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Dramabeans 5-Year Anniversary Giveaway #1

javabeans: Happy New Year! Another year has zoomed by — time flies when you’re watching dramas, don’tcha know — and 2012 marks an extra-special moment for us at Dramabeans, because the site turns 5 this month.

girlfriday: Happy birthday Dramabeans! You’re finally old enough to go to kindergarten!

javabeans: Or advanced into middle age, if we’re talking cat years. And as we know, the internet = cats.

girlfriday: Well that explains where all the time from the fourth dimension went to, ‘cause I certainly don’t FEEL five.

javabeans: I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for half a decade. K-dramas have sucked away my youth! How is this site still going? To think, when I started in January 2007, my primary mode of thought was, “I wonder how many people would stumble onto this place randomly.” Because then that would be a measure of how many people were interested in dramas in the English-speaking world. As it turns out, a whole damn lot.

girlfriday: I find that most of life’s truths can be found in quotes from Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”

javabeans: Also “This is my corn. You people are guests in my corn.” And “I have just created something totally illogical.”

girlfriday: See? Maybe internet also = baseball.

javabeans: In any case, we decided The Big 5 called for some celebratin’, and how better to celebrate than to give tons of stuff away? It’s a month-long Anniversary Giveaway Extravaganza!

girlfriday: We’ll be raining down presents during the entire month of January, because if you’re part of the Dramabeans community, it’s your birthday too, and birthdays call for presents!

javabeans: You might want to mark Sundays on your calendar, because every Sunday (or Monday, if you’re ahead of us in the States) we’ll be giving away something super-duper-fantastico exciting. Wait, am I overselling this?

girlfriday: Only if you’re a grinch who hates presents. Every week we’ll be asking you a question, and all you have to do is leave a comment with your answer and email address, and you’ll be entered in that week’s drawing.

javabeans: We’ll select winners by random draw. Check back a week later, and see if you’ve won! If you haven’t, fear not, because we’ll be announcing the next round as well. More prizes!

girlfriday: And they get better each week!

Giveaway #1

Question: What was your Drama First Love? Tell us about the first drama you fell in love with, that brought you over to the dark side. Don’t forget to leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win.

Prizes:

  • You’re Beautiful Director’s Cut DVD set
  • one $25 Gift Certificate to Yesasia.com
  • one more $25 Gift Certificate to Yesasia.com

Winners announced: Sunday, January 8th, at 8pm, Pacific Standard Time.* This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for entering!

 
*Or, 10pm in Mexico City, 11pm in NYC, 1 am in Buenos Aires, 4am in London, 5am in Paris, noon in Singapore and Manila, 1pm in Seoul and Tokyo, or 3pm in Sydney and Vladivostok. Okay, you get the point. (You can refer to this handy Time and Date converter to find out what this is in your time zone.)

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The first drama I fell in love with would be Dae Jang Geum. I love the storyline and the details in the story.

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My Name is Kim Samsoon was my first K-drama, and my first K-drama love. If it hadn't been for MNIKSS, I might never have entered the world of K-drama addiction. I can't even remember what I used to do with my free time...

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Secret Garden!

I was always critical towards K-dramas because the ones I've watched had always been overly melo or sometimes the plot is what I know now as 'makjang'; either that or because of the awful subtitles.

But watching Secret Garden made a Ha Ji Won fan out of me. Next thing I know, I was watching all her previous dramas PLUS movies; and the rest as they say is history.

PS.
Forget Google, Dramabeans is now my homepage :DD

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I feel ancient naming this drama but my first drama love was MBC's 1997 Drama "Star in My Heart". This was back in the good 'ole days before the internet and dvds where we had to run to the video stores and rent out a VHS tapes. Ha. Looking back, i feel nostalgic with the cliché Cinderella storyline, bold OTT makeup, the questionable wardrobe, poor lighting and pre-HD film quality *sigh*

email: aminoo(@)live.com.au

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my first kdrama was full house
but my first kdrama love was My Girl

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Full House! and this was a time when only one episode can fit in a cd (oh how the times have changed...)

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My first K drama love was My Girl. I watched it in 2006 and it sucked me into Kdrama land. Before that I watched only Taiwanese, Japanese and 2 K dramas. But after watching My girl I didn't turn back to other countries dramas.

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Well, this question really brings back a lot of fond memories, and i mean, A LOT.

My first Kdrama was Autumn in my heart, and back then, the ticket to success for any korean drama is to have a tear-jerker story, where the male and female leads have to overcome all sorts of obstacles to be together.

But it wasn't until 2004, that I found my favourite Kdrama of all time (even up till today!).

