Norebong Superstars!

Gloria Estefan was right...the rhythm will get you! And get us it did! On Saturday, we experienced our first Norebong (pronounced No-ray-bong). A Norebong is a Korean karaoke room that you rent for the hour with just your friends. You get your own private room (bathroom included - although it only had a urinal...), beer, food, and all necessary karoake equipment. Some rooms come quite elaborately equipped with a glass-floor stage, lights and a disco ball. Others come with props such as hats and accessories, and then some are less extravagant and only have a couple of tambourines, like ours did.

Regardless of the level of accessories, a good time is surely to be had by all! We sang our hearts out for over two hours for the low price of $40 CDN (roughly $20 an hour). We belted out some of the world's greatest hits, like Ricki Martin's 'Livin' La Vida Loca', Eagles' 'Hotel California', Roxette's 'She's Got The Look', Blur's 'Song 2', Neil Diamond's 'I'm A Believer', and A-Ha's 'Take On Me', just to name a few.

When you book the room, it comes with a huge three-ring binder of all the available songs, and you simply punch them into a wireless keyboard, pick up the mic, grab a beer, and let 'er rip! Before going into the room, we were a little hesitant about singing in front of others and doing karaoke. However, it wasn't intimidating at all. As a matter of fact, it's much more fun because everyone sings together. It was never just one poor chap standing at the front of the room, akwardly singing out of tune, and swaying to a song for which he barely knows the words. Instead, we were all horribly massacring the songs together. Angèle actually sang until she could barely speak!

Koreans love Norebongs! Even the super shy Koreans that speak just above a whisper have been known to hit some high notes in the privacy of a Norebong room. Our students also write about them quite frequently in their weekly diary assignements - and now we know why! We had an awesome time and we'll definitely be doing it again.