An intoduction to terms and types of fans

Ok first things first sorry this is so late. My hard drive crashed on my Mac. *sobs* So I am on my laptop PC now. (yuck!)

This time I’m going to talk about terminology, fans, and antis. When it comes to kpop there are going to be some words you’ll start seeing that make no sense. They certainly didn’t to me and it took me a little while to work them all out. But first a quick guide to some Korean pronunciation.

I’m still unsure on a lot of it but two things you need to know is that the people who set the standards for romanization of Korean (putting Korean words into our alphabet) are IDIOTS. When you see a Korean word spelled with a Z you pronounce it as a J. It is the same for K, it is pronounced as a G. Why they couldn’t be spelled with a J and a G to begin with I do not know.

Now onto some terms. Here are some of the more common ones and their meanings:

Noona: a term used by males to address women older then them
Hyung: a term used by males to address men older then them
Unnie: a term used by women to address women older then them
Oppa: a term used by women to address men older then the (some Korean men do not like foreign women to call them this)
Dongsaeng: a term used to mean younger sibling but can be used to refer to someone unrelated who is younger then you
Ahjusshi: an middle aged man
Ahjumma: a middle aged woman
Umma: mother
Appa: father
Maknae: the youngest in a group
Sunbae: a senior in an organization
Hoobae: a junior in an organization
Hwaiting: fighting (used as encouragement)
Saranghae: I love you
Aegyo: overly cute behavior
Aigoo: similar to oh my or gosh
Omo: korean verision of OMG
CF: a commercial
Ulzzang: means best face and is used to refer to a group of peolple who compete online to be the most attractive. Several idols are former are former ulzzangs such as Jaehyo from Block B.
Bias: a favorite member from a group or a favorite group

Onto the fans and antis! Or more specifically netizens and antis. Netizens are Korean internet users who are known for being incredibly vicious towards their celebrities. They have been the indirect cause of a number of celebrity suicides. They are nasty. They delight in starting rumors and tearing down celebrities lives around them. They also attack fans who manage to get to close to their favorite celebrities. They will track down their address, their school, their place of employment and often harass them.

There was once a case where netizens found old myspace posts from 2PM singer and leader Jay Park who is originally from the United States. The posts were in English and talked about the hard time he was having adjusting to living in Korean because he was raised American. The netizens somehow mistranslated and misinterpreted it to be an attack on Korean culture. There was a mass outcry that in the end left Jay Park being kicked out of the boyband 2PM and having his contract terminated. There was even a petition signed by THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE calling for him to kill himself. Only recently has returned as a solo artist.

Antis can often be confused with netizens. The difference however is that antis just plain hate a group or singer and will go out of their way to belittle and harm them. Emphasis on the harm. One famous incident occurred when an anti pretended to be a fan and handed a bottle of water that was laced with a chemical found in super glue to TVXQ member and leader Yunho. In the end he was lucky he didn’t die and he had to be hospitalized. The girl eventually handed herself over to the police more afraid of the retribution she would face from his fans.

In Korea it is much easier to harm a celebrity you dislike then it is here in America. We are so separated from them but in Korea where the majority of the population lives in the capital city Seoul they live together. I remember reading not too long ago about a girl who ran into the singer G.NA at the train station. There are also fans who will wait in cabs outside their idol’s home and wait for them to leave and then follow them around all day constantly blogging about where they are. As such it is easy to find where an idol is organize a scheme to harm them with like minded individual, get there, and carry it out.