Korean TV

Where to start? Well, first thing to say is that I was surprised about the amount of English on cable TV. Of the 70 standard channels we get, maybe 6 of them are English. But hold on... at any time 5-6 of them could be showing an English movie with Korean subtitles... Sometimes all of them are hosting movies including (high rotation) Independance day, Jurassic Park 8, and Legally Blonde 2. Pulp Fiction was on the other day, but all the drug scenes were blacked out - literally the screen went black when John Travolta was getting into the heroin (Drugs are a huge no-no in Korea... I.e. Jail terms and fines are severe).

Also, there are numerous music channels with Korean "Ballads" which match a "tear-jerking" song with a 10 minute mini movie involving love and death with some crazy fight scenes mixed in for flavour. Other channels have wild comedy shows like "Heroine 6" (to the left) where the cast play ridiculous games that make you wonder; How can they play the same games EVERY DAY?".

Other than these miscellaneous movies, there are four types of channels that draw most of our attention;

1. OnStyle
Literally every woman's dream and every man's nightmare. Picture an English channel jammed with every entertainment news show and reality TV show ever conceived. Project runway, America's top model and American Idol keep Steph happy and keep me on the computer.

2. CNN International
Not as good as it first sounded, to me. 10 minutes of global news, 10 minutes of global weather and 10 minutes of soccer "highlights" (I've never used "soccer" and "highlights" in the same sentence before!) are repeated on the shortest rotation known to man. Larry King comes in once a day to interview a random American Politician every day to break the seemingly neverending repetition.

3. The Video Game channel
Literally some men's dream and every woman's nightmare. Picture a Korean channel jammed with every video game you can think of, running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The channel brings to light Korea's "e-athletes" (yes, they call professional video gamers "athletes"... cough, cough) and also is amazingly good at driving Steph out of the room. Starcraft is the largest game in the country and has its own league and teams with players on salary.

4. The 5 Korean Home shopping channels
Yes, 5... well maybe 3 or 4, but you would be amazed to see what they are selling! From kimchi refrigerators, to live seafood (complete with families devouring wriggling stews with crazy glee in their eyes), to fans and vitamins. Its really a sight to see... which you can if you check out GSeshop, WooriShop or NSEshop. There will a pop-up and it will ask you to install the "SeeLive viewer" which is totally safe and will let you watch Korean culture at its finest.

Finally, there are dozens of commercials that make use of 3 or 4 main actors/actresses and are laden with catchy jingles and wild flashy graphics. If you thought it was hard to get songs out of your head at home, you ain't seen nothin yet! My brain is melting!