Congrats to last week's Y2C winner: Sara Ilo!!! Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr (include in the subject line that you're a Y2C winner for May 17th) and we'll send out your prize. :) May 20th is Coming-Of-Age Day or Adult Day in Korea. This is a big day for people born in the year 1993 this year. Gifts are given to such people to congratulate them on "officially becoming an adult." Let's all be honest, no specific age determines your maturity and adulthood. I'm in my late 20 s and I'm still a child at many times. DJ Young is in his..er...he's older than me (hehe :P) and he's even younger at heart than I am (I have a senile soul...)! What age do you think or do you HOPE to become an adult at? Or what age DID you become an adult at? Or rather than an age, maybe it was an experience that pushed you in the right direction of maturing. Maybe it was a loss in your life that made you realize how precious life was. Maybe it was a certain aspect of school that taught you something for adulthood. Maybe it was a wise lecture from your parent. Whatever age or experience you feel COULD or DID bring you into adulthood, let us know! Tune in to hear everyone's answers on Friday! -Angie

Hey!! Congrats to Daisy Juárez for being our last week's Y2C winner! Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr and we'll send out your prize. Don't forget to include in the email subject that you're a Y2C winner for May 10th! Okay...the day of honoring the loved ones in our lives continues! May 15th is Teacher's Day and so regarding this theme, this week's Y2C question is as follows: What is the most valuable lesson you've learned in school?? It can be learning to add so you can calculate stuff in your head while shopping. It can be writing in complete sentences so you can write letters, blogs, etc. It can even be more abstract lessons like "Sharing is caring" or "Wait you're turn" or "If you can't say something nice to somebody, don't say anything at all". Let us know what you found the most useful! And don't forget to show your teachers extra love! -Angie

Congrats to last week's Y2C winner: Nur Hafizah. Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr and we'll send out your prize. Please include in the subject of your email that you're a Y2C winner for May 3rd. This week's question! It has to do with family being that May is Family Month with children's day having been on May 5th and Parent's Day on the 8th. If you could give your parents ANY gift in the world, what would it be? We don't often get to repay our parents for all the love and sacrifice they've poured into our lives. So for a second, let's pretend that NOTHING is impossible. What do you want to give them? Let us know and give your parent's a shout out! We'll read them out for you on this Friday's edition of Your Two Cents. :) -Angie

Check out the latest Touch Base in Seoul with Joshua Hall Wine Blogger & Writer. Hall, Wine Blogger & Writerworld.kbs.co.kr

Photos from our long-time listener

Happy Monday everyone! We had a special guest visit us last week -- a long time listener! -- and we interviewed her for our Listeners' Lounge! Did you get a change to hear it via shortwave? If not, the podcast for Saturday's [2013.04.27] Listeners' Lounge is up, and you can download it from world.kbs.co.kr > "About KBS World Radio" > Podcasts, or, by clicking here [http://world.kbs.co.kr/down.htm?inpage_id=24840&Type=MP3]. I've also posted some pictures -- so check them out and let us know what you think! 73, Lauren

Hey all~ First of all, congrats to last week's Y2C winner: Samantha Malique. Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr and we'll send out your prize. If YOU want to win a prize from KBS World Radio, all you have to do is participate in the question survey below! :) So I was talking with some friends about how hard it is to make friends after you've become an adult. Like when your still a student, you're almost "forced" to be friends with your classmates. However, once you're out of that school scene, if you don't get a good vibe from someone during your first encounter, you can pretty much choose to avoid them as much as possible and keep your guard up to not be friends. That's why a lot of people say that your childhood friends are the closest and the best. After your childhood, it's hard to make friendships with that kind of a deep or at least nostalgic bond. So here's the question! How old is your oldest GOOD or BEST friend? How did you meet? Are you two still close and in contact frequently? Tell us your friendship story! Tune in on Friday to hear everyone's responses and also hear us announce this week's winner! -Angie

Have you ever participated in a marathon before? How was it?? Let us know!! Marathon, Testing Human Endurance world.kbs.co.kr

Did anyone else notice that the podcast for Worldwide Friendship was up on Sunday? Usually it goes up on Mondays, so it was earlier than usual. I'm not complaining, though! Hope you all had a great weekend! - Lauren P.S. remember you can download the podcasts here:

Great news! Our website is back up [KBS World Radio at Not so great news... we've lost a lot of data from Oct 17, 2012 up to the date of the cyber attack [March 20, 2013]. Just keeping you all in the loop! - LaurenKBS World Radioworld.kbs.co.kr

