How to get into music shows recordings and fansigns in Korea

I was thinking hard whether or not to post this post into IGAT or my personal blog. I decided on the latter because it’s where I’ve been focusing all my efforts in so far. Regardless, reposting this on IGAT because of relevancy. ^^

darmawanders

Triggered by lots of enquiries on how to get into these two places, I’m finally going to make a post that I can directly link people to once and for all!! This is way overdue because the last time I went to these two events was like forever. Nevertheless, better late than never right?

This content is kinda irrelevant to most of my blog that’s been focusing on travel, food and cafe, but nevertheless still a very Korean themed post that might be helpful to some people out there who want to add music shows or fansigns into their Korea itinerary!

I don’t strive to be THE accurate guide, and there are plenty of other guides out there that i’d suggest you cross-refer to for absolute accuracy.

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KOREAN MUSIC SHOWS
how to get into music shows and what to expect

NOTE: I am only going to talk about my experience with SM…

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SM The Ballad Fansign: Meeting Taeyeon and Jonghyun

WARNING: SPAZZ AHEAD

So we heard 2 fansigns were going to happen this week, one by Synnara and one by YP Books. We decided to try more for the YP Books one because it’s only Taeyeon & Jonghyun, whereas the other one has Chen from EXO which means 10x harder. Luckily, we got it!!!!!! SO EXCITED LIKE ON THAT DAY ZENN AND I IMMEDIATLEY WENT ARTBOX TO GET GIFTS AND WRITE LETTERS AND I SPENT THE NIGHT DRAFTING THE LETTER LKJAGHKAG

Everyone on Twitter went more crey than me lol so i was spending the night replying questions and thinking of what to write.

Fast forward to the fansign day!!!

We headed over to Hyundai Department Store for the fansign, and at the entrance they asked us to draw lots. I drew 60 which was my seat number so I was at the edge of the 5th row. Not too bad! They led us into an open space, a rooftop of some sort, where the stage was set up and i found my seat. They also give post-its for you to write your names on. Just a minute later Jonghyun and Taeyeon walked in and i did a double take because Taeng looks so gorgeous omg and i was just there not quite believing i was seeing her so close away.

They made us all keep our phones in our bags and they lined fans up 5 at a time. When i was lining up i was so nervous because Taeyeon was glancing over in our direction and i was just frozen on the spot okay. They checked my album and asked me to go up the stage slowly. LOL.

I went up as naturally as I can and greeted Jonghyun and told him my name. He repeated it and slowly wrote it out, hesitating before adding a heart. I thanked him and didn’t hesitate to move on to Taeyeon OTL i’m sorry. As I was shuffling to Taeyeon’s side, I looked back and saw that he was staring at me. We had a brief moment of intense eye contact before I heard Taeyeon say ‘annyeonghaseyo’ and i was practically bought over by her voice.

I placed my gift in front of her tentatively and she thanked me. I put down my album and tentatively introduced myself as coming from Singapore. She said ‘ahh’ and continued signing. I asked her if her eye is alright because she kept rubbing it. She blinked up at me in confusion and said ‘what…?’ and i repeated it with some gesture. When she realized what i meant, she said ‘ahhh yes’ and looked back dow at the album, closing it.

She thanked me again in Korean and then in English, adding some aegyo to it when she said ‘Thank you~~’ I looked back up at her and she smiled and said ‘thank you for coming!’ and i extended my hand and she shook it with both hands. ljhlajkhdklgasdg

Everything felt like a little dream and i was kinda shocked and i went down the stairs veyr calmly before realizing i had just met  Kim Taeyeon. And I had just looked into those eyes behind those long lashes as we exchanged conversation. I gasped and fidgeted in my seat and tweeted with my trembling hands and i’m just. just.

I could hardly believe how soft her hands were, how small they were and how small her face was. She is just tiny in every aspect. And the sound of her voice so close to me. OTL. I could cry.

There you go! I kept the album locked up in my hostel cuz it’s so precious ❤

After the fansigning, Taeyeon said they’re going to Inki and hope they can win (they didn’t :() and she also hinted SNSD’s comeback! Halfway through speaking a bell rang and she looked around in shock and everybody laughed and awwed. I could swear more than half the people there were SONEs and I swear Taeyeon does these cute silly things on purpose sigh this girl 😦

 

Seohyun’s Musical + meeting Taeyeon and Yoona

So I finally got a chance to go Seohyun’s musical! Much thanks to Zenn @yeowoogata because she accompanied me to attend the musical although Seohyun doesn’t matter to her :’)

I was super hyped for it and took plenty of pics but couldn’t upload that day because of 3G problem.

