Britney Lilly
Dr. Hall
1101-D355
- 11.19
Aegyo: Super Cute!!!
1 plus 1 equals Gwiyomi, 2 plus 2 equals Gwiyomi, 3 plus 3 equals Gwiyomi, 4 plus 4 equals Gwiyomi too, 5 plus 5 equals Gwiyomi too, 6 plus 6 equals Chu chu Chu chu Chu chu Gwiyomi, I’m Gwiyomi- Korean Aegyo song
That moment when you just want jagis(honey) last bite of ice and unleash the powerful trio: puppy eyes, pouted lips and fake huffing. Here in America some call this being cute though honestly, most would call it annoying and needy. In South Korea, they actually have a word solely dedicated to this act called aegyo. I remembered the first time I saw a K-pop music video and I was seventeen years old. This group called Big Bang had just debuted, and instantly I was hooked. To this day I am still a diehard Big Bang fan. It had everything any Asian culture fanatic would want, at least for me that is. Music videos alone were a work of art with beautiful stories being told, mesmerizing dance moves, varieties of colors and a ton of cute actions as fan service. I mean, who doesn’t like a good fan service from their idols am I right? Now, remember when I say fan service, at least for K-pop, I mean a bunch of things from simple fingers symbols to full-on gender bend outfits and actions.
Aegyo is the action of being ‘cute’ and is primarily used by women in South Korea when speaking to loved ones or trying to gain something that they want as well as flirting. When performing Aegyo you have to remember that not everybody enjoys it and it is seen as very annoying at times because there is what is called fake Aegyo and natural Aegyo. Fake is normally what you would see on TV or performances and overly exaggerated movements or words. Natural is when you’re not trying to seem cute for somebody and it tends to be the one that’s less annoying generally. Aegyo is generally expressed by females by simple actions like delicately covering their teeth while they laugh which is very common and acting like they are unable to open things like cans of soda. Aegyo is one of the most common acts in South Korea, as well as progressively within the United States amongst those who enjoy Korean economic export as in Korean music, K-dramas and movies. It is otherwise known as Hallyu which is a Chinese umbrella term used to refer to the phenomenal growth of the Korean culture amongst the western cultures. The closest English word we could find would be winsome.
If you happen to be into K-dramas or K-pop then you have already seen and heard Aegyo being used by actors or a multitude of singers. With K-pop comes biases, with biases comes fandoms and that fandom will ask for Aegyo and lots of ‘bwing bwing’. Let’s not forget something, we even see Agyeo here in the United States which are girls pouting their lips daily and wide-eyed ganging the peace sign while snapping selfies in a coffee shop. Even though it usually tends to be females, males are able to use it as well normally reserving it for the cute baby talk with their partner.
Fans use Korean words in their daily speech, these words are generally a form of Korean slang that recurs frequently in the Korean pop culture. For me, I find that the fans who I am generally around are female, so we call each other either 언니 (elder sister) or 동생 (younger sibling) and will talk about our biases (favorite group or person) as some call them 오빠 (big brother) which kind of makes me think of sempai (先輩) (upperclassmen) in Japanese. For example, I like talk to Zevanya about our biases a lot, especially when I’m really down. Watching G-Dragon doing really cute things as simple as just making cute faces or acting out the Gwiyomi song can really make me giddy. For a better understanding try imaging a bunch of little girls screaming at a Justin Bieber concert, now stop. I apologize for making you imagine that, but you get a general idea of just how fans act when talking amongst ourselves and cooing with an immense amount of Korean hand gestures like the finger hearts or the ‘v’ sign (in Korean movie is different as the English letter) and pouting while using sickeningly sweet baby voices.
I remember when I first got into Korean music and would show it to my friends since it made me feel happy and they would look at me like I grew two heads. Acting in an aegyo fashion with my loved ones, and oddly enough, it became more expected of me even though they found it annoying. It made me feel very uncomfortable and the thing that made me happy at that time became the thing that made me the most self-conscious. To be able to find a group of people that understand my language and my interest is an amazing thing because they are so full of love. The groups that are able to invoke this much emotion have a huge impact on aegyo. As a fan you’re gonna wanna watch your favorite group perform live because it’s almost there in the actual crowd. K – pop artists seem to have a lot more fun with their fans while performing which is easy for you as the viewer to feel like you’re there and they’re actually trying to interact with you.
Groups or singers that are very well known for using it is Girls generation which is just a group of cute Aegyo girls in my honest opinion. Followed by Se7en, Wanna One, Monsta X, the list goes on. In the K-pop comes fandoms and those fandoms ask for Aegyo and bbwing bbwing. I really enjoy how cultures bring diverse people together in mutual understanding. To me, a word as simple as aegyo is a great example of a cultural phenomenon that can be, and often is, misunderstood and/or interpreted in an unnecessarily negative light. Many may have that love-hate relationship with aegyo culture, most seem to lean more towards the latter. But for those who shy away from things they view as odd or different should remember that it is important to learn about what others enjoy with no assumptions in their minds. Everyone has a bit of aegyo in them and shouldn’t be afraid or uncomfortable to let it out.
~~~~ 닥터 홀 당신은 최고입니다 !!!! ~~~
Works Cited
- Korean, 90 Day. “Korean Aegyo: The Seven Levels.” 90 Day Korean®, 3 Feb. 2019, www.90daykorean.com/korean-aegyo/.
- “Aegyo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegyo.
- account, The Korea HeraldVerified. “The Korea Herald (@TheKoreaHerald).” Twitter, Twitter, 18 Mar. 2019, twitter.com/TheKoreaHerald.
