Farewell Freshman Year!

Wow, I guess this is the last post of my passion blog. Classes are coming to an end and final exams are following right after. This two-semester course really did fly by!

Since we’re all surprised and sad that freshmen year has basically come to an end (let’s just assume so because it goes with what I have to say next), I’ve gathered a couple songs for you to listen to around this time and next week! The suggestions I have consist of English, Spanish, and Korean songs and they are currently my favorite as of right now.

Let’s get started:

  1. Gallant, Tablo, Eric Nam – “Cave Me In”

“Cave Me In” is a collaboration done by two famous Kpop artists – Tablo (rapper) and Eric Nam (singer) – and another famous western artist – Gallant. It has a very chill vibe and it kind of reminds me of background music that could be played in a café. Eric Nam and Tablo are both fluent in English so a person who isn’t familiar with any Kpop artist could easily assume that it isn’t a rare collaboration. In fact, according to Billboard, “The three spent around nine months going back and forth on the track, sending suggestions to one another amidst their hectic lifestyles and working on it wherever they were in the world — even if it meant recording in rented studios mid-tour.”

 

  1. Dillon Francis, Fuego – “We the Funk”

When I first heard this song, I knew that it would be a great song to dance to/get ready to. This song is on the Latin-inspired Spanish-language album of Dillon Francis and “down-tempo dance tune” to it. It’s not as loud and mostly mellow, but it has some fun beats which I really like!

 

  1. Migos – “Gang Gang”

I know this is not a new song at all, but for some reason, “Gang Gang” is one of those songs that I still haven’t gotten tired listening to. It is so good and includes another type of genre good for dancing. I think the most interesting part of the song is at the beginning when you hear a backdrop of a girl singing a random tune and Takeoff says “would you, oooh?” Although his line doesn’t make any sense (at least to me), it still sounds good for some reason.

 

  1. Daniel Caesar ft. H.E.R. – “Best Part”
 

 

This was the first Daniel Caesar song I’ve listened to and I was hooked and even went through and listened to his entire Freudian album after! It’s a delicate and slow song that starts of with a simple plucking of strings on an acoustic guitar and the lyrics are so beautiful. Really makes you wish you had a significant other if you don’t already (hahahaha).

 

  1. The Police – “Every Breath You Take”

Yes, this is the song from Stranger Things when Eleven and Mike have their second kiss! If I’m being completely honest, I haven’t watched all of Stranger Things – only a couple episodes – but I definitely ruined it for myself by watching video clips of season 2. When I came across scene and heard this song playing in the background, I was so impressed by the choice because it fit so well with the emotions that the listeners were going through. It also helped build tension during the scene since they kiss when the song starts to speed up a little. Overall, this is such a lovely song and I would highly recommend to listen to it if you haven’t already!

I guess that’s it for my last passion blog post! I thoroughly enjoyed writing these throughout these last two semesters. Let me know if you have any other song recommendations below 😊

 

Sources:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/k-town/7669837/tablo-eric-nam-gallant-collaboration-cave-me-in-interview

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/8213448/dillon-francis-fuego-we-the-funk-video

“EVERYD4Y” Album Review

Image result for winner everyday album cover

WINNER, a boy group containing of 4 members – Jinwoo, Seunghoon, Mino, Seungyoon, recently released their second album, “EVERYD4Y.” The album includes 12 tracks and its title track already topped the Korean music charts within three hours of its release!

Their first track, “EVERYD4Y,” has tropical house vibes and a faux-reggae tune. Although this is their title track and typically, title tracks receive a lot more love than the rest of the album, they actually got some backlash from their fans for this track. WINNER is known for having stunning live vocals to the point that the fans joke that they “ate” their album/recording. However, when their fans heard that this track included a lot of autotune, they were slightly disappointed that WINNER used it on top of their remarkable voices.

“EVERYD4Y” is by far my favorite track on the album because it’s so catchy. The only section of this song I don’t like as much is when the second rap section starts.

The next track on the album is “AIR,” a song consisting of a echoey main verses and synth drips. This song has a lot less strong beats and instruments playing so you can hear their voices quite clearly. It has very chill pop vibes to it.