 

The musical was amazing! i have to admit at some parts i got really sleepy because I couldn’t understand all these king language, but the part i understood was so cute. It’s too easy to ship the actor playing the king and seohyun because of how convincing they were – Seohyun fit the shy girl part soooo well! ❤ I was impressed at the chemistry and how they designed the love story to be so adorable! I’m also amused by the audience reaction. Like the part where he drew her in by her waist and held her close and the audience gasped. And the part where he tricked her and kissed her on the lips and the audience gasped. And the part where she was reaching out to him when he’s sleeping and suddenly he grabbed her and turned her over and PINNED HER DOWN ON THE BED and the audience screamed. All SONEs I’m sure. OTL.

Proud of Seohyun :’) her parents came too, during the break people were introducing themselves to this elderly couple, one by one, so I assumed so and I think i’m right judging by twitter. Too bad I had no 3G to confirm it and so did not walk up to them. Cuz i could be wrong and that would be embarrassing.

And then… as we were leaving the place, Zenn was asking me if I wanted to stick around the area that led to the backstage. as we stepped aside to think about it, suddenly this manager looking person looked around frantically and a security guard shouted and before i knew it I WAS LOOKING AT YOONA ABOUT 30CM AWAY FROM ME SMILING SHEEPISHLY. Everyone collectively gasped and started shouting her name. I can’t remember if i saw Yoona first or heard her name first EVERYTHING IS FUZZY IN MY MIND BECAUSE I WAS JUST SO SHOCKED OK ALJKGHAD

What I DO remember though is, as I was standing there speechless and just staring at Yoona’s flawlessness, suddenly as I dropped my gaze (yes, dropped, because she was tiny and i didn’t see her at all at first)  I WAS GAZING AT THE SIDE VIEW OF KIM TAEYEON AS SHE WHISKED PAST ME SO CLOSE I COULD REACH OUT AND TOUCH HER FLAWLESS SHINING SOFTLY CURLED HAIR

THERE WAS NOTHING BETWEEN ME AND HER CUZ EVERYONE WAS STILL POSITIVELY REELING FROM THE SHOCK AND NO ONE TRIED TO GET TOO CLOSE

I remember mumbling ‘Taeyeon..?’ very automatically as she passed me, pretty sure she could hear me. I was so confused because nobody was shouting for Taeyeon, I thought i was wrong. yet i know i had to be right because cmon i’ve been on Tumblr long enough staring at her side view profile and admiring her skin and jawline enough times to know it’s her when i see them. YET everyone was still calling ONLY Yoona, i think most were busy taking pictures. Next thing I know I was turning to Zenn and exclaiming “It’s Yoona and Taeyeon!!!” and we ran to catch their back views.

At this point Taeyeon had ninja’ed away from Yoona’s side to walk on the right, and the fans were flocking towards Yoona. She went pretty much unnoticed besides this one stupid fan who rushed in front of her to catch a look at her face, which was annoying because obviously she didn’t want to be recognized judging by how she kept her face down and hurried away from Yoona and the managers and stuff, rushing to the carpark. Basic respect dude, basic respect. That’s why I stayed behind to gaze longingly T___T i was actually staring at Taeyeon’s back and thinking she can’t possibly be a coordi unnie or anything, who dresses this well and has this height and THAT side profile?! /confused

Sighpie.

We camped outside some area outside Seoul Arts Center afterwards for wifi because I had to get my feels out at that exact moment.

Okay this is my first spazz post on this blog sorry not sorry algjhalkjdghaljkdg

Okay. Ciao for now. I hope I will get the opportunity to write mor of these spazz posts  /cross fingrs

Lost in Translation

Hey all~ not sure who’s reading this but anyways!

I’m gonna be embarking on a new project that will be filling a lot of this blog for a while. Pretty excited for this one. I know this blog was created as a fanblog, but certainly I’ve been posting plenty of random Korean or KPOP stuff as much as I’ve been posting Taeyeon/SNSD fan posts. Thus it is more of a Korean/KPOP blog haha.

