LE SSERAFIM’s Sakura discussed her difficult life in Korea, glad that members can talk Japanese with her

The famous idol Miyawaki Sakura (LE SSERAFIM, IZ*ONE) recently shared about her difficulties as a Japanese person working in Korea on the YouTube channel ODG. 

The new video on ODG had Sakura talking with Korean and Japanese children. Here, the idol talked about her challenges when she first moved to Korea to work. 

In particular, when asked the reason why she decided to come to the land of Kpop, Sakura answered: “I came here to become an idol.  I first became a member of the idol group HKT48, under the AKB company, when I was only 14 years old. During my 10 years in the group, I heard about a Korean survival show, decided to challenge myself, and ended up becoming a piece of IZ*ONE.”

The idol also talked about her initial difficulties in Korea, when she was new to the language: “After “Produce 48” ended, I had to debut right away despite not knowing a thing about Korean. I could only say greetings and thanks, and didn’t even understand what the mentors were saying. I could not understand the lyrics, so I had to use a dictionary all the time. Variety show appearances were also tough, as I could not get what people were saying nor why they were laughing, and could only mimic them.” 

Thankfully, Sakura was able to overcome it all with the help of her group members, adding that: “There were several members that could speak some Japanese, so whenever they noticed my confusion, they would try to speak Japanese with me. They helped me a lot, and if it had not been for them, I would still be in Japan.”

At the moment, Sakura is preparing for her third debut, this time as a member of the HYBE girl group LE SSERAFIM. It has recently been confirmed that Sakura and her teammate Kim Chaewon will appear together on the TV show “Knowing Bros” to promote their new song.