LOVERS IN PARIS, it is so well written that it can pull the heart string of any viewer. Cue the handsome eligible bachelor who knows nothing about love, had a troubled childhood having to live up to parents' expectations, is a high flyer who lives in a hotel (well, apparently a lot of male characters in kdramas do that!), drives an expensive korean-made car, and lo-behold, he falls in love with the most ordinary girl, someone whom he would never cross path with, hadn't it been so perfectly crafted by the story writer. Then bring in an even more eligible bachelor who is equally mesmerised by the female lead and then we see both men fighting for the same girl, who obviously only has feelings for one men.

But what I really love about this drama is how the story played out, how we got to see all the characters grow as the story develops, and how incredibly impossible how such a story can unfold in real life.

I think this is the draw of Kdramas. In that space of 50mins, they put you in this world that you know will never exist, but you are also very drawn to it, and cannot get enough of.

And of course, I love how in Kdramas, the men always pull the lady by her arm (rather forcefully though) like a MCP (male chauvinist pig), while still being so sensitive and sweet at the right times. awwww~

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It was actually a jdrama - pretty guardian sailor moon. ;)))

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Definitely Coffee Prince. I remember because I was watching the first episode and I was so confused about why there were so many people named "Ajusshi" haha. I'm so glad that my first one was such a good one, because otherwise I would never have fallen in love with k-dramas =]

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The first drama that I first fell in love with and brought me to the dark side was Stairways to Heaven. I watched this drama back when I was 10 or 11 years old on TV Chile with Spanish subtitles. When I first came across it, I was like what is this?? Because i was wondering what a Asian show was doing on a spanish channel. But actually today Korean dramas and k pop is really big in Chile, many dramas are shown with Spanish subtitles. But my mom had already started watching it and she told me it was really fascinating. So since then we would sit together and watch the drama together and it was seriously one of the saddest shows I've ever watched to this day. And come from a different culture I had never seen anything like it and I ended up really liking it. And when we finished watching it, I wanted more of it, I wanted to watch more dramas like it and ever since then I've been stuck with this addiction haha..

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I've only been watching Kdrama for about six months now, so it's funny to look back nostalgically on my first love ;)

Like so many others, it was Boys before Flowers that brought me into the fold. I'm always a sucker for coming of age dramas, so when BbF popped up on my list of suggested titles at Netflix streaming, I gave it a shot. And three days later I finally came up for air, feeling like I'd been changed forever by what I'd seen.

The show was funny, sweet, and touching, and focused on the interests of women in a way that mainstream Western television rarely does. With a plucky heroine and knee-jerk wish-fulfillment plotlines, BbF was completely devoid of the cynicism, sarcasm, and snark that are such an integral part of American television that I hadn't even realized they were there, until I was introduced to what TV could be without them.

Since watching Boys before Flowers, I've seen and loved a lot of other (better) Kdramas. But I guess there really is nothing like your first time, because some secret real estate in my heart will always belong to Jan Di and the F4.

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The first drama that I fell in love with was the Taiwanese version of Hana Yori Dango which is Meteor Garden and I guess the rest is history. From then on, I started to become interested in Asian dramas and can't really get enough of it especially when I got the chance to watched Save the Last Dance for Me. The cast includes Eugene, Ji-sung, Lee Boo Young, and Ryu Soo Young.

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I believe mine would be Love Story in Harvard. I had watched snippets of kdramas being shown on our local TV but LSH was the first one that I watched on DVD and marathoned from start to finish.

It introduced me to Kim Rae Won and made me wish for a Harvard vest for myself.

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Coffee Prince, I watched it in 3/4 hour sections as I couldn't quite stop myself.
Now in a pub in Bakewell ignoring my family and thinking of Gong Yoo and The Voice. Happy times.

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Delightful Girl Choonyang and Full House really had me laugh, cry and look into what life maybe in the future if you never took those chances.

Then came Jewel of the Palace the first ever long drama i watched and it was brilliantly done. The soundtrack I can even hear it while I was sleeping and thought it haunts me even in my dreams until I saw my sister getting ahead of me to watch coz she cant bear not knowing what happens next (lol...that was crazy indeed). And this is how i came to love sageuk dramas though they maybe long they put in food for thoughts--wisdom from ages ago.

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Twas My Girl :) Was innocently flipping TV channels when Lee Dong Wook's handsome face stared back at me on the screen. Funny plot, fuzzy-wuzzy romance and gorgeous cast. The rest was history. When the drama ended on TV, I went straight out to buy the DVD box set. One of my most cherished k-dramas ever.

