the whole kb scene has this weird love of exoticism of asia and it's stereotypical associations. same with the way there's this obsession with sakuras and mount fuji
that's different. Gotta pay attention to what's aesthetics and what's cultural obsession, at least to me, Sakuras, Mount Fuji and let's stereotypically add.. asian architecture, all fall into the latter category for me.
I've only been in the hobby for 4 months and I'm tired of the hiragana sub legends. The katakana sets annoy me because I've yet to see any keebs in Japan feature only katakana.
As a Japanese individual, Hiragana legends and sub legends are tacky. Hiragana looks great in semi-cursive, not so much on fonts. But I can't really criticize them 'cause I do feel that Cyrillic legends are pretty cool. So in some way, I'm also kinda guilty lol. I haven't felt offended by most sets tho. Sometimes a bit of cringe, but that's it. I guess it's mostly because they are 99% anime-themed stuff and not based on Japanese culture. But I do feel you. Asian cultures often get mistaken and wrongly executed. I feel sorry our Korean and Korea related friend had to go through that kind of a feeling.
I swear I absolutely lost it at the cable with the sesame oil on it. Like imagine creating a Canadian themed cable and just throwing gravy and cheese curds on it
I think my favourite part for me is just how they slapped the Taegeuk onto the grill which is not only horrifically tacky, but they've inadvertently made it look like the kind of split dual-both pot you have for Japanese shabu shabu. It's a symphony of failure on so many levels and I'm astonished.
Not Korean, just asian. Initially saw this set and thought it was incredibly tacky with 0 to no knowledge of the Korean culture. Knowing a little more leaves a worse taste in my mouth about the whole thing.
Most of the sets with Kana (hiragana or sometimes katakana for some fucking reason) are a complete embarrassment and nobody seems to talk about it, mostly because nobody buying them knows a lick of Japanese. Nobody in Japan uses Kana to type, it's all romaji with qwerty there. If you're using a Japanese IME you can't even switch between fullwidth and halfwidth, or between English and Japanese, there's no zenkaku key. The layout makes no sense since the layout is different between ANSI and JIS (meaning things like quotations and apostrophe are meant to be in completely different places so if you're using Japanese IME and typing in English none of the legends for those keys would match). They're presented in non-JIS, ANSI layouts for some reason and serve no purpose. I actually used the JIS layout for over 6 years so seeing so many ANSI layouts with Japanese legends makes no sense. The only custom set I've seen that has proper JIS support is ai03's SimpleJA, but even then, it's katakana, even things like Shift in English are in katakana, which is just weird (look at a Topre Realforce JIS keyboard for instance). Judging from what I've seen from Japanese keyboard enthusiasts on twitter, they don't really seem to care because availability in Japan is virtually non-existent apart from some importers and most of them prefer ANSI. Someone made a thread about this whole thing on geekhack and the bottom line was basically "you won't get enough people to hit MOQ" and it's mostly because most Japanese enthusiasts simply will never use websites like geekhack/deskthority/reddit/etc.
For posterity, the keycap set has now seen changes in response to several of the criticisms in the video. Names, marketing pictures and novelties have been altered to revolve around a theme of the South Korean flag specifically, instead of South Korea as a whole.
Subscribed. As an older (i don't know how old you are, but I'm probably much older) Korean, you're accurate on almost everything you said. Sticking chopsticks in the rice is not only rude, it's taboo. Only allowed during Jesa, which is the commemorative ceremony for dead ancestors. 100% agreed and well said.
That chopsticks in the rice thing is so true (also in japanese culture, very rude, symbolizes death) ... really shows that the creator doesn't truly understand what they are creating.
I agree with much of the assessment, though I might disagree with OP on some of the aesthetic components (e.g. I like the 2nd deskpad). This set is cringe, at best. If anything, one of the main redeemable things from it was the artisan collab with ArtKey (but that's probably just bias from collecting artisans).
Agreed, and like I’m not offended by this set or anything, but geez, I don’t think anyone would want their culture to be portrayed in a similar fashion. But the artist has a right to sell ofc.
There was more kbbq theme in the set than the Korean flag lmao With the idea of it being "problematic," the designers were obviously trying to represent Korean culture, but they ended up just reducing it to food. If it was just trying to be a fun set with a kbbq theme, that would be fine, but its trying to do something its not qualified to do, so it becomes tacky and reductive
@@Qogustmd00 lol its the same thing as referencing taco with Mexico, chowmein with China yes its based on the culture but the country doesnt stand for the food item. But that one's opinion your opinion is your's
@@openpandabook When did I say that KBBQ stands for the whole country of Korea, I was more so just commenting about how you phrased it. It is correct to "reference" Korean Barbeque with Korea because it is one of many Korean Cuisine. I'm full Korean, borned and raised, and I really do think that this set has no unique charasteristics of Korea besides Red, White and Blue. I don't like the way they advertised this set either, it really just seems like bunch of non-koreans got together trying to represent Korea the best they could. If we renamed this set GMK USA it would probably work too
23:19 The japanese based sets dont reffer to the country tho. they are based off of japanese foods like dangos, bentos or history (Samurai,bushido) and dont advertise as culture of japan. In my opinion the japanese sets are not offending in any way. There is also never mnentioned that it represents Japan in any way neither are they called GMK Jappan or Nippon or stuff like that. But this set is insane. To say that this set revolvoles COMPLETLY about ALL things korean is kinda sassy.
