When facing a problem or a confusion, most of us would seek advice from the people we trust the most. (if you don't, well, you should!) Be it friends, teachers, colleagues or family, it's always better to speak out about what we are going through as it gets it off our chests and who knows - they might even be able to give us some useful tips or advice on the topic. Most of the time, the two people who know or understand us the best are our very own parents. They were the ones who gave us life, raised us and took care of us since young. They are bound to know at least a tad bit about us and would probably give some decent advice, right? The bigger question is, which one? Which one of our parents would give better advice- mom or dad? We took to asking a few of our friends about their opinions on which parent gives them better advice and why. Let's get started, shall we?
Keisha Ranu (13 y/o, female)
For me, my mom gives better advice compared to my dad. This is probably because my mom is a better listener whereas my dad would just forget what I was telling him in the first place. It may also be because she, too, might have gone through the things I am experiencing as she is also a girl. She gives me motherly advice which my dad wouldn't be able to give and she understands me more. I really appreciate her useful advice and this is why I feel my mom gives me better advice.
Dinesh Ravi (16 y/o, male)
My immediate answer to this question is my dad. Firstly, my father's advice is always rational and unlike my mom, less affected by emotions. My father also tends to be more open to my feelings and opinions whereas my mom has more of a fixed mindset. I'm thankful to have the both of them to advise me and help me out every day; however, I think my father's well thought out advice proves to have a better impact on my life.
Loh Jey Tse (14 y/o, female)
In my opinion, it is pretty hard to decide who gives me better advice. I mean, both of my parents are very helpful when I need it but both in different aspects. My mom gives me good advice about simple things as she is at home most of the time. My dad, however, gives me advice on deeper topics such as life lessons or things he has learnt though experience. He seems to have gone through a lot and it really shows in the advice he gives me. All in all, I wouldn't be able to decide on only one parent who gives be better advice as I feel the both of them are like a balance of serious and simple, which are equally important.
There we have it. The scores are tied for both moms and dads on who gives better advice. Who do YOU feel gives you better advice? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments down below! That's all for now and thank you all very much for reading. Adios, Wonderers!
Hey guys! Dhanya here and I'm back with a book review. I absolutely love a good book and Fangirl is just that. Shoutout to my blog partner Wei Ling for lending me the book - a great recommendation indeed. (seeing as it took me four days to read it) Fangirl was written by Rainbow Rowell and she is truly gifted.
The thing is... I get bored pretty easily so each and every book I read needs a good plot. Fangirl has an interesting plot that is pretty relatable too. Not that I have an identical twin but you get the picture. Cath (the main character) has an identical twin and reasonably outgoing twin sister. Wren believes that Cath should make more friends and decides not to room with her sister at college. Throughout the book, Cath faces boy problems, dad crises, sister issues and juggling a fanfiction read by thousands. I think that's enough to entice anyone to read Fangirl or any book in general.
I absolutely love the range of characters in this book. We have Cath - shy and introverted. Then, we have her sister, Wren - outgoing and extroverted. I think that summarizes most of the types of girls you come across. It is extremely easy to relate ourselves to these characters and the situations they're put through. We can even learn some 'lessons' from guys like Nick and I think that most of us fell hopelessly in love with the fictional Levi.
I think you can tell that I pretty much enjoyed reading this book. WHO AM I KIDDING? I LOVED IT HAHAH. Rainbow Rowell is an amazing writer and maybe we'll see more of her books here in this blog. All in all, Fangirl is definitely a book that fangirls should be fangirling about. More to come. Adios, Wonderers!
JYP Entertainment's GOT7 is back with yet another mini album, "Just Right"! The title track for this album is, as you can probably tell from the name, Just Right or 딱 좋아 in Korean. Take a look at the music video if you haven't yet then come back here and read our reviews! Let's go~
*click on CC for English subtitles!*
Wei Ling
JYP Entertainment's GOT7 is back with another mini album, with the title track 'Just Right'! Woohoo~~ I was pretty excited when I heard about it as GOT7 is one of my favourite boy groups and their last few songs were pretty impressive. They came back this time with a brighter and more colourful concept which is quite different from their Stop Stop It (or hajima) era. To be honest, I kinda like this side of GOT7 better than the tough 'sang namja' image which they had previously. A short while before this, they released a Japanese track called Love Train with a similar concept which prepared and hyped up all the fans for this comeback. The song wasn't really my style as it had too much of a Jpop feel to it and this caused me to have pretty low expectations for Just Right. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised!