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I moved to Virginia from New Orleans in late 2005. I had no friends or family here and I was bored to death. A friend/co-worker from New Orleans mailed me a bunch of dramas. She sent 1% of Anything, Sweet 18, Kim Sam Soon, Sad Love Story, Wonderful Life, and Winter Sonata. At first I was like "Do she really expect me to sit here and watch all of these CDs?" I watched Sweet 18 first and fell in love. However, Kim Sam Soon turned me into an addict. After that one, I started looking for my own dramas, recaps, info about the actors, and other people to talk about my obsession with. It's been six-seven years and I still get a thrill when I watch them, stay up until the wee hours of the morning on a week day watching 'just one more episode', and marathoning dramas on the weekends. If you have to have a bad habit, I say pick this one!

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Full House (subbed in Filipino)

email: vputac@yahoo.com

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my first one was Lovers in Paris but it didn't make an impression on me. Years later I stumbled upon Coffee Prince & thought it was good, but after a few miss (Snowqueen, Vineyard man, Hong gil dong) decided to stop watching Kdrama. Not until... *drumroll* You're Beautiful! Yeah, YAB had definitely got me back on board kdrama train! Ever since YAB I've stayed up late almost everynight marathoning drama after drama, my husband has long given up telling me to go to sleep on normal hours. :)

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My first love would have to be Coffee Prince.

Like so many others on here, my first K-drama was Boys Over Flowers, but, it just didn't suck me in like Coffee Prince did. Coffee Prince was everything a crack drama should be. Fun, beautiful scenery, fantastic music, wonderful acting, and most importantly, the story. It is one of the best written K-dramas I have seen.

Happy Fifth anniversary Dramabeans!

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Hi Javabeans and Girlfriday.... Congratulations on your 5th Anniversary,Cheers from Lion City ^ ^

My 1st love was The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, i remember vividly how Choi Han Kyul made my life turned upside down, and because of this awesome drama too i found your lovely site,thank's a million that you always provide never ending stories for all of k entertainment fans around the world...

Please stay Happy and Healthy as always ^ ^

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My first drama was Full House and everyone I know got hooked from it too (Because they either caught me watching it or I recommended it!)

One of the most fond memories I have from those "old days" is starting full house and my girl both one after the other and just before my major exams and on the last few days of Third year in my bachelors! I had already made myself a corner spot in the class and all of us used our laptops at all times except during a lecture but since I was in the corner, the teachers and rest of the students never realized that I was actually watching the series with earphones even during lectures!! ^_^ Man, those days were the beginning of the marathon, and it's yet to slow down!

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My very first drama that has gotten me hooked, was probably "Wonderful life". My parents were watching this in Vietnamese dub and I somehow started watching it too :P. Me and my younger brother then watched it again, this time without dub but just with subs. We literally finished the drama in like two days. That's how addicted we were.

I still have the dvd and still watch it from time to time. It is one of my favorite dramas, even though it's not the best drama out there. I also became a huge fan of Kim Jae Won and Eugene ^^.

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Hmmm I like this question! Makes me reminisce. The first drama i finished was Gumiho (aka Forbidden love) but the one that got me over to the dark side... 'Over the Rainbow' i even watched it without subs just to see what happened next! ^_^

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The first Kdrama I fell in love with is Boys over Flowers! It was the first drama that I've watched when it was still airing and boy I was so impressed and obsessed! I was 9th grade back then and I was staying up 'till late just so I was able to load an episode on YT and then the next morning I woke up at 5AM just so I can watch it and go to school after that! Sometimes I just couldn't bear it and I was watching it in the late night when I should already be sleeping. My biorythem was totally messed up just because of Boys over Flowers. That drama is still going strong on my favourite list :) I am just thankful for them because they kept me hooked and since then I've watched plenty of good drama and i've never regreted it.

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Dal Ja's Spring was my FTDL (First True Drama Love). Back then, I was a student, dreaming about living alone in a proper flat and eating normal, non-studenty food, so Dal Ja's life seemed pretty awesome to me, even when she was single (low standards for the win) - I mean, she was happy in her job...and have you even seen her amazing clothes? I did not dream of Lee Min-ki at the time, but after I finished watching, I definitely wanted to know where they sell Kang Tae Bongs!:) I also loved that this drama was not just about romance, but also about friendship, work (yay!) and being a strong woman. Dal Ja is still my favorite K-drama heroine. :)

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All About Eve...was my first...and still holds a place in my heart! Congratulations on the 5 year mark...