I mean...if they just said it's a "Korean flag inspired" design, then it's completely fine. But they added KBBQ, Bibimbap, and other stuff in the advertisement that can't even find a trace of on the set itself. But what can I say...it still sold out lol (even though I also think it's quite ugly)
Alternative title: Korean American gives lecture on Korean culture better than most native Koreans would be able to while renting about some plastic or something
Yikes this is definitely some exoticism going on here. I'm mexican-american and I couldn't imagine someone making a "GMK Mexico" with a taco looking keyboard and a mariachi band playing and some sombrero novelties. I don't think the guy who made this had any I'll intent. This is a reminder that even people that have no I'll will and have no idea of other cultures can have some very negative stereotypes towards others.
When he first asked would you want a set based on your country I thought fuck yeah Mexico bro, then this set was clearly like super surface level and had no thought and changed my mind on wanting a set for Mexico
but seee if you made a keyset and called it GMK starcraft and added abit of korean novelties i would be fine with that but say KOREA in romanization and then call the sets based upon foods thats when you kinda say... wot..
As a korean american i've been looking for korean sets I like, came across this and was not interested at all. You point out a lot of the reasons I also felt. Wish I could see more Korean sets and themes.
I agree. IF I made it, I would've taken Dancheong (단청) or Obangsaeok (오방색) which is only used in the Korean castle. I understand that if this kit was themed as Taegukgi (태극기). but why naming them in Korean foods lol.
As an Asian-American, I also found it tacky but it also doesn't take itself too seriously. I can completely understand your problems with it Specifically about the non latin only kits, I like them. The whole point of custom keyboards is to get something you won't find in a normal board.
People can’t seem to get enough of those JP legends which literally don’t exist anywhere except their GMK Weeb set. Shift key says シフト? oh my gosh this is just like my Japanese animays!!!
GMK AUSTRALIA: KANGAROOS, WOMBATS, KOALAS AND SHRIMP ON THE BARIBIE 5 Artisans keycaps that would be perfect. (also Australian don't say shrimp, we say prawns :D)
I missed this video originally. You are way more polite in your "review" of this than I would have been. Let's just call it what it is. Inappropriate and disrespectful cultural appropriation. Why would a non-Korean ever even want to come up with a Korean set? Even if they loved Korean culture, I have a problem with that. This is borderline racist beyond its ignorance.
I mean, some dudes made the swiss, which is a yellow board and is basically cheese, as someone from switzerland, it is extremely ugly, but well, some people might wanna type on some cheesy board I guess
personally i'm not really too bothered by the set but i do find the chopstick rice bowl, bbq deskmat, and the tossed in food names a little off-putting though the green onion + chopstick + sesame oil cable photo... haaa... a little bit ridiculous lol
Kudos for talking about problems with country- and culture-themed sets, especially from those designers who have practically no understanding of what they're basing their sets on. Here in Russia, we've been cringing at some sets made around Russia- and USSR-related themes, but they aren't even close to being bad representations as this set. Although IIRC in many cases it wasn't due to designers' ill intent - they simply didn't know enough about the topic, so, hopefully, people will put more effort into this kind of work in the future (which I highly doubt considering how well kana and Cyrillic only sets with edgy mod legends and novelties sell - nobody seems to care)
Imho the russia themed sets so far weren't bad at all. GMK Perestroika was debatable but looked good imho. And GMK Yuri was literally designed by a russian guy.
I was really deciding between this set and GMK Hallyu and eventually ended up going with Hallyu. Glad I did after watching your video. Won't lie, I was going through a heavy Koreaboo phase when I ordered it, but I'll be keeping your points in mind if I ever join another "culture" themed keycap set.
the downvotes are from the 73 people who bought this set lol. jokes aside, as a korean, the keycap set is pure cringe actually. the whole premise is just downright awful.
Im not Korean but I don’t like how there isnt a lot of Hangul Keycaps. Like I like studying Korean and sometimes I wish I had Hangul legends so I don’t guess/look up legends. It would help but there isn’t a lot of options.
This set aside, I would buy a meme set with pronunciations of letters and the spellings of the numbers in english as sub legends I think it would be pretty funny as a meme set.
I could never buy a set based off of the US or Japanese flag (I'm japanese American), it's pretty much the same as buying a hat with the American flag and a bald eagle on it. I could never, so tacky. Now, if it's based off of aesthetics, with an original, inspired colorway, than that makes sense.
Pretty cringey/tacky set at best. If someone made a USA set in red/white/blue with "FREEDOM" on the enter key, eagle artisans, and like a hot dog deskmat it would be hilarious, but the self-aware humor would likely be the point of the set. If not, it would be a cringeworthy laughingstock, like this set.
