I love this theme and I am so looking forward to reading the entries.

To watch carefully crossing a road!

Life lesson learned from kdramas: Don't assume! And watch out for the Truck of Doom.

Your best friend is secretly in love with you and has been since you were kids.

Can’t wait to read these. Especially what kdrama land wants us to believe like break ups cause fevers and non-bleeding scratches need first aid and bandaids! 😆

Always keep your phone charged! Never leave home without checking battery %!
I even got myself a power bank.

Beware serial killers are everywhere!

I learned to always keep cups/bowls/plates I often use on the top shelf of my cupboard, and/or always reach for the book also on the top shelf and stand precariously on the stepladder.

I also learned that I can identify a potential 'the one' by looking at where he sits in a classroom -- next to the window, 2nd or 3rd seat from the back.

I learned that one can just rip off an IV Drip and walk off hospitals without any fuss. MC can wade through a horde of 10-15 assailants wielding clubs, knives and assortment of weapons and leave trails of bodies behind wracked and broken. Somehow if badly slashed on his shoulder, he can get a stapler and staple the wound and carry on fighting as normal.

I learned that it's possible for native speakers of Korean to get honorifics wrong. You would think just speaking politely to everyone would do the trick, but it's possible to speak too formally as well as too informally! I find it difficult to recall a drama in which no character got formality wrong.

Watching characters doing sweet, mindful little things for others! It reminds me of when I was younger and gave all sorts of presents to friends, like sharing snacks and recording mixtapes, sending handmade postcards, bracelets, you name it. I guess that when I got too caught up in work and "grown-up" responsibilities I forgot how comforting and heart warming it is to have someone reach out a nice bite to you, or just drop some snack on your desk (PPL, sure, but still sweet). Now I try to put it into practice as often as possible. Being nice is a muscle that needs regular exercise, he!

The standout only seen consistently in K dramaland is that being a man means being ok showing emotional pain through tears especially where love is concerned. However, no one has tissues, it’s such a wasted PPL opportunity. It is so rare that on the occasions when a non tearful man does pass a handkerchief, I can literally hear the automated ‘this vehicle is reversing’ voice saying ‘Warning! Lady in distress’.

1. when you have a suffocatin feeling inside go to the rooftop / scream on the beach at night you gotta get that out because the body is physically stressed - getting sick is no myth, you really do if you let that consume you

2. never get married bc all mother in laws are evil and /or annoying

3. dont switch bodies with a chaebol, bossing and shareholder meetings are nerve-wrecking. I cannot handle that responsibility

4. fix the street lamp to prevent serial killers

5. dont wear heels to a work outing, you will need to walk up a hill, to another town, to find the only working payphone

6. always stock up on Maxim Gold to catch burglars, killers, nosy neighbors, find love, regain memory, fight depression etc etc etc

In practical terms, I learned a few words and sentences in Korean, so sometimes I can recognize that the translation of a drama is different than it should be. Unfortunately, not much, because at the moment I do not see the usefulness of this language in my life. Besides, the fact that Korean has a different alphabet than Latin put me off from the beginning. I don't think I learned any other lessons from k-dramas, certainly not life lessons, because my worldview was fully formed the moment I started watching k-dramas. I also didn't need information about the history, economy, culture of South Korea from dramas, because I had more information than there is in dramas. But there is one specific lesson that has confirmed me in what I have always done: I am glad that I was born in my country, not in South Korea, for example. This may sound offensive, but I really wouldn't want to live in South Korea. The mere fact of a 52-hour working week seems like a nightmare to me compared to 40 hours in my country and only 15 days of paid vacation when I have 26 days. Also, the working environment in South Korea looks like a real nightmare in every drama I've watched.

A couple of kdrama lessons I will never learn. Both from the bedroom:
1. How to fall asleep with those lights on; and
2. How to sleep with all so much clothing on.

(reposted after fixing spelling errors)
Americans' relatively recent introduction to Korean culture ('Parasite' was in 2019) has cast a spotlight on class culture and social hierarchy. You'd think it would be an obvious topic to us but Americans have traditionally tried very hard to NOT think about it or talk about it. In even the most fluffy K-dramas class hierarchy is front-and-center and often a major driver of the plot, and this comes as a revelation to new American viewers.

Man, K-dramas can have some wild out-of-this-world plots, but I've been so impressed that while they're playing with our minds, they also manage to convey the true heart and soul of their cultural consciousness. The characters tap into all our emotions, quicken our heartbeats and make us believe that although they might only seem to be a cold-as-ice Chaebol business mogul, a weightlifting fairy, a misunderstood autistic Legal Attorney, a North Korean Military Officer, a time-slipped woman who's landed in the body of a Joseon King, and yes, even if the character is the Grim Reaper, a Gumiho or a Nine-Tailed fox....K-dramas slowly pull off the labels and show us the everyday humanity happening inside everyone. On my visits to Korea I've noticed a close sense of community and caring for each other. Even "other'-others like tourists. When I got off the bus to shop at Itaewon and forgot my purse, the man who had sat next to me got off and chased me down the block to return it, refusing any compensation. Smiling he walked back to the bus stop to wait for the next bus. This good man had stopped his scheduled day to do a good deed. And there's plenty of those stories. So when I think about how well K-drama scriptwriters unveil the warmth, politeness, generosity & passion hiding under characters that we know nothing about except their stereotypes, then I am in awe of how well they manage to do this, but I also have such deep respect that K-Dramas, as a genre, often prioritize the 'we' in their characters rather than the 'me' .