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Our world is language. Our voices create meaning. Expressions define us. And slang, the thing created anew by each generation, both joins and separates us. In this talk, we will explore what specific words and slang mean to women in South Korea. How it defines their lives and reveals their hidden and unconscious emotions. Through explorations of music, transcultural love, and the country’s well-documented outrageous beauty standards, this talk will provide insight into a world that may otherwise remain hidden. Building on this, the first section turns the mirror on beauty standards, cosmetic procedures, and what it means to be a Korean woman looking at her reflection while the rest of the world fetishizes stick thin idols and unachievable beauty standards. But women’s lives and identities in Korea aren’t defined by beauty alone. There is another side: one that is loud, expressive, and rebellious. K-pop dominates much of the world’s headlines and reporting about Korea, but there is a vibrant underground music scene here, filled with dyed hair, leather, spikes, and, perhaps most importantly, women. The second section of our talk will bring that culture to life and teach you the words and emotions that drive the movement. The third section of our talk will turn to love, dating, the warning signs that shape our relationships, and the heartbreak that sometimes follows. It will share how Korean women understand both local and intercultural romance, and how they navigate the realities of relationships that so often run into barriers, distance, circumstance, and the quiet inevitabilities that life places in their way. But this is more than just stories. It’s learning. It’s education. Understanding the realities of life through the expressions and phrases people choose to adopt. So, with that framework in mind, those who attend this talk, will be given a glossary to take home with them. A dictionary of terms. A collection of K-Slang. The echoes of our lives.