“AIR” is followed by a track called “HELLO.” Before I continue talking about this track, I’m sure I’m not the only one noticing a pattern of capital-lettered track titles – maybe this was to make the album look more minimalist and classy? I’m not really sure why, but I’ve got nothing against it. Anyways, “HELLO” has a playful tone, but it seemed less structured compared to the other songs on their album. I guess this is intentional since you can kind of tell how much fun the members were having recording it.

“TURN OFF THE LIGHTS” is a solo song by the main rapper in WINNER, Mino. When I listened to this song, I wasn’t to surprised by how it turned out, but I was surprised by his singing voice as I hadn’t heard it before. Mino is very popular because of his rapping and known to dabble into R&B more than the other members in WINNER. Therefore, “TURN OFF THE LIGHTS” sounds more R&B than house and has a little bit of a ballad and beat-laden pop tune to it.

“LA LA” sounds like every other anthem-ey song out there by a boyband. It has a fun and uptempo beat so it expresses an overall party and reckless vibe. I would say that this song is my least favorite even though it’s one of their main singles from this album. Although it became a hit as soon as it was released, it’s just so predictable that it kind of makes me cringe? Just not my cup of tea I guess.

Next up is “FOR.” As I mentioned earlier, WINNER is famous for their vocal abilities and that’s how ballads really make them shine. Unlike most of the other songs on this album, “FOR” is a lot simpler in terms of instruments and vocal editing used. It’s a lot rawer and seems to mainly consist of an acoustic guitar along with their voices. This whole track is soft sounding even in the chorus when they layer each other’s voices and include a couple falsettos instead of overwhelming their listeners with their powerful voices.

“WE WERE” seems like the perfect track to be in the middle of their album. It sounds wistful and kind of conclusive, but I guess it also works as “break” of some sort in the album. Since most of WINNER’s albums are approximately 6 tracks long, I would have expected it to be the last track if this album was just as long. It’s interesting that they situated this track right before “LUXURY” since the latter has tropical house vibe with a little bit of reggaetón.

If I’m being completely honest, I still haven’t figured out what I think of “LUXURY” yet. It kind of gives me “LA LA” vibes because it’s sort of anthem-ey, but it also doesn’t.

“MOVIE STAR” is track 9 in the album. It includes light rap and a catchy tune in the pre-chorus and chorus by the main vocalists on the team. The most interesting part of this song would be the bridge because that’s where they whip out acoustic guitars (??) which they didn’t hint at any other part of the track. Still added a cool and unexpected touch though.

The next track called “SPECIAL NIGHT” brings back a disco tune through their beat and melody. Its an overall joyful and fun song and is co-written by one of the members, Seunghoon. Track 11, “RAINING” was originally released in Japanese and is a softrock break-up song where the verses by the rappers and the pre-chorus sound wistful and gloomy, but the chorus sounds almost uplifting.

“HAVE A GOOD DAY,” the last song on the album and another song that was initially released in Japanese has similar vibes to “RAINING.” It sounds confessional and heart-felt, but unlike “RAINING” which is about a break-up, this song is about someone who died.

Overall, WINNER never fails to work hard and release great songs every time. Although they don’t have as much of international popularity compared to artists like BTS and BIGBANG, they are huge in Korea because their music is a lot gentler and relaxed compared to the other two.

Sources:

https://www.allkpop.com/article/2018/04/mv-album-review-winner-everyd4y

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/k-town/8280896/winner-eclectic-second-album-everyd4y

“Love Yourself: Her” by BTS Album Review

Image result for love yourself: her

This week, I will finally have an album review! I figured that since my theme so far has been solely about K-Pop, I would do an album review about it too.

The album I’ll be talking about is by BTS and it’s called “Love Yourself: Her.” It was released in September 2017 and conveyed messages they have wanted to say to their fans. The first track in the album, “Serendipity,” is an R&B track sung by one of the vocalists, Jimin, in a sensual and soft manner. Although BTS is highly applauded for how well they mix in their rappers and vocalists in their tracks, this was the first track that they included in any of their albums that only consisted of ¼ of their vocalists in their team.