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Happy birthday dramabeans!!
My First Drama Love was Goong. It irrevocably trigged my addiction. Since then, watching kdramas is a necessity, be it night or day, having tons of work to do or not... It obvisouly goes with: crying, laughing, dreaming, drooling, cursing and pulling my hair in front of my computer! Hahaha

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Full House (subbed in Filipino) I was in college then in the Engineering dept. It had swooped the Philippines with it's bear song. Even the grade school kids were singing it. Then Bad Love, it was a tear jerker and Filipinos with it's love for heavy drama accepted it wholeheartedly. Kwon Sang Woo is a versatile actor.

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I think it's Goong! Can't really remember well cuz I've watch too many dramas! Hehe...

Goong really made me to fall in love with Yoon eunhye and Joo Jihoon!! I started to watch every drama that they're in since then! I'll still watch Goong when I feel boring now.. I think I watched Goong for more than 10 times definitely! But I'll still laugh and cry just like I watch it for the first time!

There're still a lot drama that I'll rewatch and rewatch without feeling that it's boring! But my drama first love?? It's DEFINITELY Goong!! ^^

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The Successful Story of a Bright Girl.

Jang Hyuk totally stole my heart. And thus it started...

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my first k-drama is All About Eve starring jang dong gun and chae rim... the story is beautiful as the actor and artist^^,i don't remember what year is all about eve (i'm that old^^), from then i love the ost so i start searching about ost and start searching about more k-drama, finally i met winter sonata, since then i've been k-drama addict

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First love? I'd have to say You're Beautiful. It wasn't the first K-Drama I've ever watch nor was it the best Hong Sisters drama but somehow it brought out the inner girl in me. It made me so giddy and even made me scream like a schoolgirl at times. Lol. I even watched it without subs at times. Heh. At least I was able to learn a few Korean words there. :DD

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technically my first one was Lovers in Paris but it didn't make an impression on me. Years later I stumbled upon Coffee Prince & thought it was good, but after a few miss (Snowqueen, Vineyard man, Hong gil dong) decided to stop watching Kdrama. Not until... *drumroll* You're Beautiful! Yeah, YAB had definitely got me back on board kdrama train! Ever since YAB I've stayed up late almost everynight marathoning drama after drama, my husband has long given up telling me to go to sleep on normal hours. :)

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winter sonata
my first k drama and my biggest love
after it , it was a history

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My first drama ever was Full House I just cam across it randomly while surfing on the net. It hooked me from the beginning and that's when I became a permanent stalker of the kdrama world. I am currently so addicted that I start counting the day left until the next episode of the drama airs seconds after watching one episode. I found your site because you had news about new dramas and I always stalk it for new information.
Happy NEW Year and Happy Anniversary

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Believe it or not, my first drama was The Grand Chef (Gourmet). It played in the States here on PBS, and I I really liked it. Thank goodness for the internet, in which I can now regularly watch. The drama that made me fall in love though, was my second Kim Rae Won drama, What Star are you From. STILL LOVE IT.

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Goong turned me into a K-Drama fan. Before that, I had dabbled in both Japanese and Taiwanese dramas. But Goong cemented my departure from all things light and fluffy, heralding my descent into the dark depths of K-Drama Land.

And I am oh-so-glad. :)

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Princess hours =). Although,boys over flowers was THE drama that got me hooked to everything Korean related :)

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Honestly, my first love was You're Beautiful (ironic that that is one of the prizes) I got into K-dramas after my sister stumbled upon them and sucked me in. She recommended You're Beautiful as my first K-drama and from then on, I've never looked back. (American television is gone and korean drama is in) I've now watched about 50 dramas and I still go back to you're beautiful at times because of my love for it. Honestly, I still laugh my head off every time I see the part where she throws up in his mouth. eww.... and ha ha ha!! Some things never grow old.

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What was your Drama First Love? Tell us about the first drama you fell in love with, that brought you over to the dark side. Don’t forget to leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win.

My Drama First Love is actually Goong. I can still remember very clearly I was only 13 or 14 years old, which was like 8 years ago. At that time, I did not have my own desktop or laptop. The only device that connected me to the internet world is my bro's desktop.

But the very best thing is, I can only use it in the afternoon when he is in school or off to meet his friends. This means, my kdrama-ing timing is limited. I rmb it was also the first time I am using youtube to look for videos and I was a noob at it. I was pretty bored and so I was looking through the different videos, but somehow, Goong, this word keep appearing and there is so many people commenting on it.

This is when I decided to watch it from there, I fall in love with kdrama madly. Shin goon was my fav despite his haughty attitude. The beautiful palace setting, the catchy tunes got me hooked on it. Even though I had to reply on subs so badly at that time, I never gave up. I had to learn to read subs and watch at the same time. It wasn't easy! but it was enjoyable. Now I have no problems doing that but once the main actor/actress start shouting and screaming or talking at very fast speed, this is when I have to pause and reload again. Laughs~

Isn't this part of the kdrama culture? Even though some plots is so cliche, it just catches us with those flower boys, beautiful scenes, impactful statements, pretty clothes. This is what makes up the drama.