I really tried convincing myself to buying this kit since rarely there are Korean sets when there are like 20 weeb set interest checks a day, but I just couldn't haha. Cultural appropriation/misrepresentation aside, at the end of the day this set just looks meh. PBT Modern Hangul by Malvix Studio looks a lot nicer in my opinion, so I might wait for that set if it ever makes it to the GB. Great video as always, I love your content!
Not only the tacky pictures with onions on cables, but also the cable colors are the worst and most low effort way they could have gone about it. Since their intention was to recreate the flag I'm surprised they didn't make the cable white with only the connectors colored red & blue. That may have still been tacky, but atleast it would have matched the thing they were trying to recreate.
man the amount of times I cringe as a Japanese American from all the cultural appropriation towards Japan in this community... thank you for speaking up.
dont let the dislikes fool you, this entire video is facts. although im a keyboard enthusiast, i have so many complaints about the custom mech keyboard community that people don't really talk about, and the exoticism present in keycap and deskmat designs is one of them. thanks for speaking out about it
The colour scheme reminds me more of the Czech flag than anything else. The desk-mat with the _taegeuk_ on the right and having the fields separated looks very much like an older Pepsi Cola logo.
Jeez that is a very ugly set. The set would've looked a lot better if it had been a primarily white set IMO. The blue 3U wide section including arrow keys is extremely out of place. Large blocks of red and blue are not super iconic parts of the South Korean flag. I'm not too offended by the cultural appropriation but the keyset really seems tacky and on the edge of cultural fetishization. Having a Yi Sun Shin/Turtle Ship themed keyset would've shown off Korean pride and history much better. Not to mention it would have been visually unique from an atypical blue and red themed keyset. Completely random but how are you gonna have a Korean BBQ deskmat and not have Mu on it lmao.
Lil bit late but just to add on to the point about the chopsticks in the rice bowl, in Chinese culture, it's not just rude, it's straight up a bad omen, because the chopsticks resemble how you would put joss sticks for offerings to the dead
most flag colours arent specificallt related to their country just look at how many flags have the colour red on them you got USA Korea AUS Canada China Mexico as an australian i wouldnt like a aus set to be red blue and white cos the flag is like that id like something more relating to our culture like yellow/green like you could just remove the sublegends and say this is an Aus set and it would look normal edit: im saying all this before watching alot of the video so if i repeated what he said sorry i guess
Did you by chance have any constructive critisism or is this just a tear down of someones hard work? All of this anger could be spoken about with the artist to actually reflect what you are up in arms about or even better, this is just a keyboard set, if you feel this doesnt reflect your views dont buy it and dont endorse it... you are also free to make a Korean set that reflects Korea more accuratley yourself. People having an appreciation for a culture without knowing everything about it and wanting to point out things they enjoy about said culture is not problematic. On the other hand assuming a persons intentions through their keyboard design because it doesnt reflect Korea to you and being the most pretentios person ive watched in general just reflects the type of person that you are.
This was sort of what I was getting to as well. As a Korean, born and raised in Korea, I can't help but have a negative vibe towards this video. Do I like the keyboard set? No, not really. It looks similar to a USA themed set. I do believe there is misrepresentation in the set and it's quite apparent that the designer does not have a deep background in Korean culture. That being said, I think it's really counterproductive to just tear into the designer like that for attempting to represent a culture that he maybe likes or enjoys. Just leave your criticism and go on your merry way. To say that if you're Korean and you don't have a problem with this set you should be ashamed? Okay dude unnecessary
Hard work? Choosing 2 colours and tracing google images of rice bowls isn't hard work don't kid yourself. If they design keycap sets those 3D models used to render would have been made up long ago.
Wow the more I look at this set, the more it ticks me off. I haven't kept up with the keeb community much in the past couple years, and tbh I'm glad I missed this bs lmfao
tl;dw "muh cultural appropriation" and "garbage design that makes no logical sense" but stretched out to 40 minutes imagine even thinking of buying a set based on a country though lol! Being individually prideful of your background is probably one of the most brain dead things you could be... and to be prideful enough to consume product based on your background? lol!! South American btw.. god, what a hellhole that place is. You'd be surprised.. Many burger people would LOOVE stars and stripes on a desk mat and an eagle artisan keycap in front of their flag.
@@looppp inslightlyafter "you must support orange man and call people snowflakes because you said something I disagree with on the internet xddd roflcopter lmoa" Being proud of your background is sorta like being proud of a crap you just took. There are some good things to be said about it but at the end of the day, it possesses far more negatives than positives, it's not worth caring about, and your conscious actions did not directly translate into how it is shaped.
@@ilusions4 this deeply saddens me that many people are fine with not being happy for who they are. You only get one chance and a dice roll to be proud of what you are, and every culture has so much rich, interesting, and horrifying history that people spend their whole lives studying. Having a base level pride to what you are is the bare minimum and being able to identify yourself and get a coat of uniqueness to who you are in this global social atmosphere people are in now. People should be encouraged to be more thoughtful of who they are and how rich their heritage's history should be, no matter how disgusting or wonderful, and take full advantage of owning that shit.
