ITEM NO : REC 03905

(Photo from here, with the caption "Wax 너무 이뻐졌다!! 못알아보겠어" or "Wax has become very pretty! She's unrecognisable")

God Works in Mysterious Ways

I would have written this post last night, but for the entire English department failing to tell me (as per usual) that the winter schedule had changed, meaning that I turned up at 1pm, expecting to teach from 2 to 4:30, only to find that the classes were now from 7 to 9:30 instead. Yep, 6 hours to kill, with only a copy of  한국어 일기 4급 to keep me company. If you have any of those books in the series of 6 (here's level 5 below) then you'll know that they're not bad resources per se, they just have a monochrome format and inane topics, typical of Korean study books published around 2000, that mean that they tend to get very tedious after more than an hour spent on them at any one time. Yesterday I managed three, albeit with very lengthy breaks in between.

On the negative side, not studying at Starbucks after work as planned meant that I forgot to refill my coffee supply (Fair Trade of course). Apologies in advance for any mistakes and typos my withdrawal symptoms will cause.

Who is Wax?

Well, if you don't know the answer to that question, then you probably haven't been here very long. In 2000, she released "오빠/Oppa,"and culturally speaking it has become to Koreans like Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" to Westerners has. If you'd rather not think about that, then let me do it for you: it was a good song...admit it...but it was played to death at the time, and ultimately turned even the most dedicated fans off it. But whether you loathed it from the beginning, or came to loath it after listening to ad nauseum on the radio for 5 months, 11 years later all of us know the song off by heart, and will hum it when no-one's watching. And so in a way, it's become a defining song of our generation. Same with Oppa for Koreans, such a staple at 노래방s or karaoke rooms that it should be included in any university Korean course. But if the song still isn't ringing any bells, try watching it:

See? Even if you've only been here a month, you have heard it before, yes? If you want to know more about the song and Wax herself then read here, and sorry in advance to disappoint, but I already know that it's based on "She-bop" by Cyndi Lauper (I'm a big fan), and yep, I even know the original risqué subject matter too. If I've inspired you to learn Korean through it, then I provide a very detailed guide to the song here.

Her first 3 albums were a mix of stuff like that and some simply...ahem...beautiful ones too, albeit very mellow. This one from the 2nd album called "화장을 고치도" is my favorite, although it's unfortunate literal English title of "Fixing my Make-up" doesn't help with accusations that I have completely gay tastes in music. I should let you listen to it yourself, because there's little point in reading more if you don't also instantly fall in love with it:

When I typed that I intended to load up my own audio file from the CD, but Wordpress is having issues (again), so I found a video on Youtube instead. The number of different videos of it available there surely indicates how popular the song is, but actually that was the first time I've seen one, and although I think this one's okay, in my mind it ultimately detracts from the song. Still, better than nothing.

Unfortunately, all the songs in her 5th and 6th albums were even more mellow, so I've been put off listening to any of them for a good 6 months or so. But not too much: watching that has persuaded me to complete my collection with her 4th album and now and her latest 7th album too, and in a few weeks I'll write a comprehensive study guide to the song: it's always good to revise after all, and will definitely be a welcome alternative to the...ahem...fourteen practice TOPIK tests I plan to do in the 9 weeks before the test, taking 3 hours each time. As you can see, I really want to stop teaching English pass level 5. In the meantime, you can see a version of the song with the Korean lyrics here, albeit a very wanky "love-themed" one by a fan.

And now for the news about her 7th album, taken from here:

이기찬 윤건 리쌍, 왁스 7집 쇼케이스에 다 모여

'왁스' 앨범에서도 실력발휘 [ 2008-01-15]

"Wax's Singing Goes From Strength to Strength" - Lee Gi-chan, Yun-gon, Leessang and Wax Announce the Release of Her 7th Album.

가수 왁스가 7집 앨범 '여자는 사랑을 먹고'를 공개했다.

The singer Wax has released her 7th album, entitled "Women Eat Love."