The music video was mainly about this teenage girl who felt upset about her appearance and the boys cheering her up, telling her that she is just right the way she is. (see what I did there heuheuheu) It doesn't have a particular plot other than the girl becoming happier as she accepts her appearance. The members appear as miniature versions of themselves dancing around in her bedroom. The green screen effects were actually very well done and it all looked quite real. The behind the scenes shows that they were using huge props to make themselves look small and I think this was a cute and cool idea. My favourite part of the video is that the members genuinely look like they were having fun which can be seen by the 'interesting' faces they pull while dancing. *ahem*BamBam*ahem*
The meaning of the song was quite easy to guess as the name Just Right already gives a huge hint as to what it meant. The video starts off with the girl using some kind of appliance (which looks to me like a facial cleanser) to 'fix' her face. She is seen crying as she looks at herself in the mirror andis probably insecure or upset with the way she looks. Throughout the video, the members are making "okay" signs with their hands, telling the girl that she is good or, in this case, just right. (HAH sorry I just had to)
The lyrics don't really have much of an underlying meaning and basically sends the message that you are just right the way you are and not to worry too much about it. I find that this song is a great public service announcement that highlights self-worth and will make girls, or even guys, feel better about themselves. The lyrics include phrases such as:
Mirror, mirror, please tell her Scale, you too tell her You don’t need to change a thing, you’re just pretty You look perfect just the way you are
No matter how hard I try to find And look at you again and again That unpretty spot you keep talking about I can’t see it at all I feel like these are things girls all over the world worry about and it will make most people (especially the fans) feel less insecure about knowing that others face these problems as well.
The dancing in this video is definitely more laid back than some of the current boy groups and it's a nice change to be able to focus more on the singing than the dancing. (and not to mention their beautiful faces hehe) However, the choreography includes some flips from the 'martial art-y' members, which is very GOT7 style indeed. The dance starts off with Jackson's flip and is followed up by Mark's flip shortly after. *whispers*woah that escalated quickly.
They released two different dance practice videos, one being the normal version to celebrate their video hitting 3 million views and the Crazy Boyfriend version for the achievement of 5 million views. The regular version showcased the members' sharp dance moves which definitely improved since their debut. The Crazy Boyfriend version, on the other hand, showed their playful and crazy side. They have released a few crazy boyfriend dance practices before but this was by far my favourite.
The regular dance practice
The Crazy Boyfriend dance practice
The song is VERY CATCHY and has been replaying in my head ever since I first heard it. It has a very unique melody and flow which I like a lot. It has very sudden transitions from rap to a rich vocal to a light, happy chorus and an "interesting" interlude. I feel that this song focuses a lot on Youngjae's singing and I am also very happy that they gave Jackson two parts *ahem*BIAS*ahem*.
I quite like the setting of the music video and their colourful outfits. (which I heard are mostly from an American apparel shop called Odd Future(?)) This concept fits the "summer" image that is going around now, for example, with Girls Generation and Sistar. The bright image is certainly eye-catching and my style. I like the message sent by this song and video as it is very positive and cheerful. There's nothing bad I can really point out in this video other than maybe the cheesiness of it all and the girl's awkward acting. Overall, I think GOT7 did it just right yet again and I would give it a solid 9 out of 10.
Dhanya
I yet again know close to nothing about this group as well but I'm going to give this new music video a shot as well. Let's begin. So 'Just Right' is a song by one of Wei Ling's favourite groups and the music video was actually pretty interesting. I'm not sure if there is necessarily a plot but there is a pretty interesting idea behind the music video and song. The setting happens to be in a girl's bedroom and I like how they show the members size contrasting with the girl's room.
Alright, here comes my terrible attempt at guessing the story line behind the music video. Keep in mind, this was before I watched it with lyrics. I just so happened to get myself to believe that the girl was upset about something that had happened maybe concerning her family or friends. Then, all of a sudden, the boys turn up in her room and sing to try and cheer her up. They succeeded in doing this as she begins to slowly smile and ends up dancing with them. Her happiness was shown as she jumps on her bed and lies down smiling at the very end.