 Anyway back to this project! We all know things get lost in translation between languages. Some things are much more beautiful in a particular language and simply can’t be expressed the same way in another language. I felt this with Chinese songs, and I felt this stronger as my Korean got to the point where I’m able to understand songs (with some help of the dictionary of cuz). Understanding the structure of Korean has allowed me to appreciate the songs so much and always left me in a state of indignance when the English translations don’t quite fit.

But I perfectly understand of course. I am in no way claiming I’m better than these translators or whatever, or claiming I’m on their level and speaking as one of them because I’m definitely not. But I’m just thinking, the reason the words get lost in translation is that there’s no way to truly express in English without tons of sentences and explanations. It’s gonna sound awkward if they attempt to keep everything as closely translated as possible. It’s more important for the lyrics to flow smoothly than the translations to be as close as possible.

After this long explanation… so here’s my project! I’m gonna start taking songs that I really love and attempt to close the gap between Korean and English. It’s not gonna be a light-hearted read. Rather, I’d want my readers to be those who genuinely like the song, or are pursuing Korean language. 

It’s not gonna be a breakdown of everything, cuz of course the current english translations have explained very well. I just hope to target the little undertones that add more depth to the song 🙂

Simple fun project to help me improve my Korean, and for whoever is interested in the same 🙂 If you would like to see any song in particular, feel free to drop me a comment or tweet~~ 

Thank you for reading this far!

“You guys are fucking awesome.”

said Taeyeon. The only KPOP girl group idol I’ve really heard saying that in front of at least 8,000 people. Sure she censored it herself but we all know what she was trying to get at. 

And i kinda laugh at people who try to protect her… does it hurt that you realize she isn’t the perfect ‘angel’? :X I’m sorry to burst your bubble but you seem to have had the wrong understanding of Kim Taeyeon all along. If you were disappointed, then you’ve never known her.

I’m not going to claim I know her… none of us really does. But if you’ve been following her for a while now and make an effort to understand her, it’s actually not hard to see what kind of person she really is.

Let’s break it down shall we.

1. Mubank incident. Where I first realized she’s a real badass. Should already have hinted to you she’s not someone who receives shit and keeps quiet about it. She’s gonna speak her mind as and when she likes. Sure she received plenty of criticism with this but i kinda respected her a lot more.

2. Protecting SONEs. Speaking up against esteemed figures on behalf of us. She loves her fans and will protect the ones she love, against her image. 

3. The whole hating on cutesy image and then being cute. SHE BE A BADASS YA

4. Devil’s cry. How it seemed to be a concept she’s born to do. Nuff said.

5. How she dresses in the airport all hobo like… like obviously she isn’t gonna succumb to dressing well in the airport like celebrities should and all. On that note… how she snaps at Korean paparazzi but lets SONEs take pictures is just fucking awesome. And I’m quoting her on that expression.

6. Instagram. This site has shown so many sides of her, so many retarded pictures, so many odd humor pics, even one rather vulgar picture. Just following Instagram should say enough about what kind of person she is. Guess what, she is just like us. I always say this to my circle of SONE friends… that if Taeyeon wasn’t a celebrity she’d fit right in with us. Not because i’m flattering my circle of friends or showing off. But because i see so much of us in her, she’s just another one of those cool introverted hipster who draws and listens to good music and has weird humor and is kinda perverted and takes narcissistic selcas and gets defensive when she gets criticism on some part of her body she’s insecure about (in this case her foot…) and has a lot of weird friends (mainly the rest of SNSD). Guess what… SHE’S JUST LIKE US. SURPRISE. Not. She obviously isn’t a perfect angel like what you hoped, just because she looks and sings like one… 

7. And now, how she tells the 10,000 fans present that day that we’re fucking awesome. Idk how much more i can love Taeyeon, she just keeps making me love her more. This stint just proved how I can never find a bias as fucking awesome as she is.

I don’t understand why some people are disappointed to find out what she said and tried to find proof that she didn’t. Does it make you ashamed if your idol is as such? Because I’ve never been more proud. Why would you want to choose to stan an idol that’s all-round perfect? If they’re perfect, then they’ve never shown their real side. I’d want to stan someone who is proud of who she really is.

And that’s Kim Taeyeon for ya.

