Reoww!!

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Achievement of the Week

These nights, the TV has been my best companion. It's been pretty entertaining, actually - this drowning in incessant Mandarin conversations. No, seriously.

And thus the bitching begins:

...

Imagine my pain when Mabel came trilling at my doorstep one day (the trilling, I mean - not the doorstep appearance... that has become the norm summat).

"I'm going to rent a Korean series - you must watch with me ok, Q!"

The fear the struck my heart then - I tell ya. It could almost rival the one I felt when she said the same for the Taiwanese variety shows she rented.

(Somehow, I got off the hook for that one tho - she ended up settling for just repeating the better jokes from the shows to us over the dinner table. ;) It was prolly more efficient that way, anyhow... :) )

Anyway, the Korean series... upon arriving at the video store in the city, we found out that the show would have the dialogue dubbed in Mandarin, unlike the alternative where there would be subtitles in Mandarin.

Mabel actually turned around to check if that was ok with me, looking slightly apologetic in the process.

How she thought that either option would have made the slightest difference to me, I do not know.

So - these recent nights have been spent on the sofa (it has remained upright for almost a month now, pretty amazing) in front of the TV, with a small dusty box fan blowing in our faces...

It's been a pretty educational experience, actually. These nights, I've seen heaps of odd little Korean girls prancing across the TV screen, with ponytails abounding in all places around their heads, except for the conventional spot, of course.

I also realise that Koreans tend to inject lots of groans in their sentences. It's pretty hard to describe, but suffice to say that they have to end most of the sentences with: ".... ARRR", or ".... ORRHH". I kid you not.

Another cosmic truth about these characters on the show - every conversation they make sees their necks go into major overwork. What do I mean? Well - the girls simply can't keep their heads upright when holding conversation... instead, they bob all over the place, in timing with their words. I can't understand it. And it drives me nuts.

...

But having said that, I have found myself actually caught up with the series - yes, it's the ultimate horror of horrors. ;) No la... the show does sorta grow on you somehow, ponytails, head-bobbing and all. I find myself wanting to find out what happens to the girl, to the guy, to the evil ex-girlfriend, to the sister, etc.

You get my gist.

After all, there was quite a bit of hard work put into the first few nights:
... fighting sleep after the first half-hour and failing miserably...
... sneaking into the far corner of the sofa so that I wouldn't be caught by Mabel...
... startling up after every 15 mins or so just to make the occasional comment or laughter, to show that I was still following the show...

It was no easy task, I tell ya. :P Tho I must admit, it was pretty annoying to find out that Mabel knew about me sleeping all throughout (she said I snored, bloody hell... so much for my attempt at discretion). All that hard work for nothing.

Oh - and also, the night gets peppered with Mabel's contented sighs whilst watching the series. And trust me, she does this a lot. She remains unfazed by my interruptions about how the heroine seems to have rather low blood pressure (she keeps fainting during the show, particularly during love declarations), or about how most defence lawyers (the hero, in this case) do not go on life-threatening drug busts with the police, leaving fretting wives at home - honestly, they do not.

She just glares at me, then continues with her sighs.

...

So for now, I can safely say that I may even make it to the end of the series. And actually know most of what was actually going on in there. The hard work has paid off!

Yay for me. :)

. o O declared Lid at 4:52:00 AM