Once again, I watched the music video but this time with subtitles. HAHA I WAS SO WRONG. So I figured out that she had actually been upset about her appearance in the beginning of the music video and that's when the boys showed up. They began to tell her that she did not have to change a single thing about herself and that she was 'just right'. They managed to make her feel better about herself and she accepted herself for who she was. Then, proceeded to dance and sing with the rest of them.
Next, we have the dance. I watched two videos regarding this section. One of them was the dance practice video and the other was the 'crazy boyfriend' version. Overall, I thought the dance was pretty cool and their moves matched the beats pretty well. I also enjoyed how they kept the moves very light and fun, constantly moving around and smiling as well. Even the crazy boyfriend version brought tears of laughter to my eyes. I think my favourite was the one dressed in pink HAHAHA (i still don't know their names)
ALRIGHT. Time for my overall thoughts. I actually really liked what the girl was wearing in the music video and the boys looked good as usual. HAHA. Okay. I also really liked the setting and YES, I did notice how the words 'Just Right' appeared in random places throughout the music video. Do they do that a lot? HAHA IDK.
Oh yea and the song was actually really nice. I usually don't really take interest in the song when doing these reviews but this one was REALLY catchy. (I even downloaded it heh) I found that the song itself actually sends a valuable message to the viewers and fans. It's not everyday that you can touch on a sensitive topic like that yet make it fun and happy at the same time. Lastly, I give this music video a rating of 8 out of 10 because I really liked this one (you could say it was more than just right) OK THAT WAS BAD. I'LL JUST LEAVE NOW.
There we have it! This is the end of our GOT7 Just Right review. Thank you very much for reading and feel free to leave YOUR opinions in the comments down below. Don't forget to come back this weekend for our very first book review! Adios, Wonderers!
Hello, Wonderers! This is Wei Ling and I'm back with yet another Kpop related post! (I swear I'm not addicted) Brace yourselves for the long fangurly post that's about to unfold. READY? LET'S GOOO~~~
I was on Twitter one day and a very special announcement caught my eye - "CNBLUE IS COMING TO MALAYSIA". I jumped around and screamed in joy, only to be asked by my mother whether I had lost my mind. Indeed, I had. I immediately did my research (which is very 'sasaeng' styled) and found out that a menswear store called "The Class" was bringing them over to officiate the opening of their first stand-alone store in Malaysia. They said that they would announce ways to get passes to the event 'soon' on their Facebook page. In true Malaysian style, what meant to be 'soon' turned out to be nearly a month. The worse part was, it was only announced the DAY BEFORE the release of the passes. It was difficult to convince my dad to spend FATHERS' DAY queuing up with me at 8 in the morning but he agreed in the end.
We ended up reaching the mall at around 7.30 am and there were already about 30 other fans sitting in a line outside the unopened shop. We all waited until about 9.30 am when the staff came. After a lot of pushing, havoc, anger and confusion, I was allowed to enter the store where I had to spend RM250 to redeem the limited VIP Passes. Due to the limited number of passes available and the increasing number of fans entering the store, I grabbed the first two shirts I saw and paid as quickly I as could. I was very lucky to get the 61st pass out of the available 80. I bought a shirt for my dad from the shop as a Fathers' Day present and also as a 'thank you for wasting your time with me here' gift.
On the 4th of July (Yay Amuricaaaa Day), it was finally the D-Day of the event. My dad and I went to the mall at around 9.30 am and lined up with the other VIP pass holders. From what I noticed, CNBLUE's fans are not as young as the fans I have seen at other Kpop events. I was EASILY the youngest person in that queue. However, I managed to make a few friends who shared similar interests and, of course, loved CNBLUE. At 11 am, the staff gave us all queuing numbers to enter the standing section later on. Since my dad and I were so 'kia su', I managed to get number 19! The kind people at Parkson decided to give a CNBLUE X The Class hand fan and Parkson vouchers worth RM100 to each pass holder! (yay to Parkson!)