Next, came a highly anticipated track called, “Best of Me.” Before this album was released, there were rumors amongst the fans that BTS had done a collaboration with an international artist! This was extremely impressive since there haven’t been many K-Pop artists that have created a connection with artists such as The Chainsmokers, Drake, Kanye, etc. “Best of Me” falls under the dance and electronic genre with the help of Andrew Braggart, one of the two members of The Chainsmokers. Despite this song being a collaboration between a well-known Western Artist and a K-pop group, I was very happy with the choice that BTS made of singing in Korean (except for a couple words/phrases here and there) throughout the song.

“dimple,” is an interesting song with cool wordplay, however, when translated to English, the wordplay loses its significance. “Pied Piper,” is a song with Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and “Slide” by Calvin Harris’ vibes. Personally, it’s my favorite track on the album along with “Mic Drop” which I will talk about later. “Pied Piper” is a song where BTS basically roasted their fans for neglecting their day-to-day responsibilities just to obsess/dedicate their hours to BTS. A phrase that displays this message is: “Now stop watching and study for your exams / Your parents and boss hate me” (SPIN).

Next on the album isn’t an actual track – in fact, they call it: “Skit: Billboard Music Awards Speech.” As you can tell from the title, the “track” is actually a voice recording of the speech they made when they won an award on the Billboard Music Awards in 2017. I’m guessing they included this in the album because it was an incredibly memorable accomplishment for them thus far.

“MIC Drop” is a track that is common to pretty much every artist where they boast about their success and bring the haters down. It has a really strong trap beat and cool choreography to go along with it. This song was a huge hit and BTS made two versions of it – one in English and one in Korean. Initially, it was only done in Korean, however, after they met Steve Aoki, they decided to collaborate with him and Designer to make the English version.

Second to last is their lead/most re-known single, “DNA.” This song was what they performed on the American Music Awards as well as on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Although it’s their lead single, I didn’t like it as much as the other songs on their album. In my opinion, it was kind of bland I guess? Something that everyone would expect a boyband to release. However, I am happy with all the success that they have received from it.

Lastly, their album ends with “Outro: Her.” This song plays as sort of a conclusion to their whole album and wraps everything up for the listeners.

Overall, I think this album was great, but their previous albums such as “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 1” and “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 2” really showcased their talents in singing, rapping, producing, and lyric writing. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to their next album to see what they have in store for their fans now that they’ve gained so much popularity in Korea and outside.

Sources:

https://www.spin.com/2017/09/bts-love-yourself-her-review/

https://www.allkpop.com/article/2017/09/mv-album-review-bts-love-yourself-her-dna

BTS or Bangtan Sonyeondan (part 2)

Continuing my reviews of each member of the group, here are the last 4 members:

  1. Seokjin – Vocalist

Seokjin’s real name is Kim Seokjin – so his stage name and real name are pretty much the same. Seokjin is pronounced as “Sokhjin,” but he’s more commonly known just Jin. He is the oldest member of BTS. Jin was recruited on the street by SM Entertainment – one of the most well-known entertainment companies in South Korea, and by Big Hit Entertainment. He had no background in singing and dancing because he was actually studying acting in university. However, with a lot of hard work and determination, his struggles are hard to tell.

  1. Jimin – Lead Vocalist and Main Dancer

Jimin’s real name is Park Jimin – similar to Jin, Jimin’s stage name and real name are the same. Jimin is pronounced as “Jeemin.” He’s highly appreciated for his dancing especially because he works hard to make it look good and intricate. He was the last to join the group and was initially known for his physique by the media. Before joining the group, he attended Busan High School of Arts and majored in Modern Dance. He was known to be the top student in his high school to the point that his school was thinking about sending him abroad with the good grades and dancing skills he has. Not only is Jimin a great dancer, but he was also good at other non-dance related subjects such as math, chemistry, PE, and art.

  1. V – Vocalist

V’s real name is Kim Taehyung, but he’s more commonly known as just Taehyung to the BTS fans. Taehyung never even applied to be a part of BTS, in fact, he went with his friend to support his auditions and got scouted by a Big Hit Entertainment staff member instead of it being his friend. He comes from a poor family compared to the other members – a family of farmers – and never thought that he would become a Kpop idol. He is very family oriented and loves to openly talk about his family. He was also ranked 1st in the “Top 100 Most Handsome Faces 2017.”