@@Kokaloo92 Who I am is not as surface level as my "culture". This bs is why my uni was filled with people who could only hang out with people who were of the same culture as them.. I swear that I never saw two people of different backgrounds walking together in my four years there. Why are way too many people so surface level and unable to meet anyone on a level deeper than looks, surface-level political opinions, etc.? It's beyond pathetic. Imagine being proud of a dice roll you had no say in. LOL! Human nature is trash and I am not proud of the horrible things my ancestors did to shape their culture. I think the Argentinians (my dad's side) were especially stupid in being proud enough of their country to ignore their leader's corruption and instead put all their energy into caring about those stupid Falkland islands. Your "coat of uniqueness" is surface level and not unique whatsoever. Get some unique ideas, get good at something you care about, and go from there.
@@looppp never said I hated myself or my culture. Apathy is far from hate. You are illiterate. Go consume more keyboard products and get angry at more people who misrepresent cultures you had no part in realizing.
i think its cool to make sets after cultures, its just hypocritical that theyt expect everyone to love theirs and will probably not take well a different culture like usa doing it
this kinda stuff is why SimpleJA is the best set. i will say theres a lot of stuff that i wouldnt be offended by and disagree with (make a deskmat of the US flag using shit like bacon and mayo for the stripes and...i wont buy it, but im not gonna take issue with it). but yeah overall id say its a bit yikes, and im not saying youre wrong to be offended by it lol
Totally agree. I won't say that I hate it but I feel very much the same about most of what you said, I don't mind the colors but considering what they're used for kinda does make it weird.
I say it belongs with a lot of the sets that go for a japanese aesthetic and anime and designed by someone who doesn't know much and just thinks it is pretty. Like there are more cultures to design from, but you got to get it right on all points. It is like someone from Russia designing a set based off the US and associating it with burgers, guns, and diabetes. Like, there is more to it than that.
this is such a breath of fresh air. I feel like the mk community is really behind with it's exoticization of east asian ""aesthetic."" I brought up the same comment about chopsticks on ebt ramenstop and the designer literally said "don't think too hard about it" ??
the whole kb scene has this weird love of exoticism of asia and it's stereotypical associations. same with the way there's this obsession with sakuras and mount fuji
That’s cuz they are all weebs
that's different. Gotta pay attention to what's aesthetics and what's cultural obsession, at least to me, Sakuras, Mount Fuji and let's stereotypically add.. asian architecture, all fall into the latter category for me.
Gmk bento, gmk darling, jtk sakura, gmk striker, gmk mizu, kuro shiro, akko world tour Japan, gmk red samurai, gmk blue samurai, I could go on forever
Overuse of japanese legends on keycap sets are driving me crazy
I've only been in the hobby for 4 months and I'm tired of the hiragana sub legends. The katakana sets annoy me because I've yet to see any keebs in Japan feature only katakana.
Lmao gmk usa: hamburger, french fries, condiments, hotdogs
I'd join that GB in an instant.
Oil, Guns and the K has 3 of them.
GMK Bepis
so true
true
BRUH flying eagles, ranch dressing, doritos 😂 as a Canadian this killed me.
As an American I can sadly see that set taking off.
I’m American and I’d rep that shit, ye ye
Yah bro that would actually work in America lol
"If you're from the Reddit keyboard community, you might not like what I'm about to say."
Oh this is going to be a great video.
24:32 wtf who sprinkles green onions on a keyboard cable wtf
As a Japanese individual, Hiragana legends and sub legends are tacky. Hiragana looks great in semi-cursive, not so much on fonts. But I can't really criticize them 'cause I do feel that Cyrillic legends are pretty cool. So in some way, I'm also kinda guilty lol.
I haven't felt offended by most sets tho. Sometimes a bit of cringe, but that's it. I guess it's mostly because they are 99% anime-themed stuff and not based on Japanese culture. But I do feel you. Asian cultures often get mistaken and wrongly executed. I feel sorry our Korean and Korea related friend had to go through that kind of a feeling.
How do you feel about GMK Sumi? I really enjoy the colour scheme and theme there. That one is themed after ink/brush art.
as a korean, if i bought this set in korea... i would be flagged as a nationalist.
GMK These Colors Don't Run when? I need my crying eagle artisan keycap and Statue of Liberty / Liberty Bell deskmat.
The chopsticks are laid in a Japanese way lol. A Korean meal usually consists of metal, not wood, chopsticks and spoon laid out vertically.
@Kerry Smith Uh it's not a sign of death, it may look at like a sign of death to you though.
@Kerry Smith I meant like it's not the designer's fault because it looks *like* something, I get your point thooo
I swear I absolutely lost it at the cable with the sesame oil on it. Like imagine creating a Canadian themed cable and just throwing gravy and cheese curds on it
this is basically calling something gmk china and then making a panda express themed keycap set
Gmk bibimbap would have been neater with the parts being the ingredients that make up bibimbap 😅😂
As a fellow korean american I completely agree with every point you brought up.
I think my favourite part for me is just how they slapped the Taegeuk onto the grill which is not only horrifically tacky, but they've inadvertently made it look like the kind of split dual-both pot you have for Japanese shabu shabu. It's a symphony of failure on so many levels and I'm astonished.
32:10 got me hollering lmao.
i mean that is so true tho.
a koreaboo at least knows what isn't tacky.
