Posts

260,000 "ARMY" Fans to Gather, Gwanghwamun Abuzz

Image
  Original article:  Naver ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Local Businesses Look Forward to BTS's March Concert ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ "Let's split accomodation costs near Gwanghwamun, and find a partner to attend the concert and explore Korean food together!" This post appeared on the ARMY Seoul Stay  website, which was created ahead of BTS's comeback concert to be held on 21 of next month at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul. The site was voluntarily set up by fans from around the world to share travel information ahead of their trips to Korea.  On the message boards, posts are appearing in languages from all over the world, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Malay, and Arabic. One Indonesian fan shared "tips for traveling cheaply in Korea," writing, "You can buy rice and side dishes at convenience stores for 2,000-4,000 won, eat gimbap at Gimbap Cheonguk, and enjoy street foods at Gwangjang Market." A fan who said t...

South Korean President's Response to Mexico's Request for More Concert Dates Sparks Controversy

Image
  As part of their world tour schedule, BTS announced earlier this year that they would perform at Estadio GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City on May 7, 9, and 10. Despite the three scheduled shows, all tickets sold out within just 37 minutes of going on sale. Ticketmaster reported that up to 1.1 million users simultaneously entered the virtual waiting room to purchase tickets. A Ticketmaster representative described the situation as one of the most intense and highly competitive ticket sales in the recent history of Mexico's live music industry. However, the atmosphere within the Mexican fan community was far from celebratory. Over the following week, fans repeatedly filed complaints regarding the lack of transparency and fairness in the ticketing process. These concerns included the absence of a published seating map, unclear fee structure, and suspicions of pre-arranged ticket resales. In response to the backlash, the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco) announced that it...

ARMYs Defend V (Kim Taehyung) Against Allegations of Supporting Min Heejin in ILLIT Plagiarism Controversy

Image
  On The 12th, the 31st Civil Agreement Division of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of Min Heejin in HYBE's lawsuit seeking confirmation of the termination of the shareholders' agreement, as well as the lawsuit filed by Min against HYBE demanding payment related to the exercise of her put option. The court dismissed HYBE's claims and ruled that the company must pay Mind approximately 25.5 billion won (approx. $17.630.040). Notably, the court also determined that Min's statements claiming that ILLIT copied NewJeans constituted a legitimate expression of opinion. The court stated that her remarks did not refer to specific factual elements but instead an overall impression of similarity, which qualifies as a subjective evaluation rather than a statement of fact. However, what drew even more public attention was that among the evidence submitted by Min's side was a KakaoTalk message exchange between V and Min. The idol was reported to have reacted to dis...

BTS Concerts in Indonesia Face Calls for Cancellation Amid Escalating Feud Between Southeast Asian and Korean Netizens

Image
  If you have recently visited X or Threads, you may have noticed an escalating online conflict between Southeast Asian users, offer referred to as "SEAblings," and Korean netizens. The controversy began after reports emerged that Korean fansites had secretly brought large professional cameras and lenses into a concert by DAY6 in Malaysia, despite strict rules prohibiting recording equipment.  Local fans criticized what they perceived as preferential treatment toward Korean fansites and argued that they had disrespected local regulations. Meanwhile, some Korean netizens defended the fansites and accused Malaysian fans of overreacting. Disparaging and discriminatory remarks made a segment of Korean netizens toward Southeast Asian fans sparked widespread backlash. Many SEA fans emphasized that, despite being a major consumer market, they were not being treated with due respect.  The dispute soon extended beyond K-pop and evolved into broader cross-cultural attacks. Korean c...

[BTS Gwanghwamun D-33] "Silver Voice"... Profile Series ② Jin, the Eldest Member of BTS

Image
  Original article:  Aju News ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ As BTS prepares for its comeback in March, the world is once again abuzz with anticipation. News of the comeback, delivered through "Arirang," along with plans for a world tour, signals a massive phenomenon capable of generating immediate responses not only in the music industry but also across tourism and regional economies. BTS is both a global economic force and a symbolic name that elevates South Korea's national image. Ahead of this comeback, this publication presents the "BTS Profile Series," examining each member in turn and documenting the seven faces that make up BTS. <Editor's Note> ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Jin (real name: Kim Seokjin), the eldest member of BTS, is a name that embodies both the longest endurance and the firmest emotional steadiness within the team. As a sub-vocalist, he supports the group's sound, and offstage, he has consistently played a role i...

[Article translation] 93% of BTS Fans Study Korean, but Systematic Support Remains a Challenge

Image
Original article:  Newswhoplus ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A survey has found that more than nine out of ten overseas fans of BTS have experience learning Korean language. The findings suggest that moments of suggest that moments of singing along to music have led to voluntary language learning, demonstrating that the influence of K-pop fandom is expanding beyond cultural consumption into the field of education.  According to A Basic Study on Developing Online Korean Language Education Programs for Fandom Communities , released by the Multicultural Convergence Research Institute, 93.4% of the 381 fans from 69 countries surveyed said they had learned Korean. The most common motivation for learning was "interest in K-pop and artists," cited by 70.6% of respondents. In other words, fan activities have become a direct driving force for learning.  However, learning methods were largely disconnected from systematic education. Only 7.8% had taken in-person classes, while...

Jungkook Confess an Obsession From His Days Living with BTS That Still Haunts Him Today

Image
  From every perspective—both physically and mentally—ARMYs would undoubtedly rank Jungkook among the bravest members of BTS. While other members—even the oldest one—are often afraid of things like ghosts, heights, or extreme sports, the "Golden Maknae" seems to fear almost nothing at all.  Jungkook can jump off swings without hesitation and enthusiastically take on  bungee jumping challenges towering cliffs.  Just watching him is enough to make one's heart race. Many idols would probably back out, but he remains calm and even excited when facing such activities.  Fans also know that Jungkook has a strong personality and always confronts challenges head-on. He participates in various sports, such as boxing and weight training, and performs difficult dance routines that require both mental and physical strength.  Because of this, it is hard to imagine anything could startle or scare him. However, Jungkook has shown that he is completely human and carries a f...