14일 서울 압구정 클럽에서 진행한 '쇼케이스'에서 왁스는 '눈물만 눈물만', '그랬으면', '그 사람' 등을 연이어 부르며 변함없는 보컬 실력을 선보였다.

On the 14th of January at the "Showcase" nightclub in Apgu-jeong, Seoul, Wax performed the songs "Only Tears, Only Tears," "If So," and "That Person" from her new album, demonstrating that her extraordinary vocal talent has not changed with age.

왁스는 "이번 작업을 할 때는 유난히 재미있게 녹음을 했다"며 음반에 참여한 가수 이기찬과 윤건, 리쌍 등을 호명했다. '눈물만 눈물만'을 작곡, 왁스에게 선물한 이기찬은 "앨범이 잘 됐으면 좋겠다"며 7집 성공을 기원했다. 보사노바 풍의 '그랬으면'을 선물한 윤건도 "꼭 대박 나길 바란다"고 말했다.

According to Wax, the "recording of this album was exceptionally interesting and fun for me," and mentioned that singers Lee Gi-chan, Yu-gon, and Leessang had participated in the making of some songs. Lee Gi-chan said that the song "Only Tears, Only Tears" was a gift from him to her and that he was praying for the album's success. Yu-gon also gifted the song "If So" to her and hoped that it would become a big hit too.

힙합 비트가 녹아있는 '그 사람'을 선물한 리쌍은 "발라드 가수에게 곡을 준 것은 처음"이라며 녹음 과정 중 일화를 소개했다. 리쌍은 "녹음할 때 술을 조금 마시고 하는데, 왁스와도 그렇게 했더니 결국 그날 녹음은 할 수 없었다"라고 털어놔 좌중을 즐겁게 했다.

Leessong gifted the song "That Person" to her, which has a hip-hop beat, and the first time he has worked with a ballad singer. He jokingly revealed that he and Wax sometimes drank a little before recording it, but that she would get so tipsy that they were unable to proceed with the recording.

왁스는 "1~6집까지는 가족 같은 분위기에서 늘 같은 분들과 작업했는데 7집은 새로운 분들과 새로운 노력을 해봤다"며 "즐겁게 들어주셨으면 좋겠다"고 말했다.

Wax said that "The styles of the songs in my first six albums were ones that you could very much enjoy with other family members, but I've tired to do something new in this album," and that she hoped listeners would enjoy the change. 

왁스가 1년 만에 발표한 7집 앨범 타이틀 곡 '여자는 사랑을 먹고'는 히트 작곡가 박근태가 맡아 여성의 섬세한 심리를 표현했다. 뮤직비디오는 탤런트 김선아와 조한선이 맡아 바닷가를 배경으로 아름다우면서 슬픈 사랑 이야기를 담았다.

The title song of this new album, which took only a year to make, was written by the hit composer Park Gun-tae, and hopes to express women's more subtle, fine, and delicate feelings about love. The music video was shot at a beach and made with rising talent Kim Son-ah and Jo Han-son, and represents a beautiful but sad love story.

Despite my obvious interest in Wax, actually the motive for today's translation was getting listening practice but with a sort-of transcript I could refer back to. Hence I found the above article via searching for this interview of her:

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.477928&w=425&h=350&fv=]

And while doing those video searches, I also found this one of her performing a song from the new album.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.477932&w=425&h=350&fv=]

I'll let you know more once the CDs arrive, and possibly edit some of the English names I've given them.

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Listen This Album

("Wax Hands" by euii) 

Sometime last week, I noticed that someone had found my post on Wax by typing "Wax Oppa lyrics" or something to that effect. Having gone on so much about how much I liked the song and how important knowing the song was to integrating yourself into Korean society, then I realised that was lax in not at least providing the lyrics and a translation, and he or she was surely disappointed. Sure, I admit that with post titles like "Korean Booty and Democratization: Part 1" (and Part 2) most lots of visitors to my blog are disappointed at what they find, but I can't please everyone. I'll try to please the Wax fan(s) though.