10 things you must do as a KPOP fan (before it’s over)

1. Go to concerts. If you can afford it, go to all the concerts and events in your country. If you can afford it, go overseas. If you can’t, try to at least go for one solo concert. The experience can’t be traded for anything else in the world.  The ocean of one solid color. The cheers. The fanchants. The fan events. Watching the idols you love touched to tears. Singing and dancing together with thousands others. If you’ve been a fan for a long time, a concert is something you can’t ever miss for the world. If you’ve been a fan only for a short time, a concert is going to make you stay in the fandom for good. That’s what it did for me.

2. Buy merchandise. You don’t have to get literally everything, just getting an album or two to support your favorite band is precious. One day you’ll take them out and smile because they serve as a reminder to a most precious memory.

3. Take fancams and photographs. No matter how crappy your camera is. If you can afford it, rent a good camera. It’s important to enjoy the concert, but just once, try to go through what fansites go through. Tough, but you’ll realize that it’s worth it. The possibility of your idol looking straight into your camera and giving you fanservice, and that memory captured for you to replay forever.. worth it.

4. Just enjoy the concert. There’s a time and place for everything. Everything in moderation. Some times, try to take photos and capture memories. Other times, just watch. Keep your eyes on the people you love so much, laugh at what they’re doing, wave to get their attention, spazz and jump and scream and wave your lightsticks and sing along with everyone else… you can’t do any of those things when you’re focused on the cam. Enjoy the moment and when you do get their attention, the memory of locking gazes with your idol as they smile will always be a memory that takes your breath away. Because in that moment, even if it’s just a short moment, they have finally known you.

5. Create an online presence. Create accounts everywhere. On forums, twitter, tumblr, don’t limit yourself and find what you can do best. Try things. Make videos, make graphics, become an uploader, write fanfics, become a subber, join forums and teams, spazz online, share your opinions… anything and everything. You never know who you’ll meet, what talent you’ll discover in yourself, and what opportunities you will come across.

6. Go for events. Plan events. Lead events and gatherings. Hang out with other fans. Being in a fandom is not just about loving a certain idol group. It’s also about the community. It’s pretty awesome to have a community online, but you’ll be amazed at how much more amazing it is to meet up with them and find new friends. It’s going to teach you so much about the dynamics of the fandom in your country. Be bold. Take the first step and go out to meet people. Be involved. Fandom life is so much more fun when you have people to share it with. Knowing the people that are in the fandom will make you so much more proud to be a part of it, because there are pretty amazing people out there.

7. When you’ve found the right people to hang out and have fun with… keep them close to you. Because even though the KPOP craze won’t last, even though one day your idols might disband or stop promoting, the things that would last are the friendships and the memories. Keep them close to you. They will become the few things in life that are worth remembering.

8. Be proud of who you are, and who you like. It’s sometimes easier said than done in a society that judges, but most of us have been there and done that… some give up, but some refuse to let it affect them. Take some time to slowly open up, just make sure there can be a day where you can proudly say you like this particular idol group without being ashamed. You don’t have to explain why. It also doesn’t mean you should talk relentlessly and start to annoy people. But don’t feel like you have to hide this interest of yours. Love shouldn’t be embarrassing.

9. Respect other fandoms. Like it or not, every fan is a representative of their fandom, and a very important one in light of how sensitive KPOP fandom dynamics are. Don’t screw yourself up. Don’t screw up your fandom in your country. Don’t screw up the entire fandom. Whatever you do has an impact on the rest of your fandom and definitely your idols, like it or not. When you go out there as a fan, don’t think and act just for yourself. At the very least, consider the repercussions on your idols, the very people that you are in the fandom for.

10. Just do it. Whatever you want to do in this fandom, you’re going to regret it when it’s over. Rephrasing a famous quote, we always regret what we didn’t do rather than what we did. So just go. Fandom life is exciting and the perfect compliment to an otherwise more mundane life. Don’t let fandom life define you – embrace it to the fullest extent and let it inspire you instead.

No they’re not plastic, and I’m not superficial. No it doesn’t mean I’m lesbian. No this is not strange.

How many of you fangirls out there, fangirls of girl groups, have had people find out who you’re a fan of and then ask you some typical questions or make some comments. “does this mean you’re les” (even if I am, so what?), “they’re so plastic, they’re not actually pretty *judging look because you like them*”, “that’s weird, i thought normally girls like boy groups”

Goddamit, shut up. Almost every other SONE or girl group fan i’ve met has received this shit from other people or other fangirls of boygroups. Maybe the concept is foreign to you, but yes it’s possible for us girls to love a girl group wholeheartedly without being any of the above that you all seem to think we are. And in case you are still living in the 90s, it’s common knowledge that girl groups’ most loyal fans are often girls and not guys.

We all know that a girl group is naturally looked on with more criticism than any guy group. They’re better targets for fake-ness, plastic surgery, lousy discipline, etc etc… while boy groups get away with lots of these. At least, this is true for international fans. I know Korean netizens are generally critical of all idol groups in general hahahahahahhaha (as a sidetrack though, I was surprised and happy to find out that Korean netizens genuinely respect SNSD as artistes despite being constant critics of the idol pop culture).

So as a fan of a girl group, especially one like SNSD with tons of haters from other fans of boygroups, I think we get a fair lot of shit. Mostly stereotypes. It’s already quite annoying sometimes being a fan of KPOP in general (I’m gonna make a separate post for this), but once they find out you’re a fangirl of a girl group… welp it just doubles. Because girl gruops like SNSD are fake, can’t sing, plastic, and are GIRLS. So you’re weird if you’re a girl liking them. Right?

Personally for myself, I think I have it better than a lot of others. I’m thankful to have friends whom I know find it strange, but have accepted it without questioning me. But often I still do get an ignorant idiot or two exclaiming loudly, “OMG WHY I THOUGHT GIRLS LIKE BOYGROUPS” i just wanna bitch slap them not because of those words in particular, but the amount of ignorance exuding from them. Ee.

For the first point, I’m not going to start arguing whether SNSD has had plastic surgery or whatever, but let’s get this straight: I don’t love SNSD because of their looks. Maybe it’s their looks that drew me in (Again, it’s not strange to be attracted to attractive girls while remaining straight. Please watch “Girl Crushes” by Jenna Marbles or something. Hahaha.) but it’s the personalities that made me stay. The nine girls are not much older than me, with the youngest being only one year older than me. But look at them, loo how far they’ve come. I admire them as role models, as inspirations, and because of them I’ve gained a lot of confidence, dreams and I’ve found so many awesome friends. If anything, I’ve often wondered if fangirls love their male idols because of looks or as an ideal type, because how do you have a guy as your role model? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have someone more similar to you? That’s an innocent curious question btw, not stereotyping or attacking ^__^

To address the second and last point. About being lesbian and being strange for liking girl groups. Why? I often ask people that. Why is it strange, and why does it mean I’m les? And often either they have nothing to say, or they say really stupid answers. Like “idk it’s just not normal right” Please, just stop talking. Don’t question something you have no answer to yourselves. Just because most girls are fangirls of boygroups, doesn’t mean it’s strange if I’m not one of them. Just because the majority does something, doesn’t mean the minority is wrong. And just because you are the majority and can’t understand the minority, doesn’t mean you’re right. People who keep asking me these questions exemplify the very society we live in: the society that believes and blindly follows the majority. It irks me to say the least.

I can barely articulate why and how I grew to love SNSD and failed to become a fan of Big Bang and whichever group I had been listening to at that time… I can’t even articulate it, so I’m not asking you to try to understand why I like their hilarious personalities, warm hearts and absolutely embarrassing idiotic antics. I’m not asking anyone to understand why I somehow fell into the more annoying path in being a fan of anyone. The path of many stereotypes. I’m just asking you to keep an open mind and accept that we are as normal as any of you. That this doesn’t make us strange or gross or lame and we are perfectly capable of holding normal conversations with you. (:

Peace.

 

Disclaimer: I just want to clarify, that this is not in any way targeting gender preferences. Hahaha. I say the lesbian part because it’s what I always get from people and I’m only using it as an example to address the idea of how people judge too quickly. I have nothing against les or gay people. I wholeheartedly support them. n_n

“영원토록”; 도록 vs 도록 하다/토록

I encountered “도록” today and was going to start off this post by using a section of the lyrics from SNSD’s Complete to describe and explain this grammar… but then I realize there’s 도록 and 토록 and that the latter is the one often used in songs, while most good Korean resources only talked about the first one. And I’m like ok……… dayum. They’re different!??! or simply a contraction or slang of some colloquial Korean?

So I tried searching the net and all the resources I have for some explanation. Because some sites list them together as 도록/토록 i was under the impression that they were the same thing. They are NOT!! :c 토록 is supposedly the contracted form of 도록하다 which is NOT the same as 도록 although quite similar.

