Ko-Eun

Bursting the Alma bubble

The "hot or not" fad moves East

AMY WILLEY

Staff Writer

CHOI KO-EUN

Editor of the Sogang Herald
swke@sogang.ac.kr

There are new slang words used nowadays in Korea including uljjang, momjjang, and the like. These words commonly contain the word jjang. Jjang means stunningly attractive person and it makes new compound words like uljjang, momjjang. Among those compound words derived from jjang, uljjang and momjjang are the most popular words and widely used. Then, what are the uljjang and momjjang? Ul comes from the word ulguel meaning face, so uljjang indicates the person who has excellent and gorgeous appearance. Mom means body and momjjang is also an expression for the person whose body is perfect and desirable.

So why are these words becoming so popular in Korea? Because of the appearance-oriented value, those words focusing on only outside of the body are becoming issues and even making a trend.

As the trend of appearance-oriented value becomes more and more widespread, people are likely to be affected by that value and try to make themselves fit the mold. For one thing, plastic surgery is much more common than ever before. Only a few years ago, people had negative thoughts about plastic surgery, but now it is considered as a positive. For instance, people who had plastic surgery tried to hide it, but now the fact of having plastic surgery does not matter and it's no longer shame or negative.

People also try to lose weight and build muscles. People, especially young women, try to do excessive diet and exercises, and suffer from the suppression upon them that slim women are attractive and popular so women should be slim. Men as well as women cannot be free from the suppression, so they try to do exercises to build muscles in fitness clubs everyday.

The most distinctive feature of this trend is that people make uljjang and momjjang by themselves through the Internet. They poster pictures of themselves or acquaintances who are stunning on the Internet web sites. Then, other people see those pictures and admit some people of them as uljjang and momjjang. In that way, some people gain popularity and even become entertainers.

However, there are other sides of this trend. First, it is the problem that people blindly pursue appearance as the most significant thing. When they meet a person for the first time or judge a person, they only use a standard of appearance. People who become famous through the Internet are considered by only one standard; they are gorgeous and stunning. People even suppose that there is correlation between appearance and abilities. For example, there is another word derived from jjang, kangjjang. Kang means robber. Can you understand what the kangjjang means? One person posted a wanted poster on the web sites which contains the picture of one pretty robber woman. The woman became uljjang, though she is a wanted robber. There are several Internet web sites of her fan's community, and those fans insist that the pretty woman cannot be a robber or she should be pardoned.

Secondly, the standard of beauty or appearance becomes standardized. People follow the standard the media gives to them like uljjang and momjjang. Most people, especially young people, think that uljjang and momjjang are desirable and are the model they should follow. Their thoughts about beauty become uniform, and they think appearances different from their model ugly or poor, and even ignore it.

Nowadays Korean people, especially the youth, try to make themselves look attractive and gorgeous because of the appearance-oriented trend, so they spend much time, money and effort making themselves up. This trend is not always desirable, though it is one of the instincts of humans. In the time of the youth, there are lots of things people want and have to do. Among those things, culturing mind and developing intelligence are important. Yet the young spend too much time in front of the mirror being a slave to appearance-oriented value, uljjang and momjjang.

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