Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Goodwill Ambassador of the Week

This week's Goodwill Ambassador of the Week is none other than Beauty's Chatterbox star panelist Bronwyn!
We here at the Paint Roller Blog would like to thank Bronwyn for her contribution to international understanding. On the August 27th episode of Beauty's Chatterbox, or 미녀들의 수다, or 미수다, or Misuda, or whatever you call it, Bronwyn helped bridge the gap separating Koreans from foreigners by explaining that she never goes to Hongdae because of the smell. The foreign men there, explained Bronwyn, drink too much and throw up so much that you literally have to gingerly tiptoe down the street to avoid the nearly blanket coverage of vomit. To drive home the point, the outgoing South African then stood up and demonstrated what it is like to walk down the streets in front of Hongik University. Way to go, Bronwyn!
This show, for those of you who don't know, is a panel show in which pretty foreign girls who speak Korean discuss Korea and talk about how it is different from their own country, what surprises them, what they like and dislike etc. When the show began the women on the panel were mostly old hands, Korea-wise, in particular American Leslie Benson Bensfield, who's spent 11 years in Korea and speaks fluent Korean. The show was mostly people who know Korea well telling Koreans about their own country, gently pointing out some of Korea's less proud aspects, in particular, its sexism.
There was also plenty of laughs for all. Common topics of the show included:


  1. Those tough ajummas.

  2. Eating dog, fermented skate (홍어), and spicy food.

  3. Booking (nearly delved into every episode)

  4. Dating Korean guys.

  5. Korean drinking culture
Well after plodding these well-worn boards for a long time, these topics have ceased to be interesting. Anybody out there who watches this program will notice that in an effort to maintain the interest of basically talking about in-your-face old ladies, drinking soju and eating dog meat, they have changed the format from 'knowledgeable foreigners discuss their experiences in Korea thoughtfully' to 'buckwild foreign chicks who don't know anything about Korea and can barely speak Korean say shocking, uninformed things in barely understandable Korean'
And somebody please tell me what's up with this?
I imagine that the next step when this concep' has run out of steam will be to have some models and sorority girls come to Korea for the first time, take them out for a night of drinking, booking, and dog meat and then ask them about it the next day while they model Andre Kim teddies. I propose a title change to 미녀들이 서툴다.

4 comments:

Stephen said...

Joe,

Good post. I initially enjoyed 미녀들의 수다, especially with the likes of Leslie, Junko and the Mongolian woman whose name escapes me (but she graduated first in her university class here; pretty damn impressive for a non-native speaker). Thoughtful, intelligent and very appealing (not to mention beautiful) participants for the most part.

But it's really degenerated and the Korean of a number of the women is like nails scraping against a chalkboard.....The "star" you feature in this post is annoying enough that I probably won't watch much any more.

bron said...

hi, its bronwyn mullen;)

im sorry to read you feel i have done little to bring different cultures together...

there was no malicious intent when discussing hongdae^^ i try to take a balanced and realistic approach when chatting about things but i am sorry if i have offended you.

leslie and co. are my friends and i would love to be working with them but unfortunately the show has changed with time and they are with kbs no longer.

let us just hope for the best and remember i do not for a second think of myself as a star so at least we agree on something;)

keep well xxx

Unknown said...

Two things, first it's Leslie Benfield, not Benson. Second, the picture of Jane Turner in pseudo-Indian dress is from an episode in which each woman dressed up in a sort of "national costume". Jane, being American, chose or was given an "Indian" costume. That was her debut week, so they took her picture on that day. Simple explanation, really.

Unknown said...

By the way, who do you think will be more liked, someone who is expressing an honest opinion about Korea on television or some putz who spends his time guttersniping on a blog?

Your call.