The Brian.

Introductory classes usually go pretty well because, in lieu of teaching skill, I have a ready-made ice breaker. I share my name with "브라이언," one half of the singing duo "Fly to the Sky." My first year my hagwon students would always write "I love Brian" on their desks, and I was afraid that the bosses would think I was compelling them to do that. The students, it turns out, did not love me at all but were actually writing about the crooner of the month.

While looking around for something else I found a video of Brian speaking English. I was surprised to see that he's fluent.



Turns out he was born in Los Angeles and raised in New Jersey. There are a few Korean pop stars who spent significant time overseas, including members of hip-hop groups like Epik High, Dynamic Duo, and Drunken Tiger. It also turns out that, like all Korean-Americans from Los Angeles, Brian speaks English like Rosie Perez.



Wikipedia tells us that he is only 21 days older than me and that, in 2006, he released an album titled The Brian.



I definitely have to work that into my lessons at every possible opportunity.

In October I read a little article wondering whether Brian was gay. The Chosun Ilbo's tabloid sports insert has the scoop on the incident, which stemmed from an appearance on a popular MBC comedy show:

During the broadcast on Thursday, the 16th, where Lee Sang-won participated as the guest performer in “Fire Engine”, Lee asked to Brian of “Fly to the Sky”, “you wear women’s clothes and made friends with the singer Eru, so what’s going on?” Brian was unable to hide his puzzled appearance and explained. He said, “I’m just good friends with Eru so you’ve misunderstood it. And yes, Eru sometimes comes to my house to hang out, goes to sleep and then leaves." (translated by Korea Beat)

The article continues:

In the end, Lee asked Brian to do push-ups to prove that he is a real man.

I guess the rumors that Brian was gay and dating his new singing partner were big news in 2007 among talk shows and 16-year-olds.

Brian's Wikipedia page also has a "controversy" section, which I found hilarious at first, but now seems timely in light of a recent post. He got himself into some trouble over the US military incident in 2002 in which two middle school girls were accidentally killed. Wikipedia tells us:

Joo's ties to the United States stirred controversy in 2002, when Fly to the Sky was the host of the radio show "1010 Club." At that time, the murder of two teenage Korean girls by an American soldier stationed in South Korea caused a surge in anti-American sentiment. Because of Joo's American citizenship, guest Hyun Jin Young asked for his opinion regarding this matter. In response, Joo stated that while the American soldier must be brought to justice, he did not want relations between Korea and the United States, his home country, to become strained. His comments were reported as "You can't talk badly about the United States in front of me.. I'm an American. Please only hate the American soldiers (responsible for the incident)." (내앞에서 미국에 대해 나쁘게 얘기하면 안된다...나는 미국인이다..(사건을 일으킨) 미군 부대만 싫어해달라).

I don't have too many facts about this controversy. Both links given on the Wikipedia page are broken. Googling around turns up different dates, different quotations, and interpretations like:

In 2003, Brian stirred up controversy when he was misquoted during a radio interview. At that time, anti-American sentiments were high because an American soldier had murdered two teenage girls.

I'm a little surprised that a guy could get misquoted so badly, but given the media bias here and the political expediency of fanning the flames of anti-Americanism, it's not surprising that a guy could get knocked around like that. I'm a little tempted to bring up the 2002 controversy in a teachers' workshop, just out of curiosity.

You can tell I have a day off today because I also want to bring up another little controversy that stems from Brian's dual identity as a Korean and an American. According to one K-pop site, Brian and other pop stars chose American citizenship over Korean for one reason:

The Koreans think that they gave up their Korean nationality to escape from the compulsory military service and that they should not make a fortune in Korea.

I don't know how widespread that belief is, but I do know the issue of dual-citizneship is a tricky one. According to the US Embassy in Korea's site, "[t]he Government of the Republic of Korea does not permit dual citizenship after the age of 21." It continues:

In addition, South Korean men over the age of 18, including American citizens of Korean descent, are subject to compulsory military service. A dual national may not be allowed to abandon his ROK nationality until he finishes his military service, or has received a special exemption from military service. There have been several instances in which young American men of Korean descent, who were born and lived all of their lives in the United States, arrived in the ROK for a tourist visit only to find themselves drafted into the South Korean army.

Internet searches will bring up examples and more information. I'm pretty ignorant on that topic. It does seem absurd that a Korean-American, who was born in the US and lived there until about age 16, and who acquired fluent English would choose American citizenship just to dodge compulsory military service. The idea isn't out of the ordinary, though, and Korea Times columnist managed to put together a decent article when he wrote about Yoo Seung-joon, the Korean singer who in 2002 was barred from entering Korea after taking US citizenship in order to skip military service. Lim also brings up golfer Christina Kim (김초롱), the Korean-American who invited some fan scorn here when she was seen cheering for the American team at a tournament. It's also worth remembering a quotation by golfer Michelle Wie's father, made while pandering to Korean audiences in a 2006 interview:

I’m well aware there that some say, since Michelle Wie is an American why is she making such a fuss. But you know what, the only thing about her that’s American is her passport, she is “definitely” Korean.

I tire pretty quickly of such Korean-American, American-Korean squabbles, and I normally skip any message board threads with "gyopo" in the title. It is interesting to think about Brian's case, though, because unlike Michelle Wie and Christina Kim (I guess), Brian Joo is entirely unknown in the U.S. I'm sure he's popular here for his looks and his voice, but I'll bet a huge part of his gimmick is his ability to speak English. That's what shows up on the talk show clips, anyway. I can understand how Koreans feel compelled to claim him as their own, given his bloodline and his fanbase here. But if you look at Brian's media miscue from a few years ago, and his statement that his Korean skills aren't 100%, it's easy to wonder how Korean he really can be.