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8B Wednesday, September 19, 2012 The Statement

Tapping into a foreign culture
By Zach Bergson

Name: Lyndsey Twining
Age: 20
Hometown: Midland, Mich.
School and Year: LSA junior
Concentration: Asian Languages and Culture
Where do you like to hang out in Ann Arbor?
I spend a lot of time in North Quad. I like to study in
beautiful or good-looking places, so studying at the UGLi
doesn't really work for me. Occasionally, when I'm having
fun, I'll ga to the Korean karaoke places.
I didn't know there was Korean karaoke in
Ann Arbor.
There's two main karaoke places that are more oriented
towards Korean-style karaoke. In Korean it's called norae-
bang - which means song room. It's not like American
karaoke. You go into this room and there are couches and
it's a small environment. I'm not a huge party person, so if
I do go out and have fun it's either food, coffee or karaoke.
What's your favorite Korean restaurant in Ann
Arbor? Is Rich J.C. truly rich?
I usually go to Rich J.C. and I also went to Maru before it
closed. I think it's kind of a mixbetween personal opinions
and recommendations. I'm a vegetarian so I can't eat a lot
of Korean food ,which all of my Korean friends pity me
for - soI usually stick to a couple kinds of food.

What are you watching and listeningto lately?
I really like Korean hip-hop music and Korean indie pop.
But I also like K-pop, which is really famous, like now
everyone knows "Gangnam Style," so that's like the most
famous Korean K-pop song. I know the dance to ("Gang-
nam Style").
Do you listen to any American music?
There was a phase when I was younger where I liked coun-
try, punk music and typical indie hipster music. But once I
started getting into Korean culture, I started listening to
mostly Korean songs. It's actually kind of hard - I feel out
of touch with American music sometimes, because I don't
know who sings a song and everyone else seems to know
the song. I'm not totally unaware of the American music,
but I don't actively seek it out.
How did you, as a native Caucasian Michigander, get
so involved in Korean culture?
When I was in middle school, my two best friends were
Korean twin sisters and they used to talk to each other in
Korean occasionally or pass notes in class in Korean and
I became curious. I'd ask them about the language, cul-
ture and pop culture. They moved away after freshman
year of high school and even though they weren't there
- there are almost no Koreansin my hometown - I still
kept watching theTV.showsand listening to the music.

Once I came to U of M, the Nam Center for Korean Stud-
ies, where I work right now, encouraged me and my
interest in Korean studies by letting me volunteer and
participate. I've been in various Korean interest groups
around campus, but now I spend most of my time with
Sinazoro, which is a Korean drumming group.
What is Korean drumming?
The type of Korean drummingthat we usually do is called
Samulnori. That literally means playing for instrument.
There are four different percussion instruments, two
drums and two bongs. We play sitting down and we have
a certain repertoire that we play from. But originally the
style of music and the rhythms and the melodies came
from something called Pungmul - a kind of traditional
Korean farming music.
How would you describe the Korean community on
campus?
I think the Korean community here is very big and more
diverse than it seems. There are just such a range of people
that are very Korean American and Americanized, and
there are other people who come straight from Korea and
might have trouble with the language.
For me being a non-Korean person who's interested in
the culture, there's always some challenges. I think my
understanding of the language helps me get by, so at least
I know what's going on even though I don't know detailed
nuances.