Spill the Beans: Making converts out of friends, family, and even schoolteachers

by HeadsNo2

It’s amazing what we do for the dramas and oppas we love. Through rain, wind, sleet, snow, or even the faintest tinge of disinterest, you can always count on a drama addict to convert the ones they love.

To submit your story, email us your stories, and we’ll keep sharing them as long as you guys keep sending them in.

 
Asmara is right when it comes to sleep—who needs that stuff, anyway?

When my hub decided to open a night food stall, I was sad, because we would have less time together and I would have to wait until he closes the stall for our movie nights.

But when my sister introduced me to Answer Me 1997 last year, oh boy, Lord knows how that slice-of-life drama and its male lead (my first and forever bias) stole my heart completely. Suddenly, my hub’s night job became the most perfect job in the world.

Now I have my quality kdrama and bias time after I take my son to bed at seven, and before my hub comes home around midnight. And every time my hub has to close the stall due to family matters or otherwise, I am sad. Lol.

Yes, I suffer from lack of sleep because we still have our movie nights almost every day. But with kdrama and our biases, who needs more sleep anyway? And that’s what it takes for a healthy marriage as well, haha.

Sorry if there’s any mistakes on my English. I’m so happy to be able to participate in this Dramabeans world. I hope you all succeed in present time and in the future. Thank you. Love.

Sometimes, the right drama is there when we need it most. It’s always heartwarming to hear stories like the one Stolenjersey has to share. Anyone have more coming-of-age dramas that might be up her alley?

I had always been watching dramas passively with my family (mostly weekend dramas) before it reached to a point where my heart was completely stolen. I began to feel addicted when I started attending senior high school last year. It was probably one of the gloomiest years for me. Girls were pretty and boys were either too cute or too rude, and everyone was so untouchable. It was really frustrating, since high school years are my last years of school and I felt like I didn’t get to experience the glamorous youthful atmosphere of it. I almost always felt depressed and hopeless, and every day was a bad day. My life was drenched in tears, curses, and anxiety.

Then, a friend told me that she had been watching High School: Love On. I thought checking it out wouldn’t hurt. When I watched it, I felt pleasantly surprised. I got hooked almost immediately by the overall concept of it, and a particular scene where Woo-hyun ran into Seul-bi was the moment that got me. That night, I replayed the subtle emotion that soared through Seul-bi’s face and imagined how her heart felt. My lingering feeling of being a misfit in high school and hers of being one in the human world collided. My heart was throbbing while daydreaming of that drama all day. For once, it felt nice to feel okay, and I wasn’t scared of attending school and facing everybody.

I admit that High School: Love On isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but despite its fluffiness, it was a drama that made me feel like I was included, and that I belonged. Although it wasn’t real and driven by feelings, the love for the drama turned into love for school. I got to experience how being heartbroken felt without actually falling in love with someone, and I loved to witness the warmth of friendship that was depicted through the drama. From the perspective of an aloof and alone girl like me, seeing those things lightened me up.

Now, I’m more comfortable with school. I still don’t know how to talk to guys without being awkward and I know I can’t look cute, but dramas provide me with fluttering emotions I won’t experience otherwise. I’m really, really grateful for that.

Whoever hasn’t called in sick because of a really good marathon session, cast the first stone. Samiha knows what it takes to feed the need for more dramas.

Dear Dramabeans,

I see my recent introduction to Korean dramas as serendipitous. I am a researcher and I was checking up something on Twitter when I noticed the hashtag #BoysOverFlowers. I thought it was some new online movement but the reality turned out be just as exciting. I now feel quite embarrassed that that show was the one that cinched this for me – it’s cheesy and corny but I could not look away and we shall not speak of my crush on Lee Min-ho.

And then, thanks to hours and days of trawling on forums like Dramabeans, I discovered gems like City Hall, Witch’s Romance and The King 2 Hearts. These shows were what I was looking for but never knew I wanted—shows where I could see the love developing and be inspired by the personal growth of the heroines.

In three months, I marathoned thirty Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese shows. I did not sleep on some days, maybe an hour or two on other days (and I LOVE my eight hours of sleep). I walked around with giant dark circles, kept pitching these shows to my friends and colleagues, and even called in sick so I could continue my marathon.

My friends became concerned but the shows made me happy and optimistic—the opposite effect of usual rom-coms. And I argued this was my cheaper way to learn Korean – even now, whenever I see anyone speaking Korean, I want to jump up and down like a puppy and call out “Annyeonghaseyo! [Hello!]”.

Lately though, my plans to drown in K-dramas have been thwarted by real life and long to-do lists. So I am relying on Dramabeans recaps until the day when the list gets relatively empty and I can binge-watch. (And thank you for deciding to recap Bubblegum!)

