Hi everyone!
Last Sunday Mexico welcomed the TTMIK and Eat Your Kimchi Couple at the WTC for the Talk to Me in Korean Around the World 1st event. I blogged about it here.
I was really excited to meet Hyunwoo Sun and Kyeong-un Choi since I've been listening to their lesssons ever since they were with KoreanClass101, this event was organized by Javi Maldonado from hablameencoreano.com with TTMIK, there were Speach, Singing and Dance contests but to be honest I didn't know what to expect so..here we go...
It all OBVIOUSLY started with Oppa Gangnam Style
It all OBVIOUSLY started with Oppa Gangnam Style
The Good:
It was the ideal place for a KPOP fan...yup if you are into other aspects of Korea this might not be the ideal event for you... The event was full of mostly Teenagers crazy for Kpop, so this is the perfect place if you want some new Kpop friends
There were 3 Contests, Speach, Singing and Dancing there were about 30 contestans (Solo performances and group Performances) and there were 3 winners for each contest with awards of $12,000 MXP, $6,000 and $3,000 (Pretty good, huh??)
They also gave a couple of Korean books and Phone cases.... I thought they were going to give TTMIK Books since they just started selling them but NO, again most of the prices were Kpop related.
Oh!! I also got a phonecase at the end!!, they were asking for people wearing Kpop socks and luckily I was the only one (I feel a little bit embarassed about this...)
The Speach contest gave me the impression that it was more a Charisma contest than a speach contest.... seriously, some of them were more focused on trying to make people laugh than to actually speak Korean, at the end I seriously thought the 2nd place deserved the 1st place since she was very good at Korean and was there for a Speach contest ....
For the Singing contest there was no Gangnam Style (yay!!!), the most popular song was "Lonely" by 2NE1 but my favorite was "That XX" by G-Dragon...cuz you know how much I love like GD :)
At the end of the event I only got to talk with 3 teachers of TTMIK and they were all very nice, Hyojin An was kind enough to ask me to send her my interview questions (since we didn't have time that day) and she will reply to me as soon as possible :). (I'll post the 10secs interview on a different post :$ )
At the end of the event I only got to talk with 3 teachers of TTMIK and they were all very nice, Hyojin An was kind enough to ask me to send her my interview questions (since we didn't have time that day) and she will reply to me as soon as possible :). (I'll post the 10secs interview on a different post :$ )
 |
| With Hyijin An (TTMIK) |
The Bad:
.......Don't know how to start.....
The event was due to start at 1pm, the people who got their tickets online (me and another...100-200people) were supposed to access first., we were supposed to bring our purchase code, receive our $3USD (per ticket) back and go inside, but NO they made us make a line and stand there for over an hour... OVER AN HOUR PEOPLE!!! and then they decided to 1st let in the people who bought their tickets that day.... It's ok... I thought.... there's enough space for ALL of us.... then the line to pick up the tickets was crazy long and the people giving out the tickets was a BIT slow....at some point Hyojin An (TTMIK) asked me for my Purchase code and handed me my 2 tickets....I was so excited to finally have my tickets(arond 1:20pm) that I forgot to ask about the money they were supposed to give us back....
According to the promotion made online, there were going to be Korean products for sale at the event.... in my opinion selling ChocoPie and Aloe drinks is not KOREAN products, specially since there was a No-food policy inside of the place.... They were also selling T-shirts of the event (Not a Korean product....) and Leggings because what's MORE Korean than worldwide known leggings, right?
The organization was awfull, there were 3 MCs, Javi Maldonado, Fer Gay (He's got a music show on TV) and Caeli (Youtube "Celebrity")... I understand they wanted to invite Fer Gay since he recently interviewed Junsu in Mexico and has made some Kpop specials on TV but what I don't get is WHY Caeli??,,,, I of course searched for her videos when I saw the TTMIK event poster because I didn't know who she was, turns out she makes funny videos about life in general and for what I saw at the event she has no knowledge of Korea or Kpop, and kept calling Martha to Martina, most of the times she wasn't able to translate what the TTMIK Teachers said in English (I wasn't expecting her to speak Korean hehe) and for what I saw, she wasn't into the event in general, when the Speach contest was On she was taking pictures with her fans, chatting, drinking water and just being distracted in general...at some point she asked the audience "Why they wanted to travel to Korea" and some people said "Because of the Food!!!" (It wasn't me I swear!! kkkk) and she said "Really???...." hmmm.... Please if someone know why was she asked to be the MC of the event let me know because I still don't get it.
