Noraebang

While it is always a bit dangerous to make broad generalizations about a people or culture, I think it is safe to say that there are three things that nearly all Koreans love to do: sing, hike, and eat kimchi.

Koreans do a lot of their singing at noraebang 노래방, which literally means "song room". In any part of Seoul where there is night life -- restaurants, theaters, bars -- there will be a high density of noraebang. The Shinchon area near where we live is full of them. Many young Koreans will make an evening of dinner, drinks, and an hour or two of singing.

A noraebang is a small, sound-proofed room with a karaoke machine in it. It is rented by the hour. There are thousands of songs available, all instrumental versions with the vocal parts missing. As the songs play, the lyrics appear on a video screen, often super-imposed over a montage of visual images that has nothing to do with the song. You can order soft drinks and snacks. So far I have yet to see alcoholic beverages at a noraebang. You'd think that would be a natural combination, so I wonder if it is illegal to serve alcohol at noraebang.

In China and Taiwan, the equivalent to noraebang is called "KTV" (which I believe derives from Karaoke TV).

At all the norebang I've been to so far, the volume has been set at an ear-splitting level and is not adjustable.

My first trip to a noraebang was on November 6, when my class was trying to pick a song to perform at the KLI singing contest. Fortunately Erma came along with us, because most of us were not familiar with how it worked. We were able to rent an extra-large room to accommodate all of us.

In this picture we are looking through the lists of songs to find ones to sing. The songs have unique numbers which are entered using a gigantic remote control. The songs then queue up and play in order. There is a pretty large selection of Japanese, Chinese, and Western songs along with the Korean songs, from different eras in a variety of styles.


Here's Erma singing a song she learned years ago on an earlier trip to Korea. The background video consisted of scenes of European landmarks.


After you sing, the computer will score your performance out of 100 points. As far as I can tell the scores are essentially random, but perhaps there is some sort of highly sophisticated pitch-matching algorithm in there.

Some noraebang will also let you make a CD or tape of your performance to keep. When we had narrowed our song choices down, Erma and I made a CD by renting a noraebang and playing the songs without singing along. The idea was that we could use the CD to practice and also on the day of the performance.

One of the songs we recorded was "Summer Dance" (you can see a video of it here), which actually has an animated video specifically designed for the song. I took a few pictures while it was recording.


This song, like many modern Korean pop songs, has some English in it.


One of the other songs we were considering is the most popular song in Korea right now, called "Tell Me" by the Wondeo Geolseu 원더 걸스 (that is, "Wonder Girls"). Not only is it played everywhere, it's become a touchstone cultural reference, and you can hardly turn on the TV without seeing someone doing the dance moves from the video or humming the chorus. If you're curious about what kind of Korean pop is prevalent nowadays, take a look/listen here.

Norae Jarang

One of the big events of the quarter here at the Language Institute is the Singing Competition (노래 자랑 대회 Norae Jarang Daehoe), which pits each of the 15 second-level classes against each other performing Korean songs karaoke-style.

We've been preparing for weeks. I was, against my wishes and better judgment, named banjang (반장 班長), or class leader, which meant it was my responsibility to make sure that we chose a song and organized practice sessions. (I did have help -- one of my classmates was named vice-banjang.) Many of the classes chose to do Korean pop songs, but we opted for a cute children's song called Kokkiri Ajeosshi 코끼리 아저씨 "Uncle Elephant", about an elephant who falls in love with a whale; they get married in an underwater ceremony attended by a bevy of sea creatures.

Most classes were able to get their music at a noraebang 노래방, or singing room. I'll write more about those in a future post.

The big contest was held this past Thursday in the main auditorium at the Language Institute. This is the first group, performing under the large banner bearing the name of the event.


Here we are getting ready for our turn on the stage:


Highly coordinated dance moves:


I'm carrying a picture of an octopus, the officiant at the wedding:


Marriage proposals:


The big finish, a rather chaotic chorus line:


Each group was briefly interviewed after their performance. I was asked if everyone had practiced diligently. I responded in halting Korean that everyone had studied hard. Oh well.

You can hear one version of the song here.

I and the other second-level banjang were rewarded for our efforts with gifts. This is what I got.


Sigh.