Kharis’ mom has good taste in dramas, but even better taste in music.

For years, I tried to convince my Mum to watch dramas with me. She always stubbornly resisted.

After suffering through a drought of good British TV series, last Christmas I was able to convince my Mum to watch a Korean drama with me. (Hooray for me finally buying an HDMI cable, there was no way I could’ve convinced her to watch anything on my little laptop screen). We watched I Need Romance on Netflix. She completely fell in love with the second lead, Choi Jin-hyuk. Since the Drama Gods had not been kind to him in that drama (seriously, the lead girl in that drama was stupid for going back to her cheating ex), my Mum felt a strong desire to see him brought to justice. He had to get the lead girl!! So ensued the Choi Jin-hyuk Drama Festival as we went through all the things he’d ever been in (we even just watched the first two episodes of Gu Family Book so she could get a glimpse of him in his mane of glory). I had succeeded in creating a Korean drama addict (*pats self on back*). I am no longer alone pining for Oppa (though now it’s all about Ji Chang-wook Oppa, not Choi Jin-hyuk Oppa).

I didn’t realize how good Korean dramas were for her until this summer. I used to be a competitive figure skater. When I quit, my old skating partner continued to skate and eventually found a new partner. When we went to watch them at their first performance, my Mum was initially worried about how she’d react to seeing him skating (and succeeding) with someone else. However, she told me afterwards she was genuinely happy for him. She thanked Korean dramas for giving her a healthy dose of laughter. They lifted up her spirits.

Now, my Mum refers to herself as a halmoni [grandmother]. Her love for Korean pop culture has grown as she’s become a die-hard fan of Big Bang. She even came with me to their concert here in Toronto. As well, she even (secretly) sent fan mail all the way to Korea!

Thank you Korean dramas and Dramabeans for making her smile and reducing her to giggling-teenager-mode.

CatDLN shares a story that could’ve come straight out of a drama. I would’ve totally gotten that guy’s phone number, though.

My kdrama obsession started innocently enough. I had just finished a movie with Song Seung-heon, when I noticed My Princess on Netflix. I remember thinking “He was kind of cute… okay, fine, HOT! It doesn’t hurt to check it out, right?!” A year and a half later, I am on a plane to Korea with a friend who I had successfully lured into the kdrama madness too. Muahaha.

It was the best vacation trip ever! We walked around with huge grins on our faces, and people probably thought we were crazy; especially when we totally fan-girled when we saw the Blue House: CITY HUNTER!! KIM NANA!!! We even spent two luxurious nights (after much savings were put away) at the resort from Secret Garden on Jeju Island. Yes, that’s how obsessed we are. We sat on the kissing bench!!

Even though we have many great memories from that trip, nothing tops the very first night. We had just landed a couple hours ago and had managed to lose my phone somewhere between the layover in Japan and Incheon. We get off the bus and were looking at the printed directions to the hotel when I noticed the website had given us incomplete information. Here we are, close to midnight, in the middle of an unknown city with no phone, and completely helpless. I looked up from my map when a gentleman walking towards us asked, “Do you need help?” I think my jaw just about dropped. He looked like he had stepped out of my television set. He was absolutely gorgeous, dressed to the nines. Before I let myself become a puddle of goo, I said: “YES!”

With a huge sigh of a relief, I handed him all the information I had, and instead of just pointing us to where we needed to go, he walked a fairly long way with us to the Hanok House. Not only that, but he called the owner and stayed with us until the host was able to meet us outside.

I don’t know who this man was. I never got his name. All I know is that his act of kindness made a huge impact. He didn’t speak much English, and my Korean was extremely limited. I couldn’t possibly yell “You’re the best, Oppa!” right? Although my brain was screaming it. Needless to say, we looked for him everywhere we went afterwards. We never saw him again, but he will forever be remembered.

I could think of worse drama introductions than Doctor Stranger, but whatever it takes to bring a new drama addict into the fold. BzzBzz shares her story:

Hi, there, Beanies! I’ve only been addicted to kdrama for just over a year, but boy has it been an intense ride.

In my country of Portugal, there aren’t any Korean or other Asian dramas or movies on television (except for KBS World on cable), so not a lot of people even know about it. Luckily, the internet exists. ^^

I got into Korean dramas via Japanese dramas. I had graduated from university in June of 2014 and all my friends were still busy with finals, so I had loads of free time. I decided to watch GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (the 1998 version) and absolutely loved it! I spent that summer binging on Japanese dramas. Cut to October or November 2014 and I was having a slow day at work, and was bored with Japanese dramas. I spotted an article on “The Guardian” saying that there was this medical drama from South Korea gaining popularity in China, which got me curious. I googled it and began watching the first episode of Doctor Stranger (yes, I know).