The UGLY
Eat Your Kimchi came all the way to Mexico to Judge the Dancing Contest, some people were more into taking pictures with them than the actual contest....
After this, they started kicking everyone out stating the pictures will be taken in the Hallway, I thought it was weird but hey! maybe the contract for the place ended at 8pm.... I asked Simon and Martina for a lil interview when I actidentally (for real!!!) met them at the restroom and they said we will have time at the end but there was this girl (Stephany) who wasn't allowing people to get close with them anymore, as if all of us were holding guns or if they were in danger just being there.... Saddly they went out through the back door.... I waited a bit longer for the interview with the TTMIK teachers but I was seriously tired and in a bad mood because of the poor organization of the event so I went to Hyunwoo Sun at the end and just asked him for a short message.... I'm glad I asked Seokjin Jin a couple of questions earlier!!
I understand they were all tired because it was indeed a very long event, but guys if you don't really have time or energy for pictures/autographs.... SAY SO!!!! I feel really bad because when I went out (I was one of the last ones) I saw girls standing at the Hallway waiting for Eat Your Kimchi and the TTMIK Teachers, I don't know if they did take pictures in the hallway at the end because I left.... :(
To be honest, I was really excited about this event when I 1st heard about it and I was happy they chose Mexico to be the 1st Country on their tour, but the poor organization was very disapointing....
Hopefully their next events will have a better organization and they will have time to spend with their fans.
And I hope more Korean events take place in Mexico :) ....not only Kpop events!... If anyone out there is reading me and work with the KCC in Mexico... PLEASE make a Food-related event!! :)
-Gisela V.
Ps. If the girl who took my picture with Simon is reading me, can you send me the picture please?? :)
I have to say I completely agree with all of this, the whole event was POORLY organized and it wasn't really a Korean event but a K-Pop one, which -if you're 16 and/or impressionable- is fine, but it isn't if you're actually into Korea and everything it really is.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the MC's were awful and this Javi guy thinks he owns Korea or something, perhaps besides Korean, he should learn humbly. He should also learn how to delegate seeing he's incapable of a good organization by himself, one-man shows never work out well.
Whoever was taking entries for the contest shouldn't have allowed 80% of the teams perform the SAME song, it got quite boring after a couple!
And the worst of the WORST was that Stephanie lady who thought was Lady Gaga's bodyguard or something and not Simon and Martina, who -I have to say- would have expected more from; they were overwhelmed by so many people greeting them but I think they were more so with this crazy lady treating them as if they're untouchable. I really don't think 10 mins of greeting people would have taken much of their resting time and it would have definitely done something great for the perception people got of them.
It is really too bad they charged so much for this kind of event, if only I knew it'd be that lame, I would have save myself the time and money. All in all, a HUGE disappointment.
DIANA
You're right. The bad organization was really terrible. I arrived like 1:40 and there was a lot of people trying to get their tickets and the problem was that no one really knew where they had to change their codes for their tickets and the problem was, when one of the TTMIK professor's was exchanging the codes for the tickets, some persons didn't have their codes and they didn't understand him and he couldn't explain them: why they haven't received the email containing the codes. And of course we need to be realistic we aren't supposed to speak in English and I try to help him and explain the others that they needed the codes, but the question is: Wouldn't it be better if Javi Maldonado were in charge of exchanging the tickets? I know they haven't the proper organization and of course the logistic team, but when they post a comment, asking for someone to help them. I think it would be better if they gathered someone that could speak in English. Because most of the girls that were helping them, they didn´t speak English and I know that they did their best, but sometimes they had terrible mistakes because of that. Actually one girl sold a book and she wasn't supossed to sell it since it was one of the books that someone else pre-order!! I like the event, but we have to admit that they can improve the future events!! And I can only wish them good luck with their other events!!
ReplyDelete