She has a 'class' association with the Seoul accent.

Hmmm. There may be some truth in that. The Seoulites (Seoulers?) can be snootish about people who are from the other parts of the country, and consider accented speech unsophisticated. (The Seoulites usually don't consider themselves 'accented' at all.) But I also know a lot of people who are damn proud of their regional heritage and use accents to find and band with people from their area. There is often competitiveness and even animosity between people from different regions of the country.

But the minute class distinctions depending on how one speaks based on which *street* he grew up on in, say, London? NSM in Korea. If you are born and raised in Seoul, you speak like a Seoulite, whether your father is a cabinet minister or a school janitor.

OK, that's possibly way more details than anyone wanted to know.

I can't imagine the nuclear arsenal he'd unleash upon thinking Michael had stolen (even glances) at his father-in-law's daughter.

I'm beginning to feel really sorry for Jin, who's going to be more and more isolated as his wife continues to unfurl her metaphorical wings. Poor bastard.

I was discussing Lost with a much-less-fannish friend the other day, and telling her all about who the actors are and what the various theories about the monster are, blah blah totally-normal-discussioncakes, and she said, "Wow, you are REALLY into this show! How do you know all this?"

Heh. I have to often curb my fangirly tendencies at work. One of my not-that-close coworker mentioned Lost this other day, and it was difficult to play it cool and mildy say, "Oh, yeah. I watch it, too. Neat show." intead of going "OMG! The twist about Locke's legs were the best thing EVER! My HSQ meter nearly broke! And did you notice how well they integrated the three different timelines and how they showed the wheelchair in preceding episodes and peppered the episodes with foreshadowing? And isn't Terry O'Quinn the best actor, and hey, did ya see him in that S2 X-Files episode about the pregnant cop and as the consortium flunky in the XF movie, and dude, he was in Alias, too!" 'Cause, you know, that wouldn't have gone over so well.

But the minute class distinctions depending on how one speaks based on which *street* he grew up on in, say, London? NSM in Korea. If you are born and raised in Seoul, you speak like a Seoulite, whether your father is a cabinet minister or a school janitor.

Check. I'm thinking that Vonnie's parents are out of Seoul. "Out of" in the sense of: from there.

I'm beginning to feel really sorry for Jin, who's going to be more and more isolated as his wife continues to unfurl her metaphorical wings. Poor bastard.

Yes!

you know...it's really interesting that y'all are discussing DDK's "accent". he just made a long post at the Fuselage addressing just that.

tiggy: Link! We need da link!

ack! sorry. it's thefuselage.com. you'll have to scroll down a little bit. he's posting as "Jin".

Fuselage.com's VIP archive: [link]

I'm thinking that Vonnie's parents are out of Seoul.

They are from Dae-gu originally, which isn't that far from Pusan. They have the appropriate accent, which gets thicker when they speak with people from the same region. I was born and raised in Seoul though and don't have much in the way of the regional accent--although I can fake one.

he just made a long post at the Fuselage addressing just that.

Oooh, what did he say? Fuselage scares me with its backward posting order and wiggy green-on-black design.

And I get a kick out of DDK using "Jin" as his board name.

here's the post with a bit of formatting editing by me.

Jin says: (Sun Nov 14 06:12:25 2004) [Edit/Delete]

Hey shady- Thanks for your question. So let me be really clear about my Korean because I've read some really harsh criticisms of it on some sites, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. I am as proud to be Korean as I am to be American, and I care very deeply what the Korean community thinks of my work, and the show in general. For the record, though Korean is my first language, I came to the US when I was 2. Though I continue to speak with my parents, English quickly became my primary language. I do speak Korean, contrary to what I've read about me, but my Korean is flawed in two ways: I have a Kyungsangdo accent (my entire family's from Busan) and as I've gotten older, it's also gotten mixed with an American accent. Also, because I've only spoken with my parents, my vocabulary is what I would call on the "household" level. So I do have a coach, and Yunjin has been incredibly generous with her help as well. As I said the other day, speaking Korean on camera has been one of the biggest challenges of my career - from learning new vocabulary, to softening my accent, AND trying to play intentions (you know, that stuff that actors do : ), it's been a lot of work, but totally worth it, for so many reasons. For those of you who think my Korean's not good enough, my deepest apologies. I will say though, that my friends and family from Busan have had absolutely no problem understanding me. : ) Just know that one of the things I'm most proud of on this show is that Yunjin and I actually get to portray and speak the language we grew up with. I'm doing the best that I can to do justice to this unique opportunity. I give so much credit to J.J., Damon, the writers, and the network for allowing it to happen. I'll end with some food for thought: how many times have you seen a primetime network TV show with 50% of its dialogue in another language? And some of it not even subtitled! It's pretty roundbreaking, don't you think? So sorry for the long post, but I thought it would help to clear the air. I hope that answers your question. Thanks!