It was a mess, but I became obsessed with Lee Jong-seok and watched everything he’s in! Then I became interested in other actors and branched out. And now I can’t stop watching! I’m so obsessed I’ve taught myself Hangul and some basic vocabulary in Korean (oppa, unni, and the sort) so I’m not completely clueless. My favorite genre is high school (oh Angry Mom and Bok-dongie, what have you done!?), but still, I’m at a point where I’m not too selective and I basically watch anything interesting enough (or with enough flower boy eye candy). My favourite dramas are I Hear Your Voice, Angry Mom, High Kick 3, Misaeng and the recently finished Sassy Go Go (Lee Won-geun Oppa and his crinkly smiley eyes!).

Since I’ve never met a Korean person in real life, I just want I thank Dramabeans for putting out great content and helping clueless fans like me understand Korean culture and discover new dramas. <3

Danielle sounds like she has the coolest grandma ever.

My own introduction to Korean dramas was through my grandma, who is one serious kdrama addict. My dad gets DVD recordings of full seasons of Korean dramas for her. She goes through them at night when everyone is asleep and also whenever she has the time during the day. She even keeps records of what she has watched and whether she liked it or not!

She has accumulated quite the collection, but she willingly shares her precious DVDs with her friends and sisters. My aunties (grandma’s sisters) are also addicts. When they are all together, they talk about the actors and actresses they like and the dramas they are watching, listen to Korean music, and watch/re-watch dramas. They even went to Korea for a vacation together!

So whenever I find myself waking up an hour earlier than usual on Fridays and Saturdays so I can watch Answer Me 1988 raw, or spend all day lurking on threads and waiting for the recaps on Drambeans before re-watching the episodes with subs, I think of my grandma, and how my addiction is clearly inherited. 🙂

Subtitles, schmubtitles. Tia411 explains how reading subtitles has become second nature to her.

I am probably your oldest kdrama fan here! I am still amazed at what I have missed out on all these years.

I had just purchased my first streaming device three years ago. I watched regular American movies on it. One night I decided I would venture into international movies. Now, you have to know that years before, I wouldn’t go to foreign film festivals in my town because I hated reading subtitles, hah. Little did I know I would eventually ONLY watch TV with subtitles!

Anyway, I found the drama Pasta,and it sounded interesting because I, at one time, taught cooking classes. I found I really enjoyed it and decided that reading subtitles wasn’t so bad. I then started to look for more Korean dramas. At that time, my streaming device had a drama streaming service on it so I decided to try that channel. Here is where I got hooked—and yep, you guessed it, my next drama was Boys Before Flowers. Oh my god, those young men made this old lady’s heart skip a beat! I soon found myself thirsting for knowledge of Korean culture, history, the entertainment industry, fashion, you name it! The only thing I knew about Korea before all this was seeing it embroidered on United States Air Force jackets for military men/women returning from living in Korea and being stationed at its military bases. I live in a military town. Not only did I want to learn more about Korea, I also wanted to learn the language. (That is still on my bucket list).

Needless to say, I have continued to watch kdramas, and watch very little American television these days. My family all thought I was crazy to become so obsessed with Korea, and they still make fun of me. However, I always shock them with some bit of knowledge that impresses them! My Dad recently watched a golf tournament from Korea and remarked on the architecture and buildings. I asked where it was being played, and he said it was some town that starts with an “I”. I knew right away it was Incheon. Thanks to kdramas for making me look smart.

TOP and Phantom of the Opera and Tree With Deep Roots? I think Lunatic4KD and I were separated at birth.

It’s funny how a tiny pinprick in the fabric of one’s life can let in a shaft of light that opens a whole new colorful world—and then everything changes as the old world rips away. I am a “before and after” poster child for kdramas!

There I was, going merrily about my busy life for my sixty years on the planet as an artist, a published author, a mother, bon vivant, extreme skier, museum director, professional speaker on aviation history and then—BOOM—I got cancer and went through some awful surgeries in 2012. It was then that a good friend of mine (a flight attendant for United Airlines flying the San Francisco to Seoul route) convinced me to watch something called “kdramas” to help with my surgery recuperation boredom. What on earth was that? I resisted, preferring to watch mindless American shows on Netflix.

Then my thirty year old daughter living in Los Angeles called me one day and said, “Mom, go online and watch this crazy thing on YouTube called ‘Gangnam Style.’ Everyone is going nuts over it!” So I watched this chubby guy called Psy doing a dance I’d never seen in a language I’d never heard and I was intrigued. Wait—this is happening in South Korea? What? I had no idea South Korea was so avant-garde and modern. So my friend, the flight attendant, called again and said, “Come on, just watch one kdrama. Start with an easy fun one called Pasta. You love to cook. You’ll see some new food. Trust me.”

