BCM320 – Hello! My Twenties

You may find this post easier to understand once you have read my original post on the topic here. Since that post, I have chosen the show and the episode that I will be viewing in order to create my epiphanies. Epiphanies are a vital part of autoethnography research as Ellis 2011 explains when researchers do autoethnography, they retrospectively and selectively write about epiphanies that are made possible by, being part of a culture.

I was drawn to the idea of viewing Korean drama because in the past I have used UK drama television to help me feel connected to my family while being on the other side of the world. While feeling homesick I will turn to shows like ‘The Bill‘ or ‘Coronation Street‘, you may ask why this is relevant? It’s because autoethnography begins with a personal story (Wall, 2008).  I had no prior knowledge of Korean drama which has allowed me, as Plummer 2001 described to enable the reader to enter the subjective world of the teller (me).  Because autoethnographers value narrative truth based on what a story of experience does (Ellis 2011).

Image – Netflix 

I chose ‘Hello! My Twenties” (also known as Age of Youth) because it is is a drama-comedy revolving around the lives of five twenty-something women who must navigate their way through adulthood. And as a twenty-something woman who is trying to navigate my way through adulthood, I was instantly drawn to it. The show also has a 100% audience score on ‘Rotten Tomatoes“.

So I decided it was the best fit for my first autoethnographic experience. To really understand the phenomena of the genre ‘Korean Drama’.To accomplish a successful autoethnographic experience it will require comparing and contrasting my person personal experience with Hello! My Twenties against existing research (Ellis, 2011). Live tweeting with the hashtag #Hellomytwenties have been chosen because they’re a good way to good way to promote the live tweeting and encourage discussion (Quin, 2014) while also engaging in the prior discussion surrounding the show.

 

 

This was my first experience with watching anything on Netflix with subtitles. For me, Netflix is usually just something I have on in the background while completing other tasks or I am watching the show but in parts, I am on my phone. This had never been an issue because I could easily keep up with the plot and could still hear what was going on. Hello, my twenties was harder for me to watch due to the concentration it required. Not only were there subtitles but some of the Korean text was not dubbed so you needed to be read their faces to try and gage the issue.

 

The use of non- diegetic sound used for the flashback of Yoo Eun-Jae allure to the idea that this now upbeat and innocence plot may take a dark turn. It was used to create ambiguity and contrast between Yoo Eun-Jae past with her current future. As most of her storyline for the most part of the episode was timid and polite.

While watching episode 1 I was surprised by the plot that surrounded sex and drinking. Which in shows I had previously watched, whose origins were from the UK or American background it has always been quite a common theme but I had a prejudice that these types of themes would have been censored out of a Korean drama.

After watching Hello my twenties I have compiled my 3 main epiphanies and these are the 3 main ideas I will deep dive into these main epiphanies that I discovered from my field site.

Check back in later with an update on my progress!