  1. Jungkook – Main Vocalist, Lead Dancer, Sub Rapper, and Center

Jungkook’s real name is Jeon Jungkook – Just like Jin and Jimin, his real name and stage name are the same. He is the youngest member and is called “golden” in Korean because he has mastered many talents from a young age. Some of his talents include singing, rapping, dancing, drawing, gaming, sports – bowling, track and field, and badminton – and photography. He debuted with BTS when he was just 15-years-old, meaning that he was probably training to debut with the group since he was around 13. He actually auditioned for a singing competition/show called Superstar K and with his audition tape’s release, he received offers from eight different companies – where some of them were quite well known (and still are) to this date. Surprisingly, he chose Big Hit Entertainment (which was a very small company back then) after he saw a video clip of RM (the leader of BTS) rapping.

In my next post, I will either go into more detail about BTS’s music evolution or I will talk about a different Kpop artist.

BTS or Bangtan Sonyeondan (part 1)

Finally, I will be talking about my favorite group in K-Pop called, BTS, that are a part of an entertainment company called Big Hit Entertainment. BTS is a group that is getting more and more popular in and outside of Korea. They recently won the Billboard Award for Top Social Artist where they were running against Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, and Justin Bieber – who has won that word consecutively for the past 5 years. In addition to that, they even performed at the AMA’s and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. They also had a segment on James Corden’s show where they played the game, “Flinch”, performed their single, “DNA,” and interacted with a some lucky fans.

BTS consist of 7 members:

1. RM – The Leader and Main Rapper

Although RM is his stage name, his real name is Kim Namjoon (the “Nam” part in “Namjoon” is not pronounced as “name,” it is pronounced as “Nahm”). He is the leader of the group and was the first member to join the group. What’s unique about BTS is that the leader isn’t the oldest member. In fact, RM is the third oldest member of the group, but was still given the authority as the leader. Other than being a leader, Namjoon is a rapper, producer, and songwriter for the group. Also, the only member who taught himself English. He has collaborated with many Korean artists, but his most recent collaboration with a Western artist was in Fall Out Boy’s song called, “Champion” where he rapped. Lastly, Namjoon is a big advocate for gay/lesbian rights which is quite rare in the East Asian society.

2. Suga – Lead Rapper

Suga’s (“shooga”) real name is Min Yoongi (pronounced as “Min Yungi”). Yoongi is the rapper, songwriter, and record producer of BTS. Before he became a part of BTS, he used to arrange music, rap, and perform. He struggled a lot because he would try selling his songs/lyrics online and get ripped off. On the few occasions that he would get money, he had to debate whether to use it for the bus to get home or to buy a meal for himself. He is often complimented for his style of rapping and his voice because it is very distinct from other rappers in the K-Pop industry. He was also the second member to join BTS after Namjoon.

3. J-Hope – Lead Rapper, Main Dancer, Sub Vocalist

J-Hope’s real name is Jung Hoseok. Every single member of BTS relies on him to teach them the choreography to all the songs. He used to be a famous underground dancer before joining BTS and in 2008, he won the national dance competition in South Korea. From then on, he earned his reputation and was known better by different entertainments before joining Big Hit. He was also the third member to join BTS after Namjoon. Therefore, BTS’ originally debuted as a Hip-Hop and Rap group because they were formed from Namjoon, Suga, and Hoseok’s influences.

Since I’m a huge fan of this group, I will introduce the rest of the members and the entire group more in my next posts. For now, I think it’ll be better to only post this much so that my posts don’t seem too long. But before you go, here’s BTS on James Corden’s show:

BIGBANG

Since I briefly introduced the genre of K-pop in my last post, I think it’s better to make my posts about artists in K-pop that are equally (if not more) famous in and out of South Korea. So, I’ll start by talking about a group called BIGBANG. BIGBANG rose to fame in the mid-2000s as they became one of the best-selling groups of all-time in Asia and one of the best-selling boy bands in the world.

