Misuda? What type of alcohol is that? You might wonder…
Misuda is short for “Minyeodeului Suda” (미녀들의수다) a Korean talk show which roughly translates as “Chit chat of the beauties”. The show aired from October 2006 through April 2010. It’s concept: 16 foreign women who all speak Korean, from beginner to expert. The subjects: anything that is discussable on Korean TV! Presented on KBS2, the national channel of South Korea, Misuda became a phenomenon often hated but also greatly loved by the South Koreans. I was a part of this great adventure, but it definitely didn’t look like it was going to be a success from the beginning…
In August of 2006, I was packing my bags for a complete year of study abroad in South Korea. Excited as a little girl on Christmas, I was also very scared, but a good scare. I had been into Korean pop culture for so many years that I just couldn’t wait to actualize my dream of living for a year in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. I knew so many singers and their song lyrics, that I probably came off as a real freak…but I was very passionate about it. Also, I watched a bunch of Korean soap operas and had learned the “hangeul”, the Korean alphabet, so that I could sing my favourite songs at the Montreal Korean karaoke. I think I was ready.
Of course, when I got there it was another story…a country is never EXACTLY like it is represented in its pop culture and even if I knew that, I was still a little shocked! At first it felt as if the city was very harsh and loud (Seoul is definitely a city that never sleeps and even if at first I got intimidated by it, in the end it became natural and I just loved it!). Anyway, I’ll keep my impressions of Korea for another post, let’s go on with the Misuda adventure.
I don’t remember exactly when the email from school came , but I know it was in the first 3 weeks of my stay in Korea because I was still living at my friend’s house. I didn’t even have a cell phone! So I was at home and got an email from the school, the Mentors Club, which is a group that pairs Korean students with foreign students for language exchanges. The email said that we had an opportunity to be on TV for a one time special show for the holidays and that it was open to foreigners, even the ones who didn’t speak Korean. I was very surprised and eager to know more, because most of my references came from Korean TV. A little later in the week, another email came, saying “Oh, well actually, you have to be a girl, and you have to speak Korean, sorry…” I was now insecure. My Korean was pretty limited. I knew how to say “I love you” in a hundred ways, thanks to Korean power ballads, but I couldn’t really express myself in complete sentences. Still, I gave it a shot and called the number of the writer at KBS. I don’t remember the conversation, but I actually managed to get myself an interview with them. Luckily for me, the TV station was very close from my friend’s house. I was all set and ready to meet the script writers…
As I went in the office of the writers, I saw a bunch of Asian girls getting out. I was told later that they were from Mongolia…they never appeared on the show…So I sat with the chief writer and the other writers looking at me around the desk. It was intimidating, but I really wanted to be on TV (ah, the things you’ll do). She asked a bunch of questions but as I didn’t have a lot of anecdotes in Korea, all I could tell her were my first impressions. I think what killed them is when I started to enumerate all the singers I knew, they just didn’t believe it…I was like this encyclopedia of Kpop. That’s probably what got me in, as most white foreigners knew very little about Kpop back then.
School started a little afterwards and I got the phone call telling me I’d be shooting the show with them at the end of September so that the show could be aired on the Korean Thanksgiving, which on that year was at the beginning of the month of October. I was very excited and also learned that two girls from my Korean class were to be on it too, Clara from the US and Vivian from Singapore. I would end up being very close with the latter. Before the shooting, we would have to meet up with the production team and answer many questions on the phone so that they could build up a script and an outline for the show. I suddenly felt that my Korean was improving every day and that I’d have no problem at the meeting…but god was I wrong.
The first meeting we had with the team and the other girls from the show was a disaster for Vivian and I. We were sitting in a room and the producers and writers would ask questions to us but our Korean was so limited that we ended up being very silent in front of the other girls who had been in Korea for 2, 3,4 some even 10 years! After that the whole idea of going on TV seemed like a bad idea…but I consoled myself by thinking how awesome it would be to meet celebrities. How shallow ;)
Fortunately for us on the day of the meeting, the producer got us a spot in the audience of that day’s Music Bank, a weekly music show showing off the latest Korean songs, sometimes live, sometimes lipsynced. I had fun, it did break the magic a little bit, but I got to see Koyote, a dance/pop group with a really goofy but charming singer, Kim Jong Min.
Singing “I Love Rock N’ Roll”
I took a few photos, which was obviously prohibited but none of the middle school girls seemed to care either. On that day The Trax, Lee SeungGi, Park Jung Ah, Lim Jeong Hee, Paran and some others came on. It was a nice first look at Korean celebrities from up close and at that time I felt like I was on the moon. When I look at it now, it feels like I was over exaggerating, but it was something I was very passionate about. I just had no idea that I would end up on the other side of the camera for many years…
Tune in for part 2! My first experience on a Korean TV set…full of drama, as usual!