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Mine is Full House.
I envy my friends that time when they can watch it on TV and they kept on talking about it, however I can't do so because our TV was broken.
I watched it years later and I it didn't fail to impress me. I almost regretted watching coz I was even dreaming of it, day and night.
From that day on, I followed most of the movies abd dramas of the main casts.

Now, I've got loads of fave korean actors and actresses and as much as possible I wanted to watch every movie and drama of my fave actors and actresses like Kang Dong Won, Hyub Bin, Won Bin, Jae hee, Gong hyo Jin, Moon Geun Young, So Ae.... Oh! there's more, did I mention a lot? hehe

By the way thanks for sharing your blessings! More blessings to all the people who work hard here. Aja!

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I've watched Kdrama since I was little but my first love drama would have to be My Name Is Kim Samsoon. I honestly think there is no other drama that could capture the witty, yet hilarious dialogue along with the sincerity both Kim Sun Ah and Hyun Bin put into their roles. They had the best chemistry! The ending was realistic; they were just living in the moment (unlike every other dramas that would end in "...1 year later... they are married and they now have twins..."

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The korean drama that first bought me to the dark side was "four sisters" (2001) that featured chae rim. I'm not korean at all, and when I watched that drama, I was 9 years old. I was heavily in love with that drama that I seriously watched it over and over again 10 times. It was so good! This led me to watch winter sonata, all about eve, endless love, and all the other korean drama classics! Even to this day, I have just turned 19, and I am still in love with korean dramas. Korean dramas are the only asian dramas that I watch because their story plots and everything is just jjang! I'm chinese, but I am so intrigued by the korean culture. After watching "princess' man", it prompted me to learn more about the korean history and actually research about it online, because it was just so fascinating and interesting. I began to learn about king sejong, king sejo, and etc. Korean dramas has even led me to go on youtube and learn the korean alphabets myself, so I could read and sing along with the lyrics of korean music. After that, I decided to learn korean through actual korean classes at my school. All this happened and my love for the korean culture and just going out of my way to learn about it is all thanks to watching "four sisters".

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I watched my first korean drama in the summer of 2009 - it was DAE JANG GEUM - I discovered a completely new world, I had never known anything about korean dramas before. I liked it a lot, but it was the second drama, YI SAN, that made me fall in love with them. And KIM NAM GIL (Bi Dam from QUEEN SEON DEOK) was my first crush on a korean actor. Finally, I became addicted to modern dramas watching COFFEE PRINCE two years ago (it's still my favourite, even today)

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My first drama love was Coffee Prince. I have watched a whole bunch of drama before that and got me addicted in kdrama world like Full House, Attic Cat and My Name is Kim Sam Soon. But Coffee Prince sealed my love for Korea, their food, language, culture, etc., It was the first drama that got me obsessed that I have to watched it on Chinese dub (because the DVD that I bought has no other languages available) Filipino dub (my native language) and lastly Korean dub.

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My very first drama was boys over flowers I was looking up a music video and through some superior force, destiny call it what you will I think of it as fate....( maybe I'm being a little exaggerated here ) but I think back to that moment from time to time and it's just so strange how a video of boys over flowers popped up on my screen when I wasn't even looking for a Korean song it was actually a Spanish song that a like, anyway through some heavenly force I found a boys over flowers video I watch it out of curiosity and it was game over I was done after that I looked it up online andI had a boys over flowers marathon and turned my family into lee min ho/ kdrama lovers mom grandma shoot even my brother except my dad ( in fact he still doesn't understand why I watch something I don't even understand ) so that's how this wonderful addiction started

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MY GIRL!
It was the drama that made me stop watching dramas from other countries and devote myself fully to K-Dramas. I'm a slave to K-Dramas which capture my heart.
I watched My Girl in 2008-ish and since then, a long string of dramas -still growing longer with each passing month-.

Thanks so much Javabeans and Girlfriday. This website gives me joy. My experience with K-Dramas was definitely enhanced by the presence of this website. It's like a cup of Chamomile tea in a hailstorm :D Happy Birthday Dramabeans!

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oh .. First Love drag me into the dark side ?

Well .. First Love is no need to be the first drama right?

Mind would be .. "Thank you" I think ..

Cause of Dr.Min Kiss by his strong 6 packed ..
If you can't sit up well, you can' t kiss like Dr.Min Ki Sor

hahaha ~

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