When we were finally allowed to enter the designated area, it all started to kick in. I was about to meet my idols, my oppas. Live. In person. Face to face. They would finally know that I exist. (well, this is getting a BIT too sasaeng) The event started off with a mini fashion show to showcase The Class' new Spring/Summer 2015 collection. The girls around me were all swooning over the gorgeous models and I have to admit, I was too. At one point, one of the models looked over to my section and gave a smirk which caused all us girls to erupt in squeals and giggles.
The roar of the crowd's screams was DEAFENING. As CNBLUE walked on stage, there was a sea of phone cameras and DSLRs snapping pictures of them. The emcee and translator asked them a few questions about The Class and also about their plans to come back to Malaysia. The leader, Yonghwa, played it very safe by saying that they would come back here if they release a new album.
The difference between CNBLUE and the other groups I have seen is that they are much friendlier and smiley-er. When the fans waved at them, they waved back happily and this caused a LOT of screams. When I waved at Minhyuk and Jungshin, they both looked me in the eyes, smiled sweetly and waved back. Yonghwa, on the other hand, gave me a double thumbs up, a cheeky smile and a wave when I waved and shouted "OPPA, OPPA!!". I swear, that guy is out to kill me with his charms *fanits*. During the signing event on stage, all the members said hi, signed the card and looked me straight in the eyes. I was so nervous and starstuck that everything I had planned to say to them went down the drain. All I managed to do was muster up the phrases "Annyeong, oppa", "Hello" and "Thank you". (and of course the slight bowing that comes naturally when you know you watch too many Korean dramas and variety shows)
I was trembling in shock as I got off the stage and I may or may not have tripped over my own feet while walking away. It was an amaaazing experience and I feel so blessed to have been given the chance to do this. This will definitely be a memory that I will never forget and will cherish forever. Oh no. I think I've rambled on too much. Well, I warned you guys. Okay, let me wrap this up quickly before I get carried away again. Thank you so much for reading this post. Please come back for more blog posts soon. Adios, Wonderers!
Hello
again! It's Dhanya here with another post! Today, I'm going to be sharing an
interesting fact about myself with everyone. I just so happen to be a Poom 2 in
Taekwondo (big surprise there!) For anyone who doesn’t know,
Taekwondo is a form of Korean Martial Arts and Poom 2 is the 2nd
level for red/black belt holders. I’ve been learning Taekwondo since I was 7
years old actually and I pretty much owe it to my grandma for enrolling me.
Anyways,
I decided to fill you guys in about a Taekwondo competition I went for
recently! It was held on the 6th and 7th of June this
year. I took part in a few events on both days, the first event being the ‘Jumping-Front
Kick’ event on Saturday. The good news is I made it to the finals! The bad news
is my height and strength failed me as I was not able to jump high enough to
break the second plank at the height of 195cm. I was pretty disappointed but
did not want that simple let down to affect the rest of the competition.
Thankfully, the rest of the day was for participants in the primary school
category.
My teammates and I practicing during lunch break.
The
next day, I had three more events to compete in. The first event was ‘Individual
Poomsae’. I was completely shocked when they announced that the age group I was
competing in was 13 to 18 as there were A LOT of talented people there. I
surprised myself by getting into the finals and gave it my all; however, I couldn’t
make it into the Top 3 but I managed to achieve 5th place and will
work my way up from there.
My teammates for the team poomsae event,
The
second event for the day was ‘Team Poomsae’. I was teamed up with my fellow
teammates Hasif and Mercy and we had been practicing together for about a
month. One of the main judging criteria was that we had to be synchronized and
it took us some time to get the hang of it. We finished off two patterns with a
score of 5.7; however, this happened to be the exact same result as yet another
team. We were given second place overall as the other team had better marks
from the performance aspect. We were disappointed but surprised that our
efforts proved to be worth it.
Team Poomsae event during the Team Competition.
My
last event for the day was the ‘Team Competition’ and we were all exhausted by
that point. Not to mention, one of our members wasn’t feeling well. This event
involved a team of 7 or more people and we were judged based on a Team Poomsae, Self
Defense, Jumping Kick, Four-Direction Breaking, Spinning Kick and Power
Breaking. We had been practicing for a while now and this had been our third competition performing
as a team. We gave it our all and managed to achieve 1st place in the 13 –
16 age group.