도록 : 1. to express objective/purpose, 2. to express effect/method,  3. to express extent of/degree
e.g. from TTMIK
1. 이해할 수 있도록 다시 설명해 주세요 Please explain again so that I can understand.
(이해하다 – to understand 설명하다 – to explain)

2. 다 들리도록 이야기해 주세요 Please talk in a way that everyone can hear you.

3. 목이 아프도록 노래를 불렀어요. I sang until my throat hurt.
(목 – throat)

On the other hand, when it comes to 도록하다/토록 it means ‘make sure that’. These two don’t sound that similar when defined clearly but in context they could be QUITE similar.s

앞으로는 좀 더 일찍 일어나도록 해 From now on make sure that you get up a bit earlier.
출근 시간에 절대 늦지 않도록 하세요 Please make sure you are never late for your work.
(출근 시간 – work reporting time 절대 – absolutely/never 늦다 – to be late)

In these contexts, then SNSD’s Complete line that I had wanted to use as an example has now taken an entirely different meaning.

“영원토록 마지막일 사랑
그대길 바래요
Let’s let this be our last love forever
I wish for that” – as translated on SSF

I had thought 영원토록 would be directly translated to “to the extent of forever”, but I’m wrong because as mentioned previously, 토록 =/= 도록 although they sound quite similar when used in certain ways. Now the direct literal translation for 영원토록 would technically be “make sure that it’s forever”. Typically though, 영원토록 is a commonly used phrase that simply translates to ‘forever’, so the idea of ‘make sure’, i would THINK, is mildly implied, as ‘definite forever’ instead of ‘make sure that it’s forever’. So it’s like Forever x10 certainty~

am i confusing anyone yet

So if I had to translate the entire SNSD Complete phrase with my n00b Korean, it would be: “My last love forever for sure… I hope that is you.” But that’s literal of course and sounds superrrr awkward of course so the accepted translation is “Let’s let this be our last love forever – I wish for that.”

Okay this was a tough one. I spent like an hour sourcing for explanations and definitions and this is as certain as I can get. Correct me if I’m wrong c:

Talking about that line in Complete, can i just reminisce what Tiffany said to us during their 5th anniversary. She changed the line to: 영원토록 마지막일 사랑 그대소원이길 바래요 My last love forever, I hope that is you SONE. <333333

dem endless feels for snsd.

던 grammar

This is a grammar I’m seeing everywhere in songs and dramas and variety shows etc etc. Okay as a sidetrack I had wanted to stay on track w my Korean learning and learn the basic grammars and vocabulary first in the order as dictated by many textbooks and grammar books. But it’s a little too hard because I’m exposed to all kinds of Korean things online, like when I look up a song I really like and there are so many grammars and weird things I don’t know… it’s not really comfortable to ignore them.

SO yeah my Korean leraning is going to be a little messy and disorganized and I’m going to occasionally write my notes and thoughts on this blog for my own references.

Anyway, it took me a while to figure out this 던 grammar but I’ll try.

So apparently, this is supposed to, in simple terms, to describe something of the past. Something that occured constnatly but for some reason, stopped. It’s very similar to (으)ㄴ which when used with verbs changes it into a descriptive particle in the past tense. Okay my usage of grammar terms is bad… but something like this 어제 떠난 사람 the person who left yesterday. (떠나다 = to leave). -던 is similar to this but has the implication that the action did not get completed for some reason. From TTMIK, the examples given:

본 영화 = the movie i watched
보던 영화 = the movie i watched (and did not finish)

And also, 던 can be used together with past tense markers while (으) ㄴ does not allow it as it’s grammatically incorrect. 던 is attached to a past tense marker to strengthen a verb’s past tense meaning and is used almost naturally with adjectives (since (으) ㄴ is unable to express an adjective in its past tense e.g. 예뻤은 여자?!?! <- that’s totally wrong and weird. So the only way to express adjectives in past tense: 예뻤던 여자 the girl who used to be pretty. NOTE: attaching 던 without the past tense marker for adjectives is WRONG).

When used for adjectives, like I said, attaching it without a past tense marker is wrong. 예쁘던 여자 is wrong. When used for verbs however, you could do both with and without the past tense marker.

Some more samples from TTMIK:

친했던 친구들이 지금은 다 외구에 살아요.
사랑했던 사람은 이제 결혼 할거에요.
지넌주에 이야기하던 거에요. (i’m actually still a bit confused over this… but this will be for another time~ )