编者语：

　　自从热门的韩国电视连续剧《大长今》开播之后，全国掀起了一股“长今”热——韩国料理、服饰等韩国文化受到了国民的广泛欢迎。至今，这股余热尚未散尽，还留下了“后遗症”。

　　My “Jang Geum” Girlfriend

　　In the past, the three scariest words in my mind were “return my money!” As for my girlfriend, her three favorite words were “I love you.” Nowadays, we finally have jointed together. The three words that scare me but please her the most are: Dae Jang Geum.

　　Dae Jang Geum is a hot new Korean TV series. Because of this series, my personal status and living standard have been drastically degraded. My girlfriend used to cook every evening—four courses and a bowl of soup—and then reminded me tenderly, “Dinner is ready. Come on, honey!” Even in this circumstance I was unsatisfied with her cooking skills. Well, now she does nothing but sit in front of the TV when she’s not at work, and commands me like commanding her coolie, “You—go make some instant noodles. Come and watch the play and just imagine we are enjoying Korean dishes.” So I find my imagination has made a great leap forward after watching this series. I can imagine that I’m gnawing a piece of Korean bacon while actually I am actually chewing a piece of pickle.

　　She also swears to learn all Korean dishes in Dae Jang Geum. So she orders me to stand by the TV and record any details of Jang Geum’s cooking. But when she presented her version of Korean food to me one day, my careless comments: “Weird! Is it the dog-meat we bought recently?” Now that costs me a sleepless night on the living room sofa.

　　“You can easily get things done if you find the right tools.” My girlfriend blamed her clumsy kitchen performances on her knives. Compared with the royal cooks in the series, her knife work was pretty slow, so I decided to buy her a new kitchen knife. In a kitchenware store, she became unusually patient when making her selection, reiterating, “how can’t I find Jang Geum’s knife, how can I?!” As she tested each knife, she concluded by shaking her head and saying, “too light…too blunt…too heavy.” The confused salesman asked me privately, “Qiangjin? Charged with bank-robbery?” Anyway, she finally picked one that was the closest shape of Jang Geum’s. To prove that her slow knife skill was due to the blunt knives, she speeded up her cutting and chopping. As a result, she hurt her fingers three times. It is lucky that it was not too serious, thanks to the dumb salesman. The knife is not as sharp as he boasts.

　　You don’t need any reason to love somebody. But to love a TV series, you do. My girlfriend is a fan of Jang Geum’s Korean dressing style. Not only did she talk about the dress every day, she also threatened to convert my tie into a butterfly knot like the one on Jang Geum’s dress. Finally, I lost my patience and took her to a maternity shop where I recommend one suit to her, “Do you think it looks like a Korean dress? Should we have one?” Coincidently, my future parents-in-law just happened to be window-shopping at the time. They were pretty stunned when they saw what we were doing.

　　The Dae Jang Geum series aims at mobilizing the ambition of the youth. However, it fails to mobilize my girlfriend’s ambitions. Instead of being engaged in her work or study, she simply slouches on the sofa every night, staring at the TV, a bag of chips in her hand. This situation has changed little even though the series is now over.