KBS World Radio <English Service Shortwave Broadcast Schedule for Spring/Summer 2013> 6095 kHz (China): 12:30-13:30 UTC 7275 kHz (Europe): 18:00-19:00 UTC 9515 kHz (Europe): 16:00-17:00 UTC 9570 kHz (Southeast Asia): 08:00-09:00, 13:00-14:00 UTC 9580 kHz (South America): 02:00-03:00 UTC 9640 kHz (Southeast Asia): 16:00-17:00, 14:00-15:00 UTC 9690 kHz (Southeast Asia): 02:00-03:00 UTC 9760 kHz (DRM/Europe): 11:00-11:30 UTC 11810 kHz (Europe): 22:00-23:00 UTC 15575 kHz (North America): 13:00-14:00 UTC *The full schedule of all the language services on KBS World Radio will be available on the website as soon as it gets recovered. Thank you very much.

Congrats to last week's Y2C winner: Minnie! Please FB msg us your mailing address (being that our email servers are still down). As for this week's Your Two Cents question... Spring is just about here!!!...or so they say... The weather's still crazy, moodier than a hormonal pregnant woman! Cold one minute, hot another, raining another...so on and so forth. Well, still, let's try to be positive and "springy"! What does SPRING mean to you? Some of you may say flowers. Some may think spring break! Some may think ugh, allergies. But let us know what spring means to you in your head! It can be ANYTHING! Answer away and tune in on Friday to hear everyone's answers. Just by participating, you may be chosen as our random lucky winner to win our weekly Your Two Cents prize! -Angie

By now you've probably heard about the massive cyber attack that affected some banks and broadcasters in South Korea yesterday. In case you're wondering, that's why our web site is down -- but we're still broadcasting via shortwave, so you can still listen to us! And you can always reach us here on Facebook. So, first we heard that it might have been related to North Korea, then we heard it might have been a different group of hackers. But as of now, it's all just speculation. Personally, I'm not sure what to think. So I'm turning to you, our listeners from around the world... Are people talking about it in your city? What are they saying? What do *you* think? Tune in to Worldwide Friendship this Saturday, and we'll share some of your feedback, and I'll also tell you a little bit about what it was like for us here at KBS World Radio. Now, go back up your sensitive data on an external hard drive! [Sophia suggested we start writing scripts by hand! haha -- I disagree! haha] - Lauren

This week got me thinking about things I want to try cook. I've been calling it my cooking bucket list (which a lot of our KPC listeners friends with me on Facebook have witnessed already). This has led to this week's Y2C question: What's on YOUR life's bucket list? What do you want to do or try or accomplish sometime in your lifetime before you die? There's the extreme sport answers like skydiving or bungee jumping. There are financial answers like reaching an earning of several million (or billion!) dollars a year. Maybe it's a more simple but meaningful type of answer like have a child with the love of your life. ALL answers are welcome. Let us know some of the things you want to do on your bucket list! Tune in on Friday to hear everyone's answers on our Your Two Cents segment on K-Pop Connection! -Angie

Do you like hamburgers? Yes, of course you do! Check out the latest Seoul Report with Darren Vaughan, Creative Designer of Kraze Intl. Follow our host, Mark Broome on Twitter @mebkorea Enjoy the show!

Congrats to Paul T. for winning our last week's Y2C prize drawing! Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr and we'll send you out a prize. :) As for this week, it's White Day week. (cue giddy giggle or exasperated sigh here) It got me thinking about dating. What to do and what NOT to do on dates. What do you think you should never do on dates? Perhaps it's from experience where a horrible date did this to you and totally turned you off. Or perhaps it's something YOU did that made your date never call you again! Maybe it's something you saw in a movie or heard about that made you realize you never want to have it happen on one of your dates. Whatever it is, let us know! Maybe we can learn from each other and become the "perfect" daters! haha Make sure you tune in on Friday to hear everyone's responses! -Angie

60 Years! 1953~2013KBS World Radio 60th Anniversary60 Years! 1953~2013

Congrats to last week's Y2C winner: Jenny! Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr and include in the subject title which date you were a Y2C winner for! This week... March 8th is International Women's Day. To honor all the mighty, powerful women out there, I want to know who you think is an admirable, respectable, or inspirational woman? It could be someone you know or don't know. It could be someone in politics, entertainment, religion, the arts, sports, etc. etc. etc. Let us know and give the inspirational woman/women in your life extra hugs this week! -Angie

