As a student of Korean late in my life, I was fascinated by the frequent use of adages in K drama and used to keep notes of their usage by name, episode and approximate time. For example: Sungkyungkwan Scandal --Birds can hear things in the day, mice can hear at night. Ep. 1 1:00.30 This is the Korean equivalent of the English “the walls have ears”. Nowadays one finds an occasional reference in dialogue to birds and mice everywhere.
The one who is meant to die will die by drowning even in a plate full of water.
Two weeks Episode 3 12 min.
Dragon out of a stream. Empire of Gold ep. 21 20:50
Of course I created a list with the Korean and English side by side. I did this sporadically for about six or seven years and gradually stopped doing it because screenwriters had decreased the frequency of quoting four character sayings or other adages. I think the screenwriters also are less familiar with them.
I guess you can take the person out of academia but you can’t take the academia out of a person!
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