BIGBANG consist of 5 members:

  1. G-Dragon (or GD for short)

His real name is Kwon Ji-Yong. The reason he chose G-Dragon as his stage name is because “Ji” is pronounced as “G”, and “Yong” means “dragon” in Korean. He is a rapper, singer, song-writer, record producer, entrepreneur, fashion icon, and the leader of BigBang. Most of his songs fall under the genres of hip hop, dance-pop, and R&B.

  1. Taeyang

His real name is Dong Young-bae. The reason he chose Taeyang as his stage name is because it means “sun” in Korean. He is the lead singer and a songwriter of the group. Most of his songs are Hip-hop, R&B, and EDM. He’s also known as one of the best dancers in K-pop.

  1. T.O.P

His real name is Choi Seung-hyun. He is a rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. The genres that his songs fall under are mostly hip hop. He is the second lead rapper after GD.

  1. Daesung

His real name is Kang Dae-sung. He is a singer, actor, and television host. He is one of the lead singers of BigBang.

  1. Seungri

His real name is Lee Seung-hyun. He is a singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. The genres that his songs fall under are mostly electro-pop. He is the youngest of the group and one of the main vocalists.

All five members have had solo careers in Korea and Japan and have been very successful. The most successful members with their solo careers have been GD and Taeyang.

The first songs I was introduced to that were by BigBang were the songs linked below called “BANG BANG BANG” and “Loser.” The two songs sound the complete opposite of each other which is why my friend showed it to me.

I decided to link the dance practice to “BANG BANG BANG” because it has a cool-but-simple choreography and an audio version of “Loser” because it expresses sadness and loneliness.

BIGBANG – “BANG BANG BANG”

This song is obviously very upbeat, has a cool choreography, and successfully garnered a lot of attention (and still does) back when it was released in 2015. Not only was this a hit in South Korea, but it also showed up on Billboard’s World Digital Songs list!

The choreography is created by a famous western choreographer named Parris Goebel. She has made choreography for some very well-known artists like Justin Bieber and Rihanna.

BIGBANG – “LOSER”

This song falls under the genre of hip-hop/R&B and is a lot more laidback with its rapping, vocals, and choreography. It also ranked 1st on Billboard’s World Digital Songs list.

I hope you liked the songs I shared! I’ll be talking about another group named WINNER in my next blog post 😊

The Korean Wave: An Introduction

Chances are that you have already heard of Kpop since the genre is slowly spreading across the globe. If you haven’t heard of it, you may have already seen a performance by one of Korea’s most internationally recognized Kpop groups, BTS or Bangtan Sonyeondan (in Korean). BTS did a pre-recorded performance on ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2018’ show on January 1st, 2018 and I’ve already met a couple people who were impressed by their performance.

Therefore, I think it’s appropriate to make my Passion Blog’s theme about K-pop since most of us haven’t been introduced to it or are just getting into it and might want a good starting point.

To start off, you may be wondering how I was first introduced to K-Pop. The first time I heard of its existence was five years ago, when I first came to live in Hanoi, Vietnam. Like many people who were foreign to the subject of K-pop, I thought it was weird that people listened to it and I had a really bizarre idea of what it sounded like in my head (despite the fact that I had never even heard a single beat of a K-pop song before). I was finally introduced to a K-pop song three years ago by one of my friends who managed to convinced me to listen to one called “Good Boy” by GD and Taeyang and it was so good! In fact, if you want, I would recommend listening to the song now. I put the link to the dance practice below because personally, I like watching K-pop dance practices a lot more since their dancing looks effortless.

Going back to talking about the genre itself, most artists in K-pop are from South Korea, but there are a few that are from China and Thailand. Regardless of where they are from, they must be fluent in Korean for obvious reasons. Most K-pop artists are formed from different companies – the most popular being SM Entertainment, YJ Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. These three companies are known as “The Big Three” because they have been in the industry for a very long time and they create the most successful artists. Furthermore, in K-pop, each and every artist goes through a trainee period where they train before their debut. They train on different aspects such as singing, rapping, dancing, and learning multiple languages. The training period can take from 2 years to 9 years depending on the company and artist.