Congrats to last week's Y2C winner: Mouna Belaati. Please email your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr so we can send out your prize. Please include in the subject line that you're a Y2C winner and for which day you won (April 19th). Alright...this week, by now you've all had plenty of time to check out PSY's new song and music video "Gentleman". There's been mixed reviews. Some say the song is great and addicting, others argue it's too "safe" or generic with nothing really special about it. As for the music video, some think it's hilarious and that the dance is really catchy and fun. Others are saying it's degrading for women or portrays a horrible image of Korean men. Some are saying that PSY's actions in the video are seen as humorous, making others think it's ok to treat women like that (in the name of humor, entertainment, and being "cool"). What do you think? Do you like the song? Do you like the music video? Or did you think "Gangnam Style" was just waaay better? Worse? Do you think it'll be just as big of a hit as "Gangnam Style"? Let us know! You may just win a prize for sharing your opinion. Also, tune in on Friday to hear everyone's answers! -Angie

Check out Lauren's new video! R.O.K. Café/Life/Program/KBS World Radioworld.kbs.co.krYou might have noticed that Koreans really like… stuff. Not only do they like a lot of things, they generally like a lot of *new* things. In my...

DO YOU LOVE SEO IN-GOOK??? Whether it be for his many hit songs or his killer role in the recent drama "Reply 1997". For all you k-pop lovers out there that want to get to the know the talented singer and now proven actor Seo In-gook better, let us know what questions you have for him! KBS World Radio has Seo In-gook scheduled for our next Backstage Chat interview on April 19th (Friday). So we ask that you send in your questions before then. If you send in a question suggestion, you MAY win an autography or MAYBE even an autographed Seo In-gook CD!! (Just post your questions here below as a comment!)

Dear Listeners, If you are tuning in to our programs via 11810 khz in Europe at UTC 2200-2300, please let us know the reception condition! As of March 30, we've started broadcasting through this frequency for our listeners in Europe. We'd love to hear your feedback. Thank you! English Service KBS World Radio

Congrats to last week's Y2C winner: Elena Fuchedzhieva! Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr so we can mail out your prize! Make sure to include in the subject line that you're a Y2C winner and for what day (April 12th). Thanks for participating. For this week... Let's talk about FOOD. Everyone loves food. The problem is that we need a food item that's pretty globalized enough where a MAJORITY of the people have eaten and like to eat. I'm going to go with PIZZA. :) What is your favorite pizza topping? You can stick to the traditional toppings or go CRAZY. In Korea, one commonly seen topping that some foreigners really can't understand is CORN. What do you think about that?? Let us know your answers and tune in to catch Friday's edition of K-Pop Connection to hear everyone's diverse answers. :) -Angie

Hello, everyone! I am Kwon Chaeryung, the new producer at KBS World Radio. I've been here for about 2 months now, and today I am making my debut as a host on Seuol Calling. From now on, I will be co-hosting the show with Karen Choi every Wednesday. So, please tune in and tell us what you think. Your words will help me become a better host and producer. Thank you! - Chaeryung

Guys, it just snowed in Seoul. It's April. What the what?! - Lauren [who is longing for the beaches in Jamaica or Florida, and thinks winter needs to end. Right. Now]

Sophia just told me that the new frequency for Europe might be working out especially well for our listeners in Northern Europe. I think that's great news! How are the new frequencies working out for you? Let us know, and we'll mention it in the Listeners' Lounge. - Lauren

Congrats to last week's Your Two Cents winner: Sunilbaran Das! Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr so we can mail out your prize! Make sure to include in the subject line that you're a Y2C winner and for what day (April 5th). This week... All this talk about going to war and death made me think about the opposite: immortality. We're all so obsessed with...especially in Korea...youth. We want to make our skin look younger. We apply all kinds of beauty products or receive surgical or laser treatments. We all want to have the wisdom that comes with age and experience, but the hope of youth. The hope that you still have "what's best" lying ahead of you. What age would you want to stop ageing at? What do you think is the ideal age? The "peak age" in life? Why? Let us know! Be sure to tune in on Friday to listen to K-Pop Connection and everyone's responses! Have a great week~ -Angie

Congrats to our last week's winner, Shi-yeon! Please email us your mailing address to kpop@kbs.co.kr so we can mail out your prize. If you want to win a prize like Shi-yeon, just participate in this week's question! You will be eligible for the drawing! Sorry guys, the question is up late this week. Maybe I have spring fever. (Whatever that means. I never really got that. What does one act like when they have spring fever? Sleepy? Restless?) On that note: It's officially spring. Spring is all about flowers. Right? Sort of. Heh. Well, what is your favorite flower??? And why?? And if you want to get more specific, what color of that flower!! It's simple this week so you have no excuse for not participating! Thanks and tune in to hear everyone's responses read on this Friday's K-Pop Connection! -Angie