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A few years ago eating alone in public was the last thing that Choi So-a would have considered doing. Now, after many years with a busy social life, Choi chooses to eat, drink and travel by herself on a regular basis. It does not mean that this 30-year-old single woman has given up her social life. As an artist who specializes in traditional Korean craftwork she meets lots of people. But she now makes sure she has some time alone on most days. She has discovered that being alone is something to enjoy, something that is necessary in her life. Korea has recently adopted a term for people like Choi ― the Gloomy Generation, or simply, the Gloomies. Choi shrugs off the negative connotations of the term, although she protests that there is “nothing gloomy” about being a Gloomie. She is well aware that her home country is a place where people do things in groups. “What can I say? I used to feel safe in groups and pitied single diners in the past,” Choi says, claiming she has decided that life is too short to care about what others think. Yet the world is not so ready to leave her alone. Sitting in her favorite bar enjoying acid jazz and a cocktail, she has to be alert!! to fend off flirtations. So why does she take the trouble to be alone? “To be truly me,” she says. “I used to think that making an effort to understand others was the key to life,” Choi says. “But now, I don’t want to bother to understand others. I don’t have time for that.” Then she adds, “I’m not ignoring other people, though. I am just ignoring the nuisance of forming relationships with others.” Choi defines herself as an individual who needs time to herself to avoid the hassles of social life. Her prerequisite items for survival include an MP3 player and, sometimes, earplugs, to isolate herself from the noise of the crowd. Getting her to agree to an interview demanded time and effort. At first she insisted on answering questions through cell phone text messages. Then she agreed to meet online, breaking her rule of minimizing contact with strangers. Choi’s pursuit of gloominess is not an isolated phenomenon. It’s no longer a surprise to spot people sitting alone in cafes. And there are a growing number of people who choose to go alone to movie theaters and playhouses. According to the Greek philosopher Socrates, humans are social animals, but the Gloomie enjoys the pleasant melancholy of being alone. Jang Hye-jin, a clinical psychologist who specializes in interpersonal relationships, notes that the Gloomie is representative of a new trend. “Korea is traditionally a society that values membership in a group,” Jang says, citing the fact that Koreans like to call each other by honorifics that refer to the person’s position at work or in a family. “Yet this group-oriented culture has been changing and a new tribe has emerged.” She says that it’s “not unhealthy” for the Gloomie to spend time alone because such people “enjoy a gloominess that is under their control.” She notes that the Gloomie are different from those who lock themselves in their rooms for fear of relations with others, known as hikikomori in Japan. “Being a member of the Gloomie Generation does not mean that you’re unhealthy,” Jang notes. “Yet it could still indicate a form of narcissism, as they may be people who are in love with themselves.” The artist Jeong Sung-hee recently held an exhibition called “The Gloomie Generation” at the Kwanhoon Gallery in Insa-dong, central Seoul. Her paintings depicted a little girl riding a bicycle or swimming alone and her inspiration came from her own experience of being a Gloomie. Like the girl in her pictures, Jeong likes to go to the movies and galleries alone and she enjoys being her own companion. Jeong was glad to see many of her fellow Gloomies at her exhibition and she is planning a sequel with the same title in the fall. “The import!!ant thing about the Gloomie is that we are not sick people who are hiding our feelings,” Jeong says, “We are just honest enough to express our feelings. After all, life is not always beautiful, and we are bound to feel gloomie sometimes.” Park Ji-young, 28, is majoring in museum studies in Paris and finds the rise of the Gloomy Generation reveals much about Korean society. She says that the Gloomy Generation is a concept that could only exist in a society like Korea’s, where the “politics and ideology of being in a group matter so much.” Park used to go museum hopping skiing by herself and she remembers some of her friends calling her a “foreigner.” |
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Questions
1) Have you ever heard of "gloomy generations"?
2) What makes you feel gloomy as much as being alone?
When do you want to be alone?
3) If you can enjoy a solitude now, what/where do you want to do?
4) When you saw some people who has a meal just alone, what did you think about them?
Have you ever had a meal just alone? If you have such an experience, what did you do in the middle of meal?
5) Can you tell me the difference between lonliness and solitude?
How to get over having a disappointment in love?
Basically, love is actually all around, which is we can not imagine the life without love, but love does not necessarily give us sweet-sweet feelings.
Some tend to get desperately destroyed by being dumped and some tend to give up their life. Surely, they wouldn't like to meet with another lover again at all after a broken heart. More sad thing is that we have to overcome the must-not-happening break-up. Therefore, you'd better share how to overcome a disappointed love through your sad experience which you don't want to remember again.
Questions:
1. Do you agree with time is the best healer for a broken heart?
2. How can you get over your disappointment in love?
Drinking all day? Sleeping all day? Never meeting with other people? Never contact with your friends?, etc.
3. Can you share your stories of being dumped or a break-up?
4. What can be the worst things that make you angry with your lover, which can lead to a break-up eventually?
5. More questions can be yours.
첫댓글 내가 일등~♡ ㅋㅋ 이번주도 수고하셨어요 회장님~ㅋ
초딩이냐
지나정도면 초딩맞음 ㅋ ^^ 난 3등 -0-
와~ 길다~
이런 오늘은 빠른줄 알았더만 난 5등!~
6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666 이 정도는 써줘야 초딩소리 듣는 거 아닌가요?
럭키 세븐 777777777777777777777777777777등!
난 8등!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 회장님 이번에도 수고 많으셨소~ㅎㅎ
그냥 댓글달면 재미없잖아요.ㅋㅋ 그렇다고 초딩얘기가 나올 건 뭐람..ㅠ
난 넘버 10
난 일레븐
뭐야....요즘 초딩들은 이렇진 않다구요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ난 12등 ^^
@@ 길다,,,ㄷㄷㄷ,,