One of the reasons I really like K-pop is because each artist is very flexible in the sense that they are allowed to change the genre and style of performance that they want to do whenever they want! In fact, in the Western music industry, it’s unlikely that a member of a band can release or feature in a song alone, while in K-pop, it’s the complete opposite. As long as the company that the artist is representing has approved of the decision, the music can be released. In addition to this, artists from the same company can even form “units” where they form a group of two or three people and release a single or even an album and then go back to their original group (or solo) activities. An example of this is shown in the video above – GD and Taeyang formed a unit of two people even though they are a part of a group called BIGBANG.

To conclude, this was my best attempt at introducing K-pop in its most broad term. I learned a lot about it through my friends and my own research about the Korean culture and the genre. I’ll be linking more videos in the future, but for now, I will leave you with the video that got me hooked to K-pop from the start!

If you have any questions that you might be shy to ask or you think may be offensive or rude, it’s okay to ask them here! I know that I had quite a few questions when I was first introduced, but I had to research the answers myself because I was afraid that I would come off as rude to my friends. My only request is to be as open-minded as possible when listening to this genre if you’re not familiar with the Asian, or specifically, the East Asian culture and trends!

I hope you enjoy listening to “Good Boy.” In my next posts, I’ll be sharing more songs of different genres so maybe there will be something else that you’ll like if not this one 🙂

How to get luscious locks and supple skin FAST!!

1. Yoghurt – Hair

Want to naturally condition your hair with an ingredient you have at home? Section your hair into different parts and use your hand (or spoon) to evenly distribute yoghurt all around your roots and even the ends of your hair if you think that they are too dry. Sit with your DIY hair mask for approx. 1 hour and then simply wash it off with shampoo. Remember that the longer you leave it in and the more yoghurt you put, the more conditioning the yoghurt will do. This means that if you leave it in for a really long time or if you put a lot of it, you may get oily looking hair. If this is not what you want, adjust the amount of time you put the hair mask on depending on what you want your hair to look like.

2. Turmeric powder – Skin

If you’ve ever fallen down and scraped yourself, put a teaspoon of turmeric powder and mix it with any kind of oil (cooking oil, olive oil, coconut oil, etc.) in a small bowl. Make sure that the amount of oil you put allows the mixture to become into a thin and paste-y consistency. Then, heat the bowl for a bit until the mixture turns into a dark brown colour and use a small cotton to carefully apply the it to your cut. When I was a kid and my mom used to do this for me and the pain from my bruises would be gone by the next day! Warning: turmeric will leave a yellowish tint on your skin, DO NOT wear any light coloured clothes while applying this treatment and a couple days after or else it will leave a yellowish stain.

3. Apple-cider Vinegar – Hair + Skin

If you would like soft hair, put 5mL of apple-cider vinegar in a mug and mix it with water the rest of the way. After you have wet your hair, pour the mug of the apple-cider mixture on your hair while trying to section it into parts during that process. Then, wash your hair with shampoo like you normally would. Warning: make sure that your apple-cider vinegar is diluted enough in water!

If you would like to get rid of your acne, you can mix a 1mL of apple-cider vinegar with 5mL of water and use a small cotton ball to spread it across your skin. I haven’t tried this myself, but I’ve heard it works!

4. Lemon and Oil – Hair

If you want to get rid of dandruff in your hair, mix approx. 15 drops of squeezed lemon with coconut oil that is enough to cover your scalp. Section your hair into multiple parts and apply/massage the mixture to your roots. Sit with this mixture for an hour and then wash your hair with shampoo.

5. Egg Whites – Skin

Egg whites are really good for your skin. I don’t think it helps in getting rid of acne, but I think it’s supposed to be a good cleanser if you use it regularly. All you need to do is crack an egg, separate the yolk from the egg white, and then spread the egg white around your face. Keep the egg white on your face until your face feels tight and then wash it off with water.

6. Dried Orange Peels – Skin

Unfortunately, I’ve never made this facial/body scrub myself (my wonderful mother has made it for me instead), so I won’t be able to provide any specific directions on how you can make this. However, I think the general process is to dry some orange peels for a couple of days, grind them until they become powder-like, and mix them with any type of oil that you are comfortable with using on your face/body (coconut oil, almond oil, and olive oil, are recommended). And there you have it! Your own facial/body scrub that smells really good and actually works! Remember that like any other scrub, don’t scrub your skin so hard that your skin becomes red/irritated. I’ve tried this before on my face and I can confirm that it works really well to soften and remove dead skin and to remove acne like blackheads.