So, there were many translations of Oppa on the web when I last looked 3 years ago, but they all sucked for various reasons, mostly because while the song is great for beginners it turns out that it has a lot of quirks, and much of the grammar is harder than it looks. And, as you'll see, literal translations really don't work, but if you don't provide them and give a more natural English one instead then it can be very difficult to understand the Korean from it. But never fear, for I will give quite detailed explanations of everything. As far as I know, I'm the first person ever to do so. So may I present:

The definitive English guide to Oppa, surely to be used as a Korean teaching resource for decades to come!

It took 3 hours, the last of which was admittedly transferring it all from Word to Wordpress.com and trying to sort out all the fricking formatting. In the end, I had to include pictures of Wax to try to break it into more digestible chunks. In the process of finding them, I learned that her real name was 조혜리/Cho Hye-ri.

First, the song by itself for you to photocopy and impress Korean commuters with by pretending to study it on the subway:

그냥 편한 느낌이 좋았어

좋은 사람이라고 생각했어

하지만 이게 뭐야

점점 남자로 느껴져

아마 사랑하고 있었나봐

코러스:

오빠 나만 바라봐

봐봐 그렇게 봐봐

아파 마음이 아파

내 맘 왜 몰라쥐

오빠 그녀는 왜 봐

거봐 그녀는 나빠

봐봐 이제 나를 가져봐

(이제 나를 가져봐)

왜 날 여자로 안 보는거니

짜꾸 안된다고하는거니

다른 연인들을 봐봐

처음엔 오빠로 다 시작해

결국 사랑하며 잘 살아가

(코러스)

(너무 이상한 영어랩)

아무것도 아나라 해도

나는 상처 받아 (나는 상처받아)

이런 내가 싫다해도

지쳐버릴 내가 아냐

(코러스)

Now, the song one verse at a time, with my basic translation underneath each, and then notes on the grammar and vocabulary etc. etc. below that. There can be a lot of the latter, so I'll do them bullet style and mention which line of the verse I'm talking about so you don't lose track of things.

그냥 편한 느낌이 좋았어

좋은 사람이라고 생각했어

하지만 이게 뭐야

점점 남자로 느껴져

아마 사랑하고 있었나봐

"I just liked the comfortable feeling

I thought you were a good person

But what's this?

I began to think of you more and more as a man

Maybe I was falling in love with you"

• - L1: Okay, 그냥 just means "no reason" most of the time, but for emphasis it can be added as an adjective to just about everything to mean "nothing special". In this case it adds to the 편한, or "comfortable, to emphasize she really did just have a normal comfortable feeling from the friendship.
• - L2: The 이라고 is indirect speech for 이다. It would miss out the 이 if the noun before it ended in a vowel. Indirect speech is definitely not for beginners, so you can save that for later.
• - L4: "로" can mean many things, but usually means a direction or a change of state, and in this case she originally thinks of him as a friend but more and more (점점) as a man (남자). It's put after the final state or destination, so 남자로.
• - L4: 느껴져 comes from 느끼다, meaning to feel, experience or be conscious of. 지다, or its conjugation 져요, can mean many things when attached to the end of a verb or an adjective. In the case of the latter, it means to change to that state (ie 피곤하다, conjugated as 피곤해, +conjugated 지다=져요, altogether = 피곤해져요 "to become tired". But in this case, the 지다 is a causative, known as a 수동 in Korean. So something, the thing she just talked about in "But what's this," caused her to make her thing of the friend as a man.
• - L5: The "~고 있었나봐" in 사랑하고 있었나봐 is used to make guesses. In this case it's in its' past continuous form, so obviously a verb must go before the 고. The present continuous form is ~고 있나봐. For 이다, use 인가봐 (ie 모르는 사람 인가봐 "He/She must be a stranger") For adjectives, use ~은가봐 (ie, Why does he like her? 예쁜가봐 "She must be pretty"). I've only just scratched the surface of this way of making a guess (there are others), and there are many more rules and tenses, so better get out the grammar book(s) and bone up on this one yourself. But you definitely should, its used in colloquial speech all the time.

오빠 나만 바라봐

봐봐 그렇게 봐봐

아파 마음이 아파

내 맘 왜 몰라줘

오빠 그녀는 왜 봐

거봐 그녀는 나빠

봐봐 이제 나를 가져봐

(이제 나를 가져봐)

Oppa, only look at me

Please look this way

My heart hurts

Why don't you know how I feel?

Oppa, why are you interested in her?

I told you, she's bad

Please let me be yours now

• - L1: 바라보다 really means stare, or gaze, but saying that in English sounds a little stupid so I didn't literally translate. Same goes for the rest of the verse.
• - L2: Literally "look look, that way look look." See?
• - L3: 마음 is often translated as heart, and less as mind, but actually in Korean no distinction is made between them and so 마음 means both. Even saying its both doesn't really give you a proper sense of what the word really means. Anyway, now you will know why Koreans tend to have problems with its English equivalents.
• - L4: 맘 is short for 마음. The 줘 in 몰라 is a bit confusing, because usually adding 주다 (it conjugates to 줘) to a verb means "please (verb) for me." But in this case it obviously doesn't mean that. My wife says that it's just used for emphasis in the case of 왜 몰라, and can only really be used as such with just that.
• - L5: 그녀 is obviously the object here, and so normally it would be 그녀를, but it has been changed to 는 here and in L6 for emphasis. Just annoying for me though.
• - L6: 거봐, or 거봐라, is an informal way of saying "I told you"
• - L7(&8) 가지다 means "have" or "take". 보다, conjugated as 봐, when added to a verb means try to do that verb. So literally she is saying "Look look, try to have me now" of "Look look, try to take me now". In this case, I prefer the literal translation, but those phrases don't have quite the same meanings in Korean, so I had to change the translation really.

왜 날 여자로 안 보는거니

짜꾸 안된다고하는거니

다른 연인들을 봐봐

처음엔 오빠로 다 시작해

결국 사랑하며 잘 살아가

Why do you not look at me as a woman?

Why do you always say no?

Look at other lovers

Originally, they were friends

In the end, they fell in love and lived well

• - L1: This uses 로 again, but personally I think 처럼, which means "as" would have been much better.
• - L1&2: 는거기(or ㄴ거니 if the verb or adjective before it ends in a consonant) is an informal way of asking a question.
• - L3: 안되다 means no, 안된다고 is it in indirect speech (I told you it was tough)
• - L4: 처음엔 is 처음, the beginning or start, plus 에, the time or place marker which usually means "at" or "to", and then plus 는, the subject marker. And 처음엔 is short for 처음에는. So the subject is "at the start", or "originally".
• - L5: After you learn 면, "if", you will start noticing this며 too. I was confused by it for a long time, but it turns out its just a simple connective of two clauses.

아무것도 아나라 해도

나는 상처 받아 (나는 상처받아)

이런 내가 싫다해도

지쳐버릴 내가 아냐

Even though it's nothing really

I get hurt

Even though I hate being like this

I won't give up

• - L1&3: As with almost everything else here, saying 해도 means "even" is a bit simplistic, as what goes before it changes depending on the kind of word (ie L1... 아니라 해도 "even though it isn't...", and L3...싫다해도 "even though I hate...", but just remembering that is a good start.
• - L2: 상처 is literally a wound or injury
• - L3: 이런 means this kind, but 내가 means "I," so this is all a bit confusing. Either it should be 나를 "me", and has been changed for emphasis, or bits are missing. I give up. Regardless, the intended meaning is "내가 이런 나를 싫다해도," which is literally "I this-kind me hate even," or "even though I hate this kind of me," or, as I said, "even though I hate being like this."
• - L4: 지처버리다 means to get exhausted. Literally she's saying "get exhausted (future) I no," or "I won't get exhausted," or "I won't give up."

And that's it! What y'all think? I welcome comments and attention to any mistakes, as it's 12.51am here and I'm damn well going to go to put this up after working on it for 3 hours. I'll check it myself in the morning. Night!

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