By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Singer Leean’s rude remarks last week heated up Naver, the nation’s No. 1 search engine. Leean, 27, participated in an EBS TV debate program as a panelist on July 12, over the issue of women power trends.
When she was arguing with a male lawyer, she asked him whether or not he has a child. The lawyer answered, ``No.’’ She went on to say, ``Oh, I see why you are saying it like that. If you were my father, it would be very hard to cope with you.’’
Her remarks have caused an avalanche of reproaches by TV audiences and netizens. In the end, Leean apologized to the public.
Shin Jeong-ah, 35, assistant professor at Dongguk University, ranked second, one step down from the previous week’s most searched word list. The school fired her for fabricating academic degrees and asked prosecutors to investigate the case further Friday.
Coming in third was ``factionalism at working places.’’ Online recruitment company Saramin last week released a survey result over factionalism at offices. It said seven out of 10 workers among 1,136 answered there is factionalism at their offices and faction feud influenced 60 percent of them negatively.
The MBC sitcom ``Highkick’’ placed fourth. The program, which recorded remarkable viewer ratings, ended last week with highlight episodes.
The fifth most searched item was comedian Park Kyung-rim's wedding. Park, 29, tied the knot with a one-year-younger office worker July 15. Park met her husband while working on the KBS program ``Introduce Good People,’’ which she hosted in July last year.
The film ``Transformers’’ came in sixth. The action blockbuster movie about alien robots topped six million viewers at the box office and set a record in ticket sales for the foreign movie industry in Korea.
``Kimchi, Cheese, Smile,’’ which will replace the sitcom ``Highkick,’’ ranked seventh, followed by ``E-Land,’’ the nation’s major retailer. E-Land employees had staged strikes against the massive dismissal of non-regular workers and police cracked down on striking union workers Friday.
Coming in ninth was ``Japan Quake.’’ A strong earthquake struck northern Japan on July 17 injuring 39 people and sparked a small radiation leak and fire at the world's biggest nuclear power plant.
Last on the list was ``Super Junior Girls,’’ the female version of ``Super Junior.’’ The female group stood on their first stage unofficially on Thursday. They will make their official debut at the beginning of next month.