Not Korean, just asian. Initially saw this set and thought it was incredibly tacky with 0 to no knowledge of the Korean culture. Knowing a little more leaves a worse taste in my mouth about the whole thing.
What about the huge use of Japanese legends?
@@bakeraus idk looks more like hangul legends
@@cloroxbleach6825 In general heaps of Japanese legends on keycap sets.
@@bakeraus tacky as hell
@fireroka That is very true
Most of the sets with Kana (hiragana or sometimes katakana for some fucking reason) are a complete embarrassment and nobody seems to talk about it, mostly because nobody buying them knows a lick of Japanese. Nobody in Japan uses Kana to type, it's all romaji with qwerty there. If you're using a Japanese IME you can't even switch between fullwidth and halfwidth, or between English and Japanese, there's no zenkaku key. The layout makes no sense since the layout is different between ANSI and JIS (meaning things like quotations and apostrophe are meant to be in completely different places so if you're using Japanese IME and typing in English none of the legends for those keys would match). They're presented in non-JIS, ANSI layouts for some reason and serve no purpose.
I actually used the JIS layout for over 6 years so seeing so many ANSI layouts with Japanese legends makes no sense. The only custom set I've seen that has proper JIS support is ai03's SimpleJA, but even then, it's katakana, even things like Shift in English are in katakana, which is just weird (look at a Topre Realforce JIS keyboard for instance).
Judging from what I've seen from Japanese keyboard enthusiasts on twitter, they don't really seem to care because availability in Japan is virtually non-existent apart from some importers and most of them prefer ANSI. Someone made a thread about this whole thing on geekhack and the bottom line was basically "you won't get enough people to hit MOQ" and it's mostly because most Japanese enthusiasts simply will never use websites like geekhack/deskthority/reddit/etc.
For posterity, the keycap set has now seen changes in response to several of the criticisms in the video. Names, marketing pictures and novelties have been altered to revolve around a theme of the South Korean flag specifically, instead of South Korea as a whole.
Subscribed. As an older (i don't know how old you are, but I'm probably much older) Korean, you're accurate on almost everything you said. Sticking chopsticks in the rice is not only rude, it's taboo. Only allowed during Jesa, which is the commemorative ceremony for dead ancestors. 100% agreed and well said.
Your Korean pronunciation is very good!
Serving someone a bowl of rice with chopsticks stuck in the rice basically means you want that person to die.
Is it like serving someone a steak/soup with a fork/spoon stuck in there or is it different? Cause it seems dumb no matter the culture
@@Jaaaa315 yea, its kinda like your examples. the reason its rude is because the chopsticks resembles incense that would be burned at a funeral.
That chopsticks in the rice thing is so true (also in japanese culture, very rude, symbolizes death) ... really shows that the creator doesn't truly understand what they are creating.
I agree with much of the assessment, though I might disagree with OP on some of the aesthetic components (e.g. I like the 2nd deskpad). This set is cringe, at best. If anything, one of the main redeemable things from it was the artisan collab with ArtKey (but that's probably just bias from collecting artisans).
I agree. Artkey's artisan is the only thing that is good about this set.
I also agree. The artisans are very nice but the set is tacky.
Agreed, and like I’m not offended by this set or anything, but geez, I don’t think anyone would want their culture to be portrayed in a similar fashion. But the artist has a right to sell ofc.
@@believingdream I believe the artist changed up this set a lot more to just be based on the flag and removed a lot of the tacky things.
There was more kbbq theme in the set than the Korean flag lmao
With the idea of it being "problematic," the designers were obviously trying to represent Korean culture, but they ended up just reducing it to food. If it was just trying to be a fun set with a kbbq theme, that would be fine, but its trying to do something its not qualified to do, so it becomes tacky and reductive
I myself as a Korean got very uncomfortable with this set... referencing KBBQ with a country.
but KBBQ stands for Korean Barbeque tho XD
@@Qogustmd00 lol its the same thing as referencing taco with Mexico, chowmein with China yes its based on the culture but the country doesnt stand for the food item. But that one's opinion your opinion is your's
@@openpandabook When did I say that KBBQ stands for the whole country of Korea, I was more so just commenting about how you phrased it. It is correct to "reference" Korean Barbeque with Korea because it is one of many Korean Cuisine. I'm full Korean, borned and raised, and I really do think that this set has no unique charasteristics of Korea besides Red, White and Blue. I don't like the way they advertised this set either, it really just seems like bunch of non-koreans got together trying to represent Korea the best they could. If we renamed this set GMK USA it would probably work too
@@Qogustmd00 thats what the creator technically did lol and their partnership is all non korean based.
23:19
The japanese based sets dont reffer to the country tho.
they are based off of japanese foods like dangos, bentos or history (Samurai,bushido) and dont advertise as culture of japan.
In my opinion the japanese sets are not offending in any way.
There is also never mnentioned that it represents Japan in any way neither are they called GMK Jappan or Nippon or stuff like that.
But this set is insane. To say that this set revolvoles COMPLETLY about ALL things korean is kinda sassy.
North Korean Designer
actually german
I mean...if they just said it's a "Korean flag inspired" design, then it's completely fine. But they added KBBQ, Bibimbap, and other stuff in the advertisement that can't even find a trace of on the set itself. But what can I say...it still sold out lol (even though I also think it's quite ugly)
Alternative title: Korean American gives lecture on Korean culture better than most native Koreans would be able to while renting about some plastic or something
Damn this IS super tacky. Jeez man I would have a hard time believing a korean person did this unironically
Yikes this is definitely some exoticism going on here. I'm mexican-american and I couldn't imagine someone making a "GMK Mexico" with a taco looking keyboard and a mariachi band playing and some sombrero novelties. I don't think the guy who made this had any I'll intent. This is a reminder that even people that have no I'll will and have no idea of other cultures can have some very negative stereotypes towards others.
I'm Canadian and if someone made a hockey/maple syrup themed "GMK Canada" then I would find it pretty tacky, but nothing to take offense at.
@@practicallyalive yes I’m with you there , it is almost as if taste is subjective and doesn’t have to cater to everyone lol
When he first asked would you want a set based on your country I thought fuck yeah Mexico bro, then this set was clearly like super surface level and had no thought and changed my mind on wanting a set for Mexico
I don’t want to offend nobody, but the first thing that come immediately to my mind when I think about Korea is Starcraft.
but seee if you made a keyset and called it GMK starcraft and added abit of korean novelties i would be fine with that but say KOREA in romanization and then call the sets based upon foods thats when you kinda say... wot..
Why are you worried that it might offend anybody?
i dont really hate the color scheme ??
just that the whole concept is cringe af
As a korean american i've been looking for korean sets I like, came across this and was not interested at all. You point out a lot of the reasons I also felt. Wish I could see more Korean sets and themes.
This is an illustrated example of cultural appropriation at it's finest.
I agree. IF I made it, I would've taken Dancheong (단청) or Obangsaeok (오방색) which is only used in the Korean castle.
I understand that if this kit was themed as Taegukgi (태극기). but why naming them in Korean foods lol.
As an Asian-American, I also found it tacky but it also doesn't take itself too seriously. I can completely understand your problems with it
Specifically about the non latin only kits, I like them. The whole point of custom keyboards is to get something you won't find in a normal board.
I like them too, If I pay so much for some plastic. I want people to notice it.
The world famous GMK Pepsi.
As another Korean American having lived in Korea, I totally agree with your opinions. Those were pretty much my what I thought as well.
I am half korean and completely agree with everything you said
I’m half Japanese and I feel this way about A LOT of stuff.
People can’t seem to get enough of those JP legends which literally don’t exist anywhere except their GMK Weeb set. Shift key says シフト? oh my gosh this is just like my Japanese animays!!!
How do you feel about GMK Sumi? I really enjoy the colour scheme and theme there. That one is themed after ink/brush art.
GMK AUSTRALIA: KANGAROOS, WOMBATS, KOALAS AND SHRIMP ON THE BARIBIE 5 Artisans keycaps that would be perfect. (also Australian don't say shrimp, we say prawns :D)
I missed this video originally. You are way more polite in your "review" of this than I would have been. Let's just call it what it is. Inappropriate and disrespectful cultural appropriation. Why would a non-Korean ever even want to come up with a Korean set? Even if they loved Korean culture, I have a problem with that. This is borderline racist beyond its ignorance.
I mean, some dudes made the swiss, which is a yellow board and is basically cheese, as someone from switzerland, it is extremely ugly, but well, some people might wanna type on some cheesy board I guess
That American set sounds amazing! Just need to replace doritos with a burger, and add fireworks and you would be set.
personally i'm not really too bothered by the set but i do find the chopstick rice bowl, bbq deskmat, and the tossed in food names a little off-putting
though the green onion + chopstick + sesame oil cable photo... haaa... a little bit ridiculous lol
Wait, this is themed after a country, I thought it was themed after classic Pepsi?!?!
If there was a Canada set I would totally buy that. Maple syrup, hockey, and more maple syrup would be bomb
Kudos for talking about problems with country- and culture-themed sets, especially from those designers who have practically no understanding of what they're basing their sets on. Here in Russia, we've been cringing at some sets made around Russia- and USSR-related themes, but they aren't even close to being bad representations as this set. Although IIRC in many cases it wasn't due to designers' ill intent - they simply didn't know enough about the topic, so, hopefully, people will put more effort into this kind of work in the future (which I highly doubt considering how well kana and Cyrillic only sets with edgy mod legends and novelties sell - nobody seems to care)
Imho the russia themed sets so far weren't bad at all. GMK Perestroika was debatable but looked good imho.
And GMK Yuri was literally designed by a russian guy.
I was really deciding between this set and GMK Hallyu and eventually ended up going with Hallyu. Glad I did after watching your video. Won't lie, I was going through a heavy Koreaboo phase when I ordered it, but I'll be keeping your points in mind if I ever join another "culture" themed keycap set.
