After all, there could be an American show starring English-fluent cast members with the exact same agendas, the exact same topics, and the exact same purpose to get rid of discrimination and barriers between people of different races and cultures. Who would watch that show? It would be boring and uninteresting. Too serious and dull.
When you only think about the topics and agendas that were talked about in the show, you'll realize (or maybe you already did) that they aren't all interesting at first glance. For example, the show talked about the death penalty, which is a topic that has been debated numerous times before to the point of exhaustion. Or topic about severing ties with family. Doesn't really scream "Wow."
There's something magical about the synergy made by the cast. The premise of casting foreign members from all over the world and making them debate and converse in a language that they don't speak perfectly in a country that has a different culture and mind set from their native countries is brilliant.
Before I continue, I want to make sure that you are familiar with the cast and the countries they represent.
----------
The three MC's of Abnormal Summit are Jun Hyun Moo, Yoo Se Yoon and Sung Si Kyung. They always start out the show by saying that they are Jun Yoo Sung, who is a well-known senior comedian. Each syllable of Jun Yoo Sung's name is the last name of each of the three MC's.
The summit currently has these members: Sam Okeyere (Ghana), Alberto (Italy), Zhang Yuan (China), Daniel (Germany), Robin (France), Julian (Belgium), Guillaume (Canada), Takuya (Japan), Tyler (America), Blair (Australia), Ilya (Russia) and Sujan (Nepal).
-----------
The first thing that I want to explain is the humor behind the cast's mistakes in the Korean language. It's always funny to see Zhang Yuan make mistakes on the show. He's one of the less fluent members so he gets picked on a lot. He often says Korean words with Chinese tones, such as the word "wife." In the show, you will see arrows pointing up and down to show the changes in tone. There are no different tones for Korean so it is funny hearing Korean spoken the way Zhang says it sometimes.
Zhang also mixes words up. In Korean, a lot of words sound similar so it is very important to say words correctly. Other times, he just mispronounces words. For example, Germany is "dok-il" in Korean. However, Zhang pronounced it as "dok-kki," which means axe. It can also sound like "ttok-ki," which means rabbit. He also cannot pronounce "yii-kka-ji" which means "until this." It's pretty funny watching him struggle to pronounce the word because it's a simple word. Often, he cannot express himself clearly and stutters. This is when it's really hard to understand him. His pronunciation even when he says the right words is a little off so I often have to read the Korean captions to understand what he is saying.
Robin is also one of the least fluent members. He also has a hard time expressing himself fully. There is a sort of battle between Zhang and Robin about who is worse at Korean. Robin stutters too and doesn't talk as much as the other members as a result.
Alberto is pretty good. A joke in the show is that he pronounces "yo" as "yob." "Yo" is the ending to Korean sentences when using the formal version of the language or "jondaemal." He also couldn't pronounce refrigerator in Korean, which is "naengjanggo." Like many foreigners, he has trouble pronouncing the "o" or "ng" when it is sounded out. Alberto also is in a sort of battle with Zhang because they both have words that they cannot pronounce.
Sam is known for his unique pronunciation of Korean sentences. He actually made a few catchphrases like "A-nin-daaeee?" which means "No" or "It's not." He says Korean in an exaggerated and childish(?) way (I don't know if childish is the right word but I hope you get the gist.) He also said that he wants to be the President of Ghana so another joke is that Sam has to start speaking formally and has to be careful with his words. The MC's also joke that he should run for president in Korea.
Tyler is arguably the most fluent member. When he talks, I can totally tell that he's a Seoul National University student. He uses big words and oldish words that even surprises the native Korean MC's. He even knows words and Korean idioms that native Korean MC's and guests have never heard of. When he talks, the rest of the cast has a difficult time understanding. He also speaks very well in terms of formality and structure. The other members often get angry jokingly at Tyler's extremely fluent Korean.
Now I want to explain talking about and comparing Korean culture to other cultures.
The reason why it's such a blessing that the show is Korean is because of the contrast between Korean culture and European cultures. Korean and Japanese cultures are very similar from what I can tell (I don't really know about Japanese culture) and Chinese culture has similar points with Korean culture too. However, I do feel that Korean culture is more extreme and more conservative.
It's not really a secret that Korea is a male-dominated conservative country. Gender equality definitely does not exist. Much of the culture stems from Confucianism to this day. It's not really anyone's fault, however. Korea has undergone an extreme makeover in the last thirty or forty years. After World War II and several unpleasant decades immediately afterwards, Korea has become a country living in the past. There has been much effort to get its technology up to date and now it has the fastest Internet in the world.
From the outside, Korea looks like a normal modern country. However, not everything is as it seems. Since Korea "evolved" too quickly on the outside, there hasn't been much time for Korea to evolve in the inside. The culture is stuck in the past. Even though many acknowledge that, it isn't easy to change a whole culture especially when it's bad to be different from others in Korea.
Unlike European countries and the United States, there wasn't an Enlightenment or Women's Rights Movements. Those countries had hundreds of years to become what they are today. There just hasn't been enough time for Korea.
There is a vast difference between the strictness of Korean culture and the freedoms that Europeans and Americans have. An example would be education. In the episode about education, everyone agreed how pitiful Korean students are. Many of them get home around midnight from either school or the crazy amount of after schools they go to. It's important to note that in after schools they learn things that they don't learn in school in order to be ahead of everyone else. Which is why many parents feel like after schools are mandatory.
A reason why the show is so popular among Koreans is that Koreans love foreigners who act freely and are not restricted to acting inside the strict boundaries that they have to live by. It's also heartwarming to watch foreigners actively want to be good in Korean and talk so fluently. Instead of just strictly adhering to the topic at hand, they digress and laugh and make people feel good. Learning through having fun and really sincerely wanting to know is a wonderful thing.
MC Se Yoon used to be active as a comedian before starting variety shows so it's not a surprise that he's so funny. Daniel said that he wishes to be funny like Se Yoon in the Christmas Special. I agree because he is just so effortlessly funny. Hyun Moo used to be an announcer before jumping to variety shows. I watched him on other shows and he is great because he is just the type of guy that people love to make fun of, for jokes of course. Si Kyung is a famous ballad singer and his MC-ing is relatively new. He MC's in Witch Hunt and was a member of 1N2D. They actually don't have to put a lot of effort in MC-ing because the cast is just so good at talking, but when they do MC or join in on the conversation they shine because they balance the heavy topics by being funny.
The rapport between all of the cast members is a blessing to the show. Although they are from different countries, they are like one family.
I hope I explained some of the details and humor behind Abnormal Summit. What are your thoughts on the show? What parts do you like or dislike? Let's start a conversation below.