Happy Diwali! – 10/19/2017

Happy Diwali!

Diwali (or Deepawali) essentially means “the Festival of Lights.” It’s an auspicious 5-day festival for all who follow Hinduism and it symbolizes the good overcoming the evil. During Diwali, Hindus usually make rangoli using powdered colours, dress up in their best traditional clothes, light diyas (candles), do a pooja (prayer), and then celebrate using fireworks and by eating sweets. Most of the time, gifts are also given to family members and friends. “The festivities start with Dhanteras (in the northern and western parts of India), followed by Naraka Chaturdasi on second day, Diwali on the third day, Diwali Padva dedicated to wife–husband relationship on the fourth day, and festivities end with Bhai Dooj dedicated to sister–brother bond on the fifth day” (Wikipedia).

Rangoli design

There are various religious meaning behind this festival. One meaning is that it is the day that Lord Ram defeats Ravana and comes back to Ayodhya from Sri Lanka with his wife, Sita, younger brother, Lakshman, and Lord Hanuman after being unfairly exiled for 14 years. This probably does not make much sense to you because I summarized the story very briefly. If you would like to learn more about it, the story is called Ramayana.

Image result for ramayana

A small illustration of the main Gods and Goddesses involved in the Ramayana

Another belief is that it’s the day that the Pandavas finally return after their 12-year time in the forest (similar to how Lord Ram, Sita, and Lakshman were exiled). Furthermore, people also believe that Deepawali is the day that the goddess Lakshmi (depicted as the goddess of wealth and prosperity) marries Lord Vishnu (depicted as the god of protection and preservation).

Personally, I only knew about the first two stories because I don’t practice Hinduism strictly. Unfortunately, this causes me to have a disconnect with its rich culture and traditions. I’m slowly forcing myself to read more about the celebrations and practices in my religion to understand it better, but it’s hard because of the intricacies that come with following the oldest religion in the world. I  believe that all the religious stories in Hinduism were created to inform Hindus teach their followers about ethical dilemmas, sacrifices, and about what is wrong and what is right.

With that, I will end this blog post by wishing you all a Happy Diwali and a year filled with happiness and prosperity!

“Eye-ran” and “Eye-rack” or “Ee-rahn” and “Ee-rahk”?

Earlier this week, I asked my roommate how she pronounced Iran and Iraq and I noticed that she pronounced them as “Eye-ran” and “Eye-rack.” If you’re one of those people who pronounce Iran and Iraq like that, you’re not alone. From experience, I know that many people who aren’t from South Asia and the Middle East have grown up pronouncing Iran and Iraq in that way. However, I do have some news for you:

I know that this might be a silly conversation topic, but many people would argue that there is no incorrect pronunciation for a word or name as long as it gets the point across. Others, might say that the correct way to pronounce a word or a phrase is as it is pronounced in the language that it is from. It’s an on-going debate.

I agree with both, but I do think think that I should abide by the latter if it is possible for me to pronounce the word right. Obviously, I’m not trying to say that we should pronounce English words that originated from French or Latin in those languages. I just think that the least we can do is try to pronounce the names of countries, people, and monuments as accurately as possible if our accents allow us to.

There are many factors that may disable people from pronouncing certain words correctly, such as but not limited to:

  • Pronunciations in different languages limit people from pronouncing certain words correctly because some languages don’t need to do certain things like rolling their r’s, etc. while others do.
  • People not being exposed to multiple languages while growing up so they are not aware of the way some words are pronounced in other languages.

That’s why people believe that it doesn’t matter how you pronounce words, as long as others can understand what you are trying to say. I completely agree with this statement, but because I know multiple languages such as English, Hindi, French, Punjabi, and Urdu, I know that I am able to pronounce lots of words in different languages properly (or more accurately than people who have been exposed to a less number of languages). Therefore, I appreciate it when people take the effort to pronounce certain words more accurately than before (such as Iran and Iraq) if their accent allows them.

I’ll finish this post off with this funny video that I found about the importance of pronunciation: