Thinker Belle

As thoughts grow in time

What I Learned From My Years of Being a KPOP Fangirl

Ultimate biase, Cho Kyuhyun
cr pic: y-kyuhyun

I think I've found my writing muse once again. These days ideas kept popping out! Anyways, I actually thought about this post as I was 'fangirl-ing' over Super Junior comeback . Oh by the way I'll spell fan girl as 'fangirl' through out the post because it feels weird when i put space between it. Haha. And oh, these things does apply to fanboys too but I'll just write it basing on my fangirl experience.

Well, over and over again I find being a fangirl is mentally, physically, and also monetarily exhausting. And despite years of practice, a number of comebacks, I still can't fully adjust to it. I kept learning new things, experiencing new excitement as well as setback. And most importantly, as I age on, the experience and feelings varies.

And below are some of the things I've learned over the course of seven years (or probably more) of being a KPOP fangirl.

1. Types of Fangirl

In my high and low of being a fangirl, I have learned to not just group a fangirl as just 'fangirl'.
They're so many types of them. There are fangirls who you could say a bit obsessive and act like 'their-oppas-are-always-right'. Usually from my experience, these fans are the newbie one. Therefore if you see someone commenting badly about a certain group on for example; Youtube, the fangirls who would react most negatively are mostly the new one (most probably those who are just 1-2 years into KPOP or the group itself). Most fights with non KPOP fans usually got bad because they just can't ignore the hate comments and react negatively. Since they can't just stand back seeing their oppas got criticize. 

 Meanwhile, the more mature and experienced fangirls; usually those who had been following the groups for more than three years tend to be more relaxed, laid back, and not easily swayed by hates comments. They usually will just be the middle man to calm down fights, and usually the most consistent in being a fan. Because yes, as easy a group can gain new fans, it's very easy to lose them too since rookies group nowadays are just too many. Being a more experienced fan has it merits too. Surprisingly, a fan community is not that large, and after a few years of being a fangirl, you will definitely find your own circles to spazz with. You'll even get to know fangirls from the same fandom from other countries too.



2. 'Fangirl' Terms

There are a few must know fangirls term that not necessarily be in Korean that you should know so that at least when you heard them you won't feel as clueless as I was at first.

Spazzing in dictionary means to flip out without reason (in negative manner), which is funny because we fangirl actually use the word 'spazzing' to refer to the moment when we went all out gossiping about our favourite group with our fellow fangirls circle. You see our 'spazzing' and the original meaning are two different things, because we flip out excitedly! 

 Comeback is probably the most awaited word for any KPOP fangirl. Comeback happens when your favourite group release a new album and going to perform them on Korean weekly music show. If we're to compare it to Malaysia, 'TV3's Muzik Muzik' is probably the closest thing. During comeback, and along the promotion time, we fans will start voting to make sure our favorite group win. Weekly chart doesn't only be based on online voting, but also overall physical album sales and overall digital sale.

Selca is another word for selfie. The difference is, KPOP fangirls rarely use the term selfie but use selca instead. Selca or self camera are just the same thing but since Korean use that term so we tend to use them as well. Thats why sometimes my non KPOP fans friends will raise their eyebrows when I said selca instead of selfie.


3. Haters Are Everywhere, Literally

The hardest part of being a KPOP fangirl is probably the stigma that has been thrown towards us by some people. In fact, there were times that I wanted to hide it because some people made me feel like I'm liking something so bad, like drugs or alcohol. But I've learned my way to shake them off. People are hard to please, and I now know that people who don't respect me, I shouldn't give them even a minute of my life.


4. Basic Korean is a Plus
  
We need them to understand the songs, the shows, the dramas, the tweets and even Instagram status. Or to be honest, over the years you'll actually learn them almost automatically. This is one of the merits of being a fangirl. I've actually learned so much about Korean language and cultures just through being fangirl. At least even if I were to be lost alone in the middle of soul, I'll have some basic knowledge about reading the sign post, or even to ask for help. I might not be able to understand complex sentence, but all I need to understand about 70% of the words and I'll be able to roughly guess them before any translation is out.


cr: theoneilovesj
 5. You'll Form Unexpected Friendship and Bonds

This is probably one of the best thing I've gained from being a fangirl. I've found people whom I can't even imagine them to not be a part of my life in the future. We've cried and we've laughed together. In the most bizarre and hilarious way, we've experienced things we won't even encountered in our daily life. Planning our Korea trip together, went to Karaoke and sang KPOP songs for a straight 3 hours or probably more, queuing up all night to get the best ticket seat, counting days before our favourite group comeback; so many wonderful things like this make our friendship something unconventional yet very strong. And now, we shares everything, even things that's not related to KPOP. Our pain, our sadness, our problems. And the best part of them, sometimes we do all of that even when we're literally thousands kilometers away from each other, because we live in different part of the world.


Well those above are the things I've learned over the course of the years, and I'm pretty sure I'll learn even more. And one thing for sure, something can turn beneficial or bad for you depends on how you do it. And thankfully, I think I've found the good ways of doing it.

P/S: My Super Junior Mamacita Album is now in Malaysia but I haven't got the chance to go and get them from my friend. Will do unboxing post soon!

Till next post, toodles~! ♥ミ

2 Comments

  1. Hi Anis!~
    Stumbled your blog thru facebook.
    Maybe we should plan a Korea trip together!! Teringin sgt nak pergi tapi xde org nak teman obviously sbb they're not as excited about Korea as me. Haha
    Planning for a trip this end of year. InsyaALLAH :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      Ouhh! I'm planning to go to this year.
      But we postponed it since we're waiting for one of our friend to finish her studies.
      Thanks for commenting ;)

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