So I did. The first couple of episodes were cute. I could relate to being a chef in the kitchen. Then the next few episodes got me hooked, and I started loving it. By the ninth episode I called my friend and practically screamed, “But when are they going to kiss???!!! I want them to kiss!” And then it happened… I fell down the kdrama rabbit hole and marathoned the last nine episodes. By the end I was already googling Lee Sun-kyun to learn more about him and I found another kdrama he was in called Coffee Prince. I loved that too. After that I googled “Best Korean dramas” and came up with a list starting with Secret Garden, Faith and Full House. Oh my!! Gong Yoo, Lee Min-ho and Rain all in the space of one week? My world was melting and the earth tilted on its axis.

From that point I spiraled into never-never-land and have never looked back. Here’s what has happened: I started a list in the Fall of 2012 and it now has over 175 dramas and 30 movies watched. I canceled my American TV and watch only Korean dramas, variety shows and films. After seeing the drama IRIS I got a crush on the actor, Choi Seung-hyun, who played the villain. So I googled him. WHAT? His name is TOP and he’s in a boy band called Big Bang? What is this delight?? I fell with a crash down the rabbit hole that is kpop! Now with over 400 kpop songs loaded on my iPhone I run, bike, drive and dance to nothing else. I know more about kpop than most teenagers today.

This past April I went to South Korea for two weeks and ate all the street food I could find in Seoul with a couple of Brits who teach over there and are fluent in the language. I got to see my crush, the AMAZING singer Park Hyo-shin, live on stage in the musical Phantom of the Opera. His voice was even better than full-blast through my headphones. I thought I would die of joy that night. Seoul is now my favorite city. You must go!

The wonderfulness has continued in every way. I have just moved to Los Angeles—just down the road from Korea Town where I stock up on soju and kimchi. After watching the drama, Tree With Deep Roots, I fell in love with Korean history and my man, King Sejong the Great, for inventing Hangul and allowing all people to read and write—not just the noble classes. I am teaching myself Korean and can converse in basic sentences in restaurants and markets and will be going to events and taking classes at the Korean Cultural Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Since moving here, I’ve joined the group “Friends of Korea,” established by American Peace Corps workers who went to South Korea in the 1960s through 1980s to help rebuild after the war. And on it goes. I watch dramas raw the same time they are being broadcast in Korea—then later subbed. Every day I read Dramabeans—hooked in by Healer madness last winter. I’ve watched every video of every Big Bang MADE concert in all the cities. TOP is still my favorite everything and I love his intelligent Instagram posts.

Life has totally changed for me since discovering kdramas, kpop and Korean culture. I am in love with it all and experience nothing but immeasurable joy in my life as a result. To know there is such creativity coming from the other side of the world and straight into our hearts and souls is the greatest gift imaginable. At the young age of sixty-three, it’s a blessing to discover a new passion in life and to learn brand new things. Right now I’m watching the entire 2015 KCON concert. Next year I will attend KCON and I will seek out girlfriday and javabeans to thank them for what they have given all of us by sharing their passion.

All I want is one more podcast because I giggle and drink along with you both. Cheers!

We’ve all heard of converting friends and family to kdrama, but converting your teacher? Boy, does Hana have a story to tell:

So I’m relatively new to kdramas, I would say. I found them in 2013. It was the usual route for me with my friend showed me a drama—Secret Garden, to be precise. I watched it, laughed and cried, and then watched a ton more, while my friend just stopped. Last year, I discovered your site, and I think I’ve read and re-read every recap enough so that it’s as if I watched the drama myself, haha. Keep up the amazing work! Even now my friend’s amazed when she mentions a random drama and I launch into its synopsis and why it was so good/bad/bland as hell (yes, I’m looking at you, Warm and Cozy). But I do have a funny story about my kdrama experience—it has to do with Healer, heh.

When Healer was airing, I was seriously obsessed to the point that I would watch it whenever and wherever I could, subs or no subs (like c’mon, it was Ji Chang-wook). I even did it during work periods in class, sneaking around with my iPad and trying to look like I was writing my essays. During one such time, I had my headphones out, ready to go, and I pressed play—except I forgot to do the most important thing, which was to plug them in! All you could hear was “When You Hold Me Tight” blasting from my iPad’s speakers, complete with one of Ji Chang-wook’s voiceovers. The whole class was staring at me and honestly, I just wanted to sink into the floor. So mortified.

After class I got called up by my teacher and I prepared to get yelled at for not doing work… only for her to ask, “Are you watching a kdrama? I heard him speak Korean.” Annnnnd we ended up having a fifteen minute discussion about Coffee Prince—turns out my teacher was a total Gong Yoo fangirl, but who isn’t? I recommended Healer and she came back to me a few days later saying she really liked Ji Chang-wook. All’s well that ends well, am I right? 😀

 
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