That
was the perfect ending to an excruciatingly tiring two days. In all honesty, I
love the fact that I have a team who support me wholeheartedly and make me feel
as though I’m a part of their ‘family’ even though I’ve only been with them for only about a year now. I believe that everyone should be part of a team (any sort of
team really) and it’s fun too! Alright, more to come soon! Adios, Wonderers!
Hello, Wonderers. We are back with yet another mid-week post. This time, it will be our new segment which we have talked about in the last post. (If you haven't read it, please go check it out first.) We will be reviewing Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS, Bangtan Boys, or in Korean, 방탄소년단)'s new music video for the song Dope. This song is in their latest album, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 1. It has recently been released as a single and promotions are still going on. Now, without further ado, we will be sharing our thoughts on the music video. Let's go~~
*please turn on the CC for English subtitles!*
Dhanya
Based on what I've
just watched, I can't really make out a plot. However, they DANCE which is
pretty entertaining to be honest. It kinda takes away from the fact that there
isn't a plot but I do know that some Kpop music videos have a
plot, from Wei Ling's (futile) attempts at dragging me into the Kpop army. (is
that even what they're called?) HAHA. I apologise for offending anyone with my
lack of knowledge! Back to the point, I like the transitions used in the MV
when they switch into a different scene as it has a very smooth flow and it was
definitely well edited. My best guess is that the music video was shot at a
warehouse since the backdrop is a brick wall and pipes can be seen lining the
walls.
So, I watched the music video once or
twice WITHOUT subtitles and had absolutely no clue what was going on but I gave
it a wild guess anyways. I didn't have very much to start off with but I came
up with the idea that they were all men with different jobs. It looked as
though they were trying to show that their jobs were better (or dope-r) than
each other's. I pretty much thought of this because one of the transitions
seemed to portray what I was thinking. Little did I know, I was EXTREMELY
wrong.
Next, I proceeded to actually watch
the music video with subtitles and it completely changed my view on the
storyline. I learnt that the member of the group BTS who sang the song are
actually trying to voice their opinions. They talk about how they work very
hard as a group (?) when they say "sweating it out". They also try to
voice their opinion on women when they say that 'women' go clubbing all night
and don't actually work hard for their future. Last but not least, I learnt
that the members believe that their elders condemn them and all the effort they
put in. Apparently, they do believe that the job they put their sweat and tears
into is not worth while and not considered a REAL job.
HMMM. Now, onto their DANCE MOVES. I think
my favourite part of the music video was watching them dance. Their
synchronization truly AMAZED me. You can tell they really put hard work and
effort into every single move and that is something I admire. I especially
liked when they danced in a group since you could see them all hit the moves at
the exact same time. Every pause they took seemed to create a picture perfect
image. Oh My God! Who else thinks that other English- based boy bands should
adopt this culture? I definitely do! Who would disagree to watching the members
of One Direction dancing as they belted out songs? None, I hope!
Ahh. We have now reached the part where I
give my overall thoughts. To sum up everything I watched, it was actually
really enjoyable as I don't usually watch Kpop music videos. I think I've only
watched one or two others that Wei Ling got me to watch. Even those were pretty
interesting! I also really liked their costumes and the concept of the
different jobs. The costumes managed to compliment each member and they
actually looked like they belonged to whichever occupation they were told to
portray. I don't think I have enough experience in the Kpop world to rate this
music video but it really was enjoyable so I'll give it a 8 out of 10.
Wei Ling
This particular music video doesn't have a prominent plot and focuses mainly on their dancing. Compared to their previous music video, I Need U, this video does not have as deep of a meaning and can be easily understood by reading the lyrics. The flow of this music video is very good and the editing was done very well. The camera work is very professional and I am very happy with how the video turned out as I really like this song. This video is set in what looks like a warehouse and I am glad it wasn't filmed in a confined box-set, as a lot of other Kpop videos are.
Since I already knew what the lyrics for this song meant, I will go straight to the deeper meaning that I understand from the lyrics. In my opinion, this song talks about how other people their age and even other girls are partying away and having fun while they are working their butts off. It also states that their job as idols are seen as 'unstable' or 'a joke' by the public, especially their elders. They are trying to clear that assumption by saying how they work so much harder than most people their age and that their jobs are certainly not easy.