Hmmm GMK Masterpiece 😂
the downvotes are from the 73 people who bought this set lol.
jokes aside, as a korean, the keycap set is pure cringe actually.
the whole premise is just downright awful.
gmk poland when
Im not Korean but I don’t like how there isnt a lot of Hangul Keycaps. Like I like studying Korean and sometimes I wish I had Hangul legends so I don’t guess/look up legends. It would help but there isn’t a lot of options.
cope! hahahahah
I would have made it triple shot JTK All White and have subtle blue legends and red sub legends.
This set aside, I would buy a meme set with pronunciations of letters and the spellings of the numbers in english as sub legends I think it would be pretty funny as a meme set.
Ngl I want gmk USA LMAOO
Idk, I don't think an American-themed keyset would ever be seen as tacky here.
Someone somewhere is prepping GMK 'Murrica GB featuring ranch dressing texture dye sub and dorito stain theme modifiers
Yep aliexpress or banggood
I'm honestly surprised they didn't shoehorn some k-pop thing in.
can you give us an update on this?
Kim Jong-un got this on group buy.
I could never buy a set based off of the US or Japanese flag (I'm japanese American), it's pretty much the same as buying a hat with the American flag and a bald eagle on it. I could never, so tacky.
Now, if it's based off of aesthetics, with an original, inspired colorway, than that makes sense.
Pretty cringey/tacky set at best. If someone made a USA set in red/white/blue with "FREEDOM" on the enter key, eagle artisans, and like a hot dog deskmat it would be hilarious, but the self-aware humor would likely be the point of the set. If not, it would be a cringeworthy laughingstock, like this set.
I really tried convincing myself to buying this kit since rarely there are Korean sets when there are like 20 weeb set interest checks a day, but I just couldn't haha. Cultural appropriation/misrepresentation aside, at the end of the day this set just looks meh. PBT Modern Hangul by Malvix Studio looks a lot nicer in my opinion, so I might wait for that set if it ever makes it to the GB. Great video as always, I love your content!
Not only the tacky pictures with onions on cables, but also the cable colors are the worst and most low effort way they could have gone about it. Since their intention was to recreate the flag I'm surprised they didn't make the cable white with only the connectors colored red & blue. That may have still been tacky, but atleast it would have matched the thing they were trying to recreate.
you're right, this is cringe
I'd buy the hell out of GMK America. Just make it as tacky and stereotypical as possible. It would be hilarious and fun
man the amount of times I cringe as a Japanese American from all the cultural appropriation towards Japan in this community... thank you for speaking up.
dont let the dislikes fool you, this entire video is facts. although im a keyboard enthusiast, i have so many complaints about the custom mech keyboard community that people don't really talk about, and the exoticism present in keycap and deskmat designs is one of them. thanks for speaking out about it
I hate how East Asian culture is being milked for its GMK sets.
The colour scheme reminds me more of the Czech flag than anything else.
The desk-mat with the _taegeuk_ on the right and having the fields separated looks very much like an older Pepsi Cola logo.
Well, another day, another cringe set getting produced.
At least there's little to no sign that the hobby is going to die anytime soon.
Thanks RUclips recommendation function, and thank you. This is really weird!
Jeez that is a very ugly set. The set would've looked a lot better if it had been a primarily white set IMO. The blue 3U wide section including arrow keys is extremely out of place. Large blocks of red and blue are not super iconic parts of the South Korean flag. I'm not too offended by the cultural appropriation but the keyset really seems tacky and on the edge of cultural fetishization.
Having a Yi Sun Shin/Turtle Ship themed keyset would've shown off Korean pride and history much better. Not to mention it would have been visually unique from an atypical blue and red themed keyset.
Completely random but how are you gonna have a Korean BBQ deskmat and not have Mu on it lmao.
Lil bit late but just to add on to the point about the chopsticks in the rice bowl, in Chinese culture, it's not just rude, it's straight up a bad omen, because the chopsticks resemble how you would put joss sticks for offerings to the dead
As a korean, this is pretty tacky and is just a bunch of stereotypes. Pretty racist imo... I like the gmk hallyu a lil more
Gyopo moment
Lmao red, white, and blue sets are tacky from the get go..... not a good look either to make a Korea set and boil it down to kbb.....
did someone really say in chat that if you eat rice with chopsticks it's because you watch too much anime???
"I have lot of issues with it" *takes out block notes*
lol the bowl of rice is like putting a hamburger on an American based set, so stereotypical lol
most flag colours arent specificallt related to their country just look at how many flags have the colour red on them you got USA Korea AUS Canada China Mexico
as an australian i wouldnt like a aus set to be red blue and white cos the flag is like that id like something more relating to our culture like yellow/green
like you could just remove the sublegends and say this is an Aus set and it would look normal
edit: im saying all this before watching alot of the video so if i repeated what he said sorry i guess
Looking at the kbbq deskmat reminds me of the in authentic kbbq places I go to.. i'm getting hungry now.
Did you by chance have any constructive critisism or is this just a tear down of someones hard work? All of this anger could be spoken about with the artist to actually reflect what you are up in arms about or even better, this is just a keyboard set, if you feel this doesnt reflect your views dont buy it and dont endorse it... you are also free to make a Korean set that reflects Korea more accuratley yourself. People having an appreciation for a culture without knowing everything about it and wanting to point out things they enjoy about said culture is not problematic. On the other hand assuming a persons intentions through their keyboard design because it doesnt reflect Korea to you and being the most pretentios person ive watched in general just reflects the type of person that you are.
This was sort of what I was getting to as well. As a Korean, born and raised in Korea, I can't help but have a negative vibe towards this video. Do I like the keyboard set? No, not really. It looks similar to a USA themed set. I do believe there is misrepresentation in the set and it's quite apparent that the designer does not have a deep background in Korean culture. That being said, I think it's really counterproductive to just tear into the designer like that for attempting to represent a culture that he maybe likes or enjoys. Just leave your criticism and go on your merry way. To say that if you're Korean and you don't have a problem with this set you should be ashamed? Okay dude unnecessary
Hard work? Choosing 2 colours and tracing google images of rice bowls isn't hard work don't kid yourself. If they design keycap sets those 3D models used to render would have been made up long ago.
@@addmeonebay2626 aight so could I look at the gmk sets you designed so far?
GMK Canada would have the alphas just spell our sorry over and over again - a canadian.
opinion of korean - that keycap is just symbol of korean flag, not any culture so, don't think bad for that colors
Wow the more I look at this set, the more it ticks me off. I haven't kept up with the keeb community much in the past couple years, and tbh I'm glad I missed this bs lmfao
tl;dw
"muh cultural appropriation" and "garbage design that makes no logical sense" but stretched out to 40 minutes
imagine even thinking of buying a set based on a country though lol! Being individually prideful of your background is probably one of the most brain dead things you could be... and to be prideful enough to consume product based on your background? lol!! South American btw.. god, what a hellhole that place is.
You'd be surprised.. Many burger people would LOOVE stars and stripes on a desk mat and an eagle artisan keycap in front of their flag.
@@looppp inslightlyafter "you must support orange man and call people snowflakes because you said something I disagree with on the internet xddd roflcopter lmoa"
Being proud of your background is sorta like being proud of a crap you just took.
There are some good things to be said about it but at the end of the day, it possesses far more negatives than positives, it's not worth caring about, and your conscious actions did not directly translate into how it is shaped.
@@ilusions4 this deeply saddens me that many people are fine with not being happy for who they are. You only get one chance and a dice roll to be proud of what you are, and every culture has so much rich, interesting, and horrifying history that people spend their whole lives studying. Having a base level pride to what you are is the bare minimum and being able to identify yourself and get a coat of uniqueness to who you are in this global social atmosphere people are in now. People should be encouraged to be more thoughtful of who they are and how rich their heritage's history should be, no matter how disgusting or wonderful, and take full advantage of owning that shit.
@@Kokaloo92 Who I am is not as surface level as my "culture".
This bs is why my uni was filled with people who could only hang out with people who were of the same culture as them.. I swear that I never saw two people of different backgrounds walking together in my four years there.
Why are way too many people so surface level and unable to meet anyone on a level deeper than looks, surface-level political opinions, etc.? It's beyond pathetic. Imagine being proud of a dice roll you had no say in. LOL!
Human nature is trash and I am not proud of the horrible things my ancestors did to shape their culture. I think the Argentinians (my dad's side) were especially stupid in being proud enough of their country to ignore their leader's corruption and instead put all their energy into caring about those stupid Falkland islands.
Your "coat of uniqueness" is surface level and not unique whatsoever. Get some unique ideas, get good at something you care about, and go from there.
@@looppp never said I hated myself or my culture. Apathy is far from hate.
You are illiterate.
Go consume more keyboard products and get angry at more people who misrepresent cultures you had no part in realizing.
As soon as I saw the title I grabbed a bag of popcorn and clicked play.
28:00 so true
i think its cool to make sets after cultures, its just hypocritical that theyt expect everyone to love theirs and will probably not take well a different culture like usa doing it
jymv speakin the truth, as a canadian, totally agree with the tackiness.
curious, this set finidhes gb, what do you think of the minimal changes they made?
can we make GMK america with novelties called childhood obesity pls
this kinda stuff is why SimpleJA is the best set. i will say theres a lot of stuff that i wouldnt be offended by and disagree with (make a deskmat of the US flag using shit like bacon and mayo for the stripes and...i wont buy it, but im not gonna take issue with it). but yeah overall id say its a bit yikes, and im not saying youre wrong to be offended by it lol
Totally agree. I won't say that I hate it but I feel very much the same about most of what you said, I don't mind the colors but considering what they're used for kinda does make it weird.
Kek Gmk Bukhan
I say it belongs with a lot of the sets that go for a japanese aesthetic and anime and designed by someone who doesn't know much and just thinks it is pretty. Like there are more cultures to design from, but you got to get it right on all points. It is like someone from Russia designing a set based off the US and associating it with burgers, guns, and diabetes. Like, there is more to it than that.
I couldn't agree with you more.
this is such a breath of fresh air. I feel like the mk community is really behind with it's exoticization of east asian ""aesthetic."" I brought up the same comment about chopsticks on ebt ramenstop and the designer literally said "don't think too hard about it" ??
If people think too hard about vanity product, they might not buy it. Thinking's bad for business.
mods colour and accent colour should be switched and it would look alot nicer