop fame) is off to serve his mandatory two-year military service. Very soon in fact. Like, today. Or yesterday. I chanced upon this short interview while scanning Korean celeb [...]
Interview with Lee Jin-wook and Jo Yoon-hee (Marie Claire)
I consider 나인: 아홉 번의 시간 여행 (Nine: Nine Time Travels) to be the Korean drama to end all Korean dramas for me. In a good way. It's not my all-time favorite drama, but it hit me in a way that no K-drama since has been able to. In fact, I don't think I've managed to finish a [...]
악동뮤지션 (AKMU) – 안녕
Let me tell you a story about myself. When I was growing up, I moved a lot. By the time I graduated high school, I had lived in five different states and changed schools just as many times. When I got older, the moves got much harder. At one point, I remember making the mental decision to [...]