The dance. I felt chills when I watched this video for the first time. Just as all the fans thought that Danger and I Need U had difficult choreography, this bombshell was dropped upon us. The dance moves are so sharp and fast that it gives me a headache just watching them. Bangtan is known for their detailed and intricate dance moves and this certainly shows us just why. The two 'worst dancers' of the group, Rap Monster and Jin definitely practiced very hard and I couldn't even tell that dancing is not their forte. (well, their 'worst' dancers are still waaaaaaay above average tho)
I quite like this song's concept, which is the members having different jobs. This is because we get to see them wearing different types of uniforms and outfits for every music show (heehee). The plain backgrounds, such as regular brick walls, really make the members stand out, as opposed to having flashy lights or huge center pieces which are not only costly, but distracting. Overall, I like this music video and song very much. The video, however, is quite long and it would be very difficult to get my friends, who have VERY short attentions spans, to watch until the end. The song is very catchy and the lyrics are very meaningful, and not to mention, written by the members. (yay for original material). I would give this song and video an 8.5 out of 10.
Thank you all for reading this lengthy post. Please come back again this Saturday for a very special post. (hint: it has something to do with Dhanya's macho-ness) That's all for this post. Adios, Wonderers!
Hello, Wonderers! We are here to tell you guys about our neeeeeew corner! It will be, as you can probably tell from the title, Kpop music video reviews by a fan and someone who knows absolutely NOTHING about Kpop. We are pretttty sure you guys know who's who. We were planning to do this from a few weeks ago but our teacher had the same idea and gave this to us as an assignment. Well, all we can say is that great minds think alike! (either that or she's psychic)
Anyways, back to the topic, we are here to tell you the criteria of our reviewing and judging. Here we goooo~~
A. The music video
i) The plot
ii) The flow
iii) The setting
B. The dance and song
i) Without lyrics (what we think it means based on the music video alone)
ii) With lyrics (whether the music video's plot becomes clearer once knowing the meaning)
iii) The dance (if any)
C. Thoughts
i) What we think of the costumes and setting
ii) Our overall thoughts about the song and music video
iii) Our rating out of 10
We will be judging the music videos based on all the points above. However, we will omit any of the points if necessary. For example, if either one of us already know the meaning of the song, we will leave point B.i) out. We promise to be 100% honest even if we are fans of any of the groups (*whispers*no guarantees tho). That's all for today's post. Please stay tuned for our music video review which will come any time this week. It will be DOPE *ahem ahem*. Thank you very much for reading and Adios, Wonderers!
It all started when I was told that VIXX, a Kpop Idol group, was coming to Malaysia. One of the co-organisers was Astro Circle and they were giving out free tickets to their subscribers but they were out-of-stock in the blink of an eye. The second time they released the tickets, I was away on holiday but decided to wake up at midnight to attempt to fight the terrifying war with my fellow fandom mates for the passes. To my dismay, I overslept and my plan failed epically. :(
After being consoled by my close friend, we decided to go even though we did not have any tickets. On the morning of the event, my dad told me that his friend had helped me get standing tickets for the event. After loads of drama regarding the said tickets, my dad showed up at the venue. He told me that he had talked to the lady and that I was to redeem my tickets from one of the counters. My friend and I went there and we were given wristbands for the event. "So... Where do we go to line up?" I asked the lady at the counter. She replied in a confused voice, "No, you are in the VIP name list. You get to sit in the VIP section over there!" We started to freak out when the usher brought us to our seats - it was ONE ROW behind the VIXX members' seats. One. Row. You can just imagine how excited we were at every single movement the members made and everything they said. It was so surreal and overwhelming.
Ravi and Hongbin with their beautiful hair
They performed three of their songs after the competition ended and it was phenomenal. Every minute of it was amazing and I feel so lucky to have gotten this opportunity, which others would have KILLED to get. One of the highlights from my experience was when one of the members gave me a weeeeird look when I waved frantically at him. Alright, I have said more than enough now. Thanks a lot for reading and come back soon. This has been Wei Ling and Adios, Wonderers!
