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네 ...i am suffering when i watch k-drama 'Stairway to Heaven'. I am not suffering because Kwon Sang-woo 씨 is so fine but i can't have him ;-). I am suffering because:
- The copy of 'Stairway to Heaven' we own has only Mandarin subtitles. Since i cannot read Mandarin / Chinese...you can only guess how much that helps.
- We can only toggle between Korean & Mandarin audio.
- I only understand maybe 1% - 20% of Korean. Can only recognize simple words and phrases such as greetings like 안녕하세요? or 여보세요?, when they call each other...like the famous oppa (오빠) and of course 사랑해 (I Love You).
- When in Mandarin, i can understand maybe 40% - 80%. It depends on the depth of the sentence structure and vocab used.
- I only understand maybe 1% - 20% of Korean. Can only recognize simple words and phrases such as greetings like 안녕하세요? or 여보세요?, when they call each other...like the famous oppa (오빠) and of course 사랑해 (I Love You).
- See one section in Mandarin to understand maybe 40% - 80% of what's going on. But it's so frustrating to listen to the horrible voice-over. Sometimes the music is even different!
- Then rewind and watch it in Korean again, so you get to listen to Kwon Sang-woo and Choi Ji-woo's actual voice. Kwon Sang-woo's voice is actually very soft (as opposed to hard) and he speaks with a slight lisp. Now, i wouldn't know that if i listened to the Mandarin dubbing.
Does anyone else have this problem? Why are most Korean materials geared towards the Chinese-speaking community? What about us poor Chinese-illiterate souls?
Kwon's character in 'Stairway to Heaven' plays a melody on the piano to drown out his sorrows...
i just need English subtitles. ;-)
10 Comments:
Yeah I second that. The materials we get here in Malaysia are mostly geared towards the Chinese or Malay-speaking communities.
Like the other day, I wanted to get Se7en's album (forgot which one) and everything was written in Mandarin so I didn't know what songs were in there.
I didn't buy the album.
Also, Rain's Japanese album that we have, the lyrics and such have Chinese translation and all I do is just stare at it once in a while.
I know the English-speaking locals are slow to catch the Korean Wave, preferring American/British entertainment but there are a few of us around. We hope the "powers that be" realise that.
But for now, I guess we'll have to brush up on our Bahasa Malaysia.
Oh yeah, Daniel Henney's Seducing Mr. Perfect DVD is available in Malaysia, but only with Bahasa Malaysia subtitles.
Sigh, the lesser of two "evils" I guess.
Love So Divine movie also only comes in BM and Mandarin subtitles. That's why i did not buy either. Searching for a copy with English subtitles. Sigh...
Oh yeah, on another sad note, i went to Singapore a few months back and saw that they had Rain's Coming World Tour Premiere DVD set. It contains Rain's I'm Coming Showcase Live concert, a documentary of the World Tour premiere, photo book & postcards.
It only comes with Mandarin & Korean subtitles though. So i did not buy it. :-( We can view the concert (when Bi sings & dance) without subs - no problem. But he does speak to his fans and i am sure the documentary (making of the World Tour) will be interesting!
I have not seen this DVD set sold here in Malaysia yet.
Haha, unless the west catches up with the hallyu, we're doomed! Because there are over a billion Chinese literate folks happily kicking back to their favourite Korean soaps leaving the rest of us (like what... 0.5%?) illiterate fans out in the cold.
A sad world 'tis is. Sigh...
Yeah...who lied to me and said English is the way to go???
If I'd known earlier, I'd have obediently attend Mandarin classes in primary school.
Darn you liars out there! :-P
http://www.mysoju.com/stairway-to-heaven/
Links to the complete English-subbed show as uploaded elsewhere on the internet.
I like going to aznV.tv for my asian drama fix. :)
oh girls there is also www.crunchyroll.com that has streaming video with english subs of korean dramas for free and also if u want the high def streaming video u have to pay but it's cheaper than aznv.tv...stairway to heaven is good, i like korean comedies as well, u should watch miss kim makes a million dollars it's really cute.
unf4me, cheaper than aznV? i have a free account there, but i never thought of upgrading. i'm premium on aznV, and i think it's so worth every penny. that's where i usually watch my dramas/movies.
i'm more into romcoms than melodramas. so i haven't even tried stairway to heaven.
i've always wanted to watch miss kim, but with my lengthy to-watch list...
Oooh! Good news 'tis is!
Thanks unf4me and Gail!
gail t, for a premium per month it's cheaper on crunchyroll, but aznv is cheap to begin with so it's like comparing apples to oranges their both fruit but one is a little less than the other. And def watch miss kim it was good and only 16 eps..
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