The Korea Overseas Information Service (KOIS)’s Korea.net webpage has the latest installment of the Wow! Korea sheltered-workshop short videos promoting the Korea visitor experience. Did you know that you can eat a hard-boiled egg in Korea? I didn’t. This breaking news will surely draw throngs of tourists. Screw you, Angkor Wat! I’m having a hard-boiled egg.
If you can’t see the video, the link to this second grand installment is here. The previous effort, discussed earlier on the Marmot’s Hole, can be viewed here.
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First a water taxi and now a jazzed up sauna. Yeah, this is Korea at its finest.
Jimjilbangs are actually pretty cool, but given how spread out the Korean diaspora is, I’m sure many major cities in the U.S. (Seattle, LA, Chicago, DC, NYC, etc.) probably has some pretty nice ones, at least as nice, if not nicer, than most jimjilbangs in Korea.
So… why go to Korea when many major U.S. cities have them?
I like to imagine this guy’s every day life, walking around alone, drawing stares everywhere by saying to himself:
“Oh my gosh! It’s a roll of Kimbap! How much is it? It’s only TWO DOLLARS! Wow! That’s amazing! Only two dollars for a food. Here let me try some. OH MY GOSH IT IS SO DELICIOUS! Wait a minute, wait a minute. . . there’s a CARROT in here ! Wow! Who can think of putting a carrot strip in a kimbap! And there are sesame seeds on the top! Wow! The sesame seeds go together with the carrot and the rice. . . “
Wow, man. That was, like, awesome, man. All sarcasm aside – it is an interesting activity for students – but HOW old is that guy???
The public bath/public lounge culture of Korea is something that I really like about living here. Despite the diaspora, I recollect very few places like this jimjilbang from my native Philadelphia, and they were prohibitively expensive. So by pushing them in Korea, I think the folks at Wow! have a legitimate selling point.
Still, the boiled egg thing was funny. I like to call this the “four distinct seasons” effect.
I get it. They’ve been hanging out with wayguks, learning Engrish, and getting all smashed up on Mary-J. “Woah! What is that? Boiled egg? Weeeeeee!”
This is UCC, right? Or did KOIS actually pay someone to produce it?
Ah yes, I see now it’s UCC “directed by Mr. Seo.”
The question I need answered is can I eat a boiled egg in the 79 room? I can??? Wow Korea!
Maybe the problem in doing promotional videos for Korea is that the experience is so illusive and multi-faceted that no one POV can capture what Korea is. It’s an aggregate experience maybe. It’s more reaching a temple and having a monk tell one that there is no Buddha.
I saw the promotional snow video for Korea and liked that one very much. It was cool.
Things for the KTNO or whoever to take away from this video.
1. Cheap accomodation is universal. Backpackers would be drawn to this, maybe, but the kind of people you are wanting to attract would not be wowed by staying in a communal, ten-buck-a-night room.
2. Simplicity here, small pleasures, are something appreciated by long-term residents. However, the eating of boiled eggs does not a memorable tourist experience make.
3. My pet hatred, Korean traditional X. You do not raise the intrinsic interest value of an item by labeling it such. The status of said item has to be sold in more ways than that. What works for the dolts watching SBS or MBC here will fail to wow the masses beyong the ROK.
4. Consult native speakers before unleashing your next vid. The script to that one felt so wooden and stilted as to render it mind-numbing. Do not convert straight to English that which you would put into a Korean script.
Sporkling!
#3: LOL!!!! ROFLMAO!!!!!
#5: Amen.
#10: How much would we have to pay you to stand at Incheon airport in robes, telling noobs, “There is no Korea. Please enjoy Korea.” (if we’re lucky, you’ll be there at the same time as the Wow Korea team, going banana’s over Bhuddist statues being removed, the fact that there’s an international airport, or that the smoking areas outside are hunting grounds for Christians out to practice their English.
Still, I found this installment of the Wow series to be rather funny. The mask dance ajusshi at the jimjilbang was hilarious. I’m starting to wonder about two things:
1. Is this series less about drawing people in, and more about showing what you can do if you find yourself here in Korea
and
2. Is it based on World of Warcraft, making this really a secret World of Warcraft Korea expansion pack, detailing the quests and grinding that you must do for your character to advance, (collect ten ramien from the river, go to the fire room in the jimjilbang of doom and defeat the egg eating drunken push up master)? If so, then right on, anything that helps break kids away from that game and back into the real world is good.
You guys are being too hard on the video. It’s a UCC about Korea produced by a bunch of ordinary guys, probably on a limited budget. And for better or worst, jimjilbangs are a noticeable part of the Korean landscape. Besides eating a hard boiled egg in a jimjilbang, is de rigueur.
Maybe not. It’s still lacking a decent POV. It’s more like a Youtube experiment with passable editing.
Listen closely “Korean boiled egg…” It is not just an egg, it’s a Korean egg. And he shows us how to eat it, because only Koreans know!
These people are so warped, they’re ignorance is hilarious. Koreans are really bizarre people.
People who are more bizarre are those who can cast aspersion on something and not even know it.
Fair game is easy game. Go deeper in the woods.
You mean the number on the LED readout above the door to the sauna is actually showing THE TEMPERATURE OF THE SAUNA? Wow! As Mr. Seo might say, that’s AMAZING, man, aren’t you?
One has to wonder who their target market is ? People who can only afford $10 accomodations ? Who would that be and why do they want them here ? Perhaps they are trying to lure fresh college grads, who are broke, but once they get in country, will be seduced into the illegal English teaching market, also thinning the gene pool by spreading their demon seed while doing so ?
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