Aileen TS#4

  Wednesday morning I met up with Skype tutee. Every session I've been trying to go off a different theme to talk about so that my tutee can familiarize with new vocabulary as well as keeping the conversation fresh. We had ended our previous session talking about Korean music. At the beginning of this session I had my tutee read an article about one of the Korean groups and their incredible international presence, especially in the U.S. We shared our individual reflections as to why they had become so popular over the last couple of years. He had shared with me that this particular group, BTS, wasn't even that popular in Korea itself, having hardly any air time on TV. In South Korea he finds that girl groups are recognized more so he was genuinely surprised when he found out that I knew about them. I provided some cultural factors as to why, one of them being the fact that BTS has a different formula that has them stand out from the rest. From taboo lyrics to coming from a small company to the dark concepts, the US audience really resonated with the messages that BTS had to share. Also, in the US music is one of the many cultural offerings to use as a coping method. I explained to him what coping methods were and asked him if he could relate to such a concept. Being from South Korea, one of the most overworked and stressful societies to live in he definitely related but he said that for the most part people partake in drinking as a group to deal with the stress. Overall,  it was a good